Doug Sax proved way back in the early-70’s that a direct-2-disk recording is superior to tape. Unfortunately, most music cannot and will not be recorded d-2-d. For a library of great sounding recordings, buy every d-2-d LP you can get your hands on.
Whether or not the music they contain is to your liking is a separate issue. If you don’t hate Bluegrass (come on all ya’ll Yankies, fess up ;-), look for the Sheffield LP Confederation by The McNeely, Levin, Skinner Band.
By the way, Levin is Geoff Levin, formerly of the mid-late 60’s San Jose group People. They had a hit single with a cover of The Zombies "I Love You", a song I as a teenager saw and heard People perform live many times. People also did "Jesus Is Just Alright", an old song later recorded by another San Jose group---The Doobie Brothers.
The original version of People dissolved when four of the six members (the four included Geoff) demanded everyone in the group join Scientology. The two lead singers---Larry Norman and Gene Mason, declined, and left the group. Norman became a well-known figure in the Jesus Freak movement of the 1970’s (ironic that he had earlier sung "JIJA", ay?), and Mason started a band named Radio. I was subsequently in a band with the guitarist/pianist of Radio.
There are a thousand stories to be told about the garage band scene of the 1960’s. This was one of them.
As for reel-to-reel, I have a number of tapes containing live music I recorded on a Revox A77 and a pair of small-capsule condenser mics. They sound far more lifelike than do most of my LP’s and CD’s, but Buddy Miller, Iris Dement, Rodney Crowell, and Lucinda Williams aren’t on those tapes.