Reel to reel , is it real the hype!

If you're going to get into reel to reel and you pursue buying old tapes from EBay, do make sure to clean the entire tape path after EACH tape is played!!! Some old tapes have held up well after 50 plus years. Many others, not so much. I had a prerecorded tape I listened to around 1986. I failed to examine the tape heads after that one time. I put a studio grade second generation master tape on the machine a week later. I ruined the tape in one play! The previous cheapo tape was so oxidized, the entire tape path on the machine was loaded with it. The studio tape was trashed.
 I wouldn't even trust recording tape that was made yesterday. Back in the late eighties, one manufacturer put a back coating on the tape as it was said to increase the life of the tape (I would have to go through my tapes to remember which company this was, maybe AGFA). The coating on the tape started breaking down after ten years! What a headache. Be prepared to babysit your machine. Scotch 111 is one of my favorite tapes. In my opinion, it was the best ever made. Good luck to you OP. Joe

Every time you make an analog copy more degradation is added. 

I owned a Revox. It fell apart after 10 years.

Tape machines relative to a turntable are complex machines. They require a lot of maintenance. 

I won't do it again under any circumstance. Even if you do not think that high resolution digital files 96/24 and above do not sound quite as good they represent a far less expensive and far more reliable situation than reel to reel tape. There are many that argue digitally recorded material sounds best in high res files. Mastered correctly, without much compression, I am inclined to agree. The industry moved away from reel to reel for a reason. These people are not stupid and they listen to live musicians all day long. If anyone knows what music is supposed to sound like it is them. 

An audio buddy of mine and small group often compare DAC (good DAC) to records using different amps.  The DAC is generally the cleanest (playing DSD and high sample rates) but often misses that mood/deeper "visceral" feeling we get from records.  

His idea, not executed yet is we record from DAC via some nice silver cables to RTR tape.  Might get that done in the next month.

+1 jnovak! Good advice! 

davidgwillett

... His idea, not executed yet is we record from DAC via some nice silver cables to RTR tape.

What would be the advantage of that? The tape dub can't possibly be higher fidelity than the source.