Why no interest in reel to reel if you're looking for the ultimate sound?

@glupson, I have one of those Tascam DATs, recorded many a show with it. Some phenomenal tapes that I occasionally still play today.

While I agree that reel tape is not for everyone, one thing I learned is that to really appreciate what tape can sound like is to use the deck as a transport and wire the tape heads directly to the outputs. The use an external tape head preamp. It's what I do with my Otari. I have three tape head preamps, one built into my Atma-Sphere MP-3, another I built with Roger Modjeski, and a deHavilland. All are tube designs, no solid state.

I pay $150 - $250 for direct copies of master recordings. Granted it's not mainstream stuff, but it's really good music recorded very well.

https://www.internationalphonographinc.com/

Get on his mailing list for the specials.

@kgbspy 

Analog, whether tape or vinyl,  has a flaw of noise or hiss. Digital is quiet but  has the flaw that it doesn’t sound as good as analog. So many of us accept the noise and learn to tune it out to have the more superior sound quality.

When I was considering tape, I had listened extensively to a restored Studer A820...a machine that i think is just superb. These days a restored A820 is going for a fair price, and yet the equivalent ( if there really is one) turntable is going to cost you a lot more. But, like I stated before, already being heavily into vinyl, the whole episode of tape and the Studer didn’t really make sense.Now, OTOH, if I wasn’t already heavily into vinyl, well then the tables (pun) would probably be turned!

forgot to add, you do not need to spend multi-kilo bucks to get a deck running.

you can take most outboard phono pre amp stages, convert RIAA to NAB EQ curve and you are good. have done that with the EAR 834P phono stage, as well as a few others. can also use the EAR clone phono stages from China so your total outlay for tape deck and tape head preamp can be under 1500.....
so can be less than most phono playback and turntable combos....

I have a consumer RTR from many years ago. Recorded several live performances with a pair of electret condenser mikes at 7.5 ips. In playback, the dynamic range was so high, it exceeded the 50 dB range of this machine. With a pro deck, I suspect this range could be capable of another 10+ dB, or more. However, the frequency response cannot capture all the high frequency sounds above 15 kHz, on this deck. 

As for sound quality, decades ago I recorded a LP to tape. Playback the tape and compare LP playback sound to RTR with sound level of the two matched as best as possible by ear. These two sounded different, but not by much. Many factors could have caused this. Also, this test made the signal pass through two preamps in the deck, one on the record side and one on the playback side, in addition to the magnetization process on the tape. The LP signal did not pass through the path of the RTR.

So I would not characterize that *this* RTR sounds better than LP when the recording/playback process altered the sound of the LP signal. Had both sounded indistinguishable from each other, then I'd say this RTR can be considered equal to LP. But I can say nothing about this RTR being better.