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The Sound Quality Of Commercially Pre-Recorded Reel-To-Reel Albums

I’ve owned reel-to-reel machines since 1976. I’ve only used them to make copies of my vinyl LP’s at 7 1/2 ips, and I’ve been quite pleased with the quality of those recordings. I have never once purchased a commercial reel to reel pre-recorded album.

I understand that commercially pre-recorded reel albums were mass produced and recorded at 3 3/4 ips and 7 1/2 ips. Were the pre-recorded tapes generally sonically superior to home recorded reel tapes made from LP’s?

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lhasaguy
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Back in 1975 I had a 4 channel R2R and bought prerecorded tapes for it. The genre never caught on, but the sound was amazing. Live at the Fillmore blew me away and I have heard that music on every media it was released in except 8 track.

R2R beats them all, vinyl, cassette, CD, SACD included. I just wish more music had been available. I always wanted a Revox with the big reels, but $$ prevented that 50 years ago.

I stream now for convenience and at 75 my hearing is less than stellar due to many rock concerts in the 60s and 70s as well as being a machine gun crew chief in the Army in 1970.

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