Why do people like reel to reel players?

Decades ago, I was lucky to have the opportunity to get a few first generation open reel copies of some recording studio tapes. They blow away the LP versions , especially so in the bass quality.  That said, copying LPs to open reel doesn't improve anything though it was one way to get a copy of a friend's LP without buying a copy. But, then you had to buy 7" reels of tape. The commercial mass-produced open reels one used to be able to buy were typically transferred at high speed which compromised the quality. So, for me, I liked having an open reel for those situations where it allowed me to record live music, or, the few times I had access to studio masters. For routine playback of commercial music, one is far better off in terms of both convenience and sound quality using LPs, CDs, or CD/Hi-Rez quality streaming. (And these days, almost all new recordings are done digitally even when you buy the LP.)

OP,

I have the same question. I asked what is the source of music on that thread mentioned by @mgattmuch (?)… and really didn’t feel like I got a satisfying response. I think… there are few. I can see if you are recording live music. But for the vast majority of us…. Some really old stuff… and not much of it… I think.

R2R tapes sound fantastic but the machines are expensive there are not many pre-recoreded tapes out there and they are very expensive also. Like $500 a pop for software. No thanks but I love hearing them at audio shows.

@mlsstl

@ghdprentice

I wonder if master tapes exist for lots of the older stuff, that is before 1990 or whenever Digital replaced it, where possibly this stuff can be transferred off the tapes in a better way that would improve what we now listen to.

It would seem if we’re able to be more impressed with an actual reel tape, there must be way to transfer this experience to another medium. It sounds like all the mass produced albums and I guess CDs may have been limited in the quality department which is really really really sad. But what did they know back then when they didnt care as much about the quality as we do now.

I saw a YouTube video that just came out where someone had a master tape from Sergeant peppers Recording that was used to make copies for lots of other tapes that went off to other countries to be reproduced. How cool would that be to listen to in such a pure form.

I always wanted a RTR deck. Preferably with 10 inch reels and huge level meters. The only real use I can see for a RTR deck is to record digital music sources into analog. Kind of like an analog buffer. Of course anything other than 1/2 track recording at 15 ips would degrade the quality too much, for me.