Best REEL TO REEL blank tape?

Some records are very valuable and either virtually irreplaceable or/and very expensive to replace.
Also, I rarely listen to the entire side of a record, I may listen to a track or two so compilations make sense to me.
40 open reel decks, oh man. I would probably have five or so if I could, say, Studer, Nagra, Ampex, Otari, Technics.

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I completely understand the fun of playing around with it and watching the reels spin. I had a pretty nice Teac deck at one time and enjoyed fiddling around with it but sold it when the price of blank tapes got so expensive and I realized I would never have many tapes. But the idea that putting something on tape and playing it back makes it sound better is completely foreign to me. Sounds different of course since you will be applying EQ with transistor circuits and playing back through more transistor circuits, but since all you can do in the process is lose information and add distortion I'm not buying into it sounds better unless the distortion it introduces is pleasing to your ear. It might be and the fun factor is there so I say go for it if you want to hassle with it.

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Herman my friend, go to reel to reel on this forum and be enlightened. All things are foreign until you have experienced them.

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I understand completely, I do not need to be enlightened.

It distorts what's on the record in a way that you find pleasing. You choose to call this "better." I have no problem with that.

By recording it you change the frequency response both recording and playing back, the dynamic range changes, there is distortion from wow and flutter as well as the introduction of tape hiss and distortion on peaks when it saturates. You also introduce harmonic distortion in the active devices (transistor or tube) that you've added as well as the cabling. This can't be argued. These distortions are very real and measurable.

I'm sure there are many records that do benefit from this distortion. Better is in the ear of the beholder but don't try to make it sound like something magical is going on.

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Yes, this better/worse/different subject was extensively discussed here. In some ways some recordings can sound better to some ears, mine included. But it takes a well-aligned and tuned great deck with great tape to make this discussion valid, I think.