Potential problems w/ commercial open reel tapes


I just bought a reel to reel machine because I have a few tapes of music I made in the 70's while in music school that I want to transfer to CD. When I dug the tapes out of a box in storage (climate controlled, thankfully), I (re)discovered my modest collection of pre-recorded reel to reel tapes I bought 20+ years ago. I'm thinking of seeing how these things sound compared to CDs etc., which could involve playing them a fair bit.

My question is this: Will these commercial, pre-recorded tapes from the 60s and 70s likely hold up to being played back from time to time? Or do I need to dub them onto CD and play the CDs, instead (which would, of course, partly defeat the purpose of enjoying some serious analog sound)?

Many thanks
eweedhome

Showing 1 response by piedpiper

They should hold up fine. A bit like saving your records by dubbing them to CD.