Why not magnetic tapes in stead of vinyl records?

"To them, digital was a step backwards."

It was at first, but no technical reason why it must be that anymore.

I would much rather move forward to the extent needed with very high resolution and quality digital gear than go back to analog tape. Even if studios producing music did, I would not feel the needed. Good digital conveys artifacts of good analog sound quite well, even at mere CD resolution, I have found to-date.

If the potential of 331/3 lp was fully realized with many vinyl recordings, I would then have to consider a move back to analog tape or digital in that the cost and work involved to keep a phono rig capable of delivering maximum results doing that would prevent me from ever going there. Tape would be much easier in comparison.

One of the reasons most lps are as limited as they are is because few have the phono rig needed to play the best possible at all. The whole analog record format is inherently flawed from this perspective in terms of reliability, which matters to most. Most people lived with abysmal sound off records with their cheap home players for years for this reason, ie getting good sound our of even an average recording was beyond their abilities or desire.

Ralph, where one gets analog recordings? Where to store thousands of tapes in proper temperature and humidity? How often to rewind them to avoid print-through copying? Ampex recommends rewinding within 3 years of storage (and to keep track of it). Bart Simpson said "Don't have a cow, man!".

On the other hand if R2R is only supplemental source isn't better to spend money to improve the system (amplifier, speakers etc) instead?

Kijanki, I'm not having a cow- its pretty apparent you jumped in without reading the rest of this thread:

This thread is not about analog vs digital.

If you can store LPs you can store tape. FWIW though, tapes store a lot better in the attic than the basement.

You get analog recordings (as mentioned earlier on this thread) from places like the Tape Project http://www.tapeproject.com/

It has been projects like this one that has had a good number of audiophiles scouring the countryside for high end tape machines and a number of people make a business refurbishing them. There is even one manufacturer in Germany that makes a new machine (saw it at the Munich show in May).

We have had to respond to this because a number of our customers have requested that we set up switchable tape EQ in our preamps. The last one is using an Otari transport and the tape head outputs run directly into the phono/tape section of one of our MP-3s.

I've run Ampex tube machines for decades. Its pretty spectacular playing even pre-recorded (1/2 track) tapes from the 1950s.

As others have mentioned, the closest the industry came to this was with R2R in the 70s. It was a luxury item back then as few could afford the cost of equipment, tapes, and maintenance. They were notoriously fickle machines, prone to issues best done by trained professionals. That being said, the fidelity was quite good. The portability of cassette changed the game in the late 79/80 with the invention of the Sony Walkman. A neighbor of mine growing up who was in the broadcasting industry had a R2R, and he was the envy of all budding audiophiles. I am more of a child of the 80s and gravitated to the advancement of the cassette which saw its demise by the end of the decade. However, I have fond memories of home taping FM concerts and radio broadcasts on decent 3 head unit. Till this day I long for VU meters!

I had a stink with hifi VHS recording back in the 80's using a very good Akai recorder. I got into it thinking of it as a decent modern technical substitute for RTR. I could not find anything near as good to replace it when it died within a few years. I still have some recordings of NPR FM broadcasts I made with it back then that still sound quite nice when played on the Sony Hifi VCR that I still keep around.

HiFI VHS seemed to have some promise in its day, but even that went to the wayside once DVDs and digital recording took over video world as well.

Nowadays, digital audio and video is it. I still like to play my old records and tapes though mostly because I have them already and they have their own unique charms.