Reel to Reel Tape

Almandog, I (unfortunately) can relate.  I have lost count of all the decks (including several cassettes).  Teac, Tascam, Otari, Studer, 
Sony, Stellavox).  I like looking at them..!  Nostalgia I guess- my 1st machine was a Concord 220 and I wore it out recording material (including live with the dinky microphone).  I loved it and it loved me back. But this does border on insanity, no doubt. I just enjoyed inviting friends over to jam and make a tape- it was a lot of fun, but those days are in the past.  But I still wonder what a good Elcaset deck would sound like...

This "debate" is kinda silly. Tape decks do NOT sound better than the source material. That is not the issue for me. The whole reason for RTR
is that they are enjoyable to use and versatile if you have some microphones available.  Of course then you need mic preamps on semi to professional machines since they only have line level inputs, and typically only balanced ones. Additionally they need to be cleaned and lubricated, and for the fussy amongst us CALIBRATED to each tape formulation. But if you have a Studer A820 then you can just forget I reminded you of all these concerns...because they are so damn cool then who cares? Just where to put a 200lb tape deck??