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

@hadelman- pretty nice summary  you did there.
B-C also did offer some 15 ips 2 track tapes for a brief time, but even then they were 50-65 bucks a copy in 1980s dollars.

for anyone who has a teac 1/4 tack deck, especially the earlier A series, its pretty simple to re-route the tape head signal. if you remove the head cover, there is a PCB directly under it. unsolder the wires leaving that PCB and solder in some Mogami shielded console wire. the mogami is thin enough you can maintain the stock appearance of the Teac deck, and route the cabling out the back side of the deck where you can connect to outboard playback electronics. and you dont need to spend mulit kilo bucks to do so.

also if some want 1/4 track playback heads on their 1/2 track deck, contact JRF. he will tell you if there is enough room to add the 1/4 track head.

 Have an Otari MTR-15 which is 4 speed half track only, but had JRF add a quarter track head to head block and now can play 1/4 track tapes on that deck.

best

@hadelman excellent first post, sir!

Commercial reel to reel tapes sound truly horrible. I recently bought a few dozen, and they are much worse than I remembered.  I guess it is  because I am now comparing them to something other than how they sounded on my old 1970's system, and then they did not come close to D to D.  That is why the best RtR's were bypassed to make D to D LP's.  Instead of investing in this format, go to a concert or jazz club.  To me, buying into RtoR is as senseless as buying a Ferrari as an investment, and being unable to use it, except on very rare occasions.  Things are made to enjoy.  Investments are something else.

All of those great LPs recorded pre 1985 were recorded on RtR decks.  In the 80's we discovered that original master tapes contained much more information than was pressed into original LP grooves.  In fact we discovered that many classic, indeed cherished records were compromised to allow home playback on crude record changers.  Bass was cut below 75-80hz, then a 125hz bump was added, and HF was rolled off above 12khz.  (The conundrum was some of the new remasters were essentially what was on the tape with minimal editing, and the resulting LPs sounded so much different than what we were used to hearing.  Subsequent remasters were made to sound closer to the original LP so the new pressing became a better version of what was familiar.)     

If one wants true fidelity from back back in the golden era- well at least to the early/mid 80's than prerecorded RtR tapes can deliver a better sonic experience then most LP pressings.   Caveat is to seek only 7.5ips tapes and avoid anything at 3.75ips.

I have a restored Teac X2000r deck, and I have direct experience in how wonderful a clean RtR tape can sound.   I recently acquired an original Broadway cast recording of West Side Story, recorded at 7.5ips.  WOW !  I am literally sitting 10th row dead center and transported back to 1958.  A clean RtR tape blows away any other version- premium LP remaster, SACD, 24/96 download.    Miles Davis- Sketches of Spain, Dave Brubek- Take 5, Stan Getz-Gilberto, Stan Getz- Focus, and so on.   These tapes are PHENOMENAL !

I was lucky in acquiring my deck.  I found a lightly used example with full wooden case, rolling rack, flawless mouse ears.  I was able to resell the case and rack to pay for restoration by Sam Palermo.

RtR is not industry supported and it is not easy for hipsters to acquire RtR decks then quickly use them in their hipster caves with their hipster hoodie buddies.  There is time, effort and cost involved; much more than LPs which can be found for pennies and TT which can be found by the thousands at garage sales.

A clean RtR tape blows away any other version- premium LP remaster, SACD, 24/96 download.   Miles Davis- Sketches of Spain, Dave Brubek- Take 5, Stan Getz-Gilberto, Stan Getz- Focus, and so on. These tapes are PHENOMENAL !

  iopscrl - I totally agree with you.