Why no interest in reel to reel if you're looking for the ultimate sound?

@glupson, I have one of those Tascam DATs, recorded many a show with it. Some phenomenal tapes that I occasionally still play today.

While I agree that reel tape is not for everyone, one thing I learned is that to really appreciate what tape can sound like is to use the deck as a transport and wire the tape heads directly to the outputs. The use an external tape head preamp. It's what I do with my Otari. I have three tape head preamps, one built into my Atma-Sphere MP-3, another I built with Roger Modjeski, and a deHavilland. All are tube designs, no solid state.

I pay $150 - $250 for direct copies of master recordings. Granted it's not mainstream stuff, but it's really good music recorded very well.

https://www.internationalphonographinc.com/

Get on his mailing list for the specials.

The late Roger Modjeski was very fond of Revox tape decks and has several A77s, most not working that were intended for parts or possible refurbishment. However, he does have a working unit which has 15ips speed (original, not modified).
Here is an interesting tidbit from Roger about R2R decks and A77s in particular:

When the store owner learned I could make an A-77 sound better than new, he offered a $50 tune-up special. I must have repaired and aligned 100 Revox A-77's. I still have a few in my museum and find them to be aging poorly. All those wonderful dipped tantalum capacitors are opening up as the years go by. I figure it would take several hours to replace them all because Revox hid them everywhere. They were easy to get to before the mother board was set deep in the machine. Getting the mother board out is another time-consuming issue. There I leaned about products that are designed for manufacturing efficiency with little regard for repair efficiency.

Cars are similar; some starters you can replace in 1/2 hour and some take three. You know that if you keep the car long enough, you will replace the starter and the water pump and the alternator, among other things. We don't throw the car away when the starter quits, but we are tempted to junk the Revox when 30 hard-to-reach capacitors are all failing. I don't use my Revox anymore, I just look at it. I still use reel-to-reel every day, an equally old (1971) Sony whose capacitors are still good because they are aluminum electrolytics. As you see, I've made a lifetime a study of the reliability of components. Strangely, if we look at the manufacturers' life rating for many components, we find things lasting far longer than some ratings would lead us to believe. The capacitors in the Sony are rated for 1,000 hours, but are now 23 years old and, given my usage, have probably seen 20,000 to 40,000 hours. There are about 60 of them in there and not one has failed.