Can we finally put Reel to Reel out of its misery? Put it to rest people.

????

You mean not everybody has just a blow up doll?

How quaint.

What is a wife?
Kind of like a life?

Do not have one of those either.

@vinny55 There are lots of professional R2R machines with 15 IPS. The thong about professional machines is that they are built like tanks and calibration and line up is easy to do; after all a decent tape tech would line up the machine every day in a studio, back in the heyday of tape. Having had a couple of domestic machines (Revox A77 and a high speed G36), I wouldn't go back to one now.
Checking the repro head azimuth on a tape is probably the most important part of line up, as the high frequency losses are significant, is the repro head is not aligned correctly to the way that the record head was aligned when the tape was made. This is something that most people don't worry about on a domestic recorder with commercial 3.75 and 7.5 IPS 4 track tapes. But that's another story.

@topoxforddoc not many vintage decks have 15ips settings. There are few high end cassette decks with variable speeds that sound phenomenal. Telefunken tc300 and Nakamichi 680

Nakamichi made some very fine cassette decks. I have a Nak Dragon rebuilt by Alex Nikitin with a full set of ANT 4066 mods. But seriously this is nowhere as good as 15IPS tape on a proper studio machine. If you can source a production or distribution master like this then even better :)
https://i.vgy.me/hWJJn1.jpg

There is something very cool about a 10.5" RTR running at 15ips. It just looks wonderful IMHO. I sold my Revox B77, 2 track HS MK2 deck about 10 years ago and regretted the decision ever since. I noticed at this years Axpona there were quite a few vendors demonstrating equipment using RTR decks, all sounded fine to me. So in then end, if owning/using a RTR deck makes you happy, go for it.

Hi,
far from dead, most expensive media yes but not difficult to repair, not impossible to find spares not difficult to calibrate and better sounding than any other tape format, and better looking also!

Just as my LP's won't work in my CD player, my reel-to-reel tapes won't work in my cassette player.

@uberwaltz what Naks have you owned? I have two sony Elcasets and they sound awesome

Vinny.

I hate to disillusion you but the 3 head Nak cassettes while good cannot hold a candle to a 7.5 or 15ips recording made on decent tape on even a middle ground R2R machine.

Recordings made straight of Qobuz hires onto 15ips on my Revox absolutely kill the same  recordings made on my Nak.

Shoot, even 7.5ips recordings made on my Pioneer ct701 better the Nak ... And don't get me wrong the Nak does make great recordings.

It's just that R2R is better.

So it maybe a minority media but it is far from dead and dying.

Just check out prices of r2r tapes on eBay, while I do not like some of the high prices it is far from dead!

" You can get same performance out of a 3 head Nak and Sony Elcaset and also Beta so R2R's are obsolete."
" just because its still selling on ebay doesnt mean its not dying. Who's gonna make those high quality heads these days? Stocks are being depleted. Only the rich will be able to afford repairs soon. "

Now you are really being silly ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=reel+to+reel+tape+deck+repair+shops&ia=web

@lewm why does reality bug you so much

Doctor Negativo strikes again with another pointless rant.

@dill just because its still selling on ebay doesnt mean its not dying. Who's gonna make those high quality heads these days? Stocks are being depleted. Only the rich will be able to afford repairs soon. 

You can get same performance out of a 3 head Nak and Sony Elcaset and also Beta so R2R's are obsolete.

IMO, it's still active, and will be for quite some time. 

I dropped out and switched to CDs as the playback heads for my 10.5 reel to reel were no longer being made. Tough decision - - switch to a different make of 10.5s  or go to CDs. 

In retrospect, for me, going to CDs was the better solution.  Others in my place might have switched to another 10.5 brand.

Vinny, stop revealing that you don’t know what you are talking about ...

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=reel+to+reel+tape+deck&_sacat=116868&_sop=16&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1 

Are you sure all your dogs are barking ?