Can we finally put Reel to Reel out of its misery? Put it to rest people.


The format is dying and too expensive to repair properly. Heads wear out so easy and many out there are all worn.
High quality technicians are either retired or long gone. Its such an inconvenient format that can be equalled by nakamichi easily in tape decks.
Retire it please put them in museums. 
vinny55
Here is a link to some tape deck photos taken by Todd Kreiger over at Audio Asylum at the 2019 THE S.H.O.W. recently in CA. (click each to supersize)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xXt5fRXqaD8CbfZx7

Here is link to all of his photos:
https://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=general&m=747659
@brettmcee rap is pretty disgusting stuff. You don’t need anything more than a crappy $50 Walmart stereo to listen to that. 
@sleepwalker65i love the Beatles!!! That’s why I bought a reel to reel player!!!

...on rap, try the Ghost Dog soundtrack and Oddisee. Oddisee needs a good system! 
@sleepwalker65 my 3 kids, ages 18, 20 and 23 despise rap as much as I do. They like many formats, but genuinely love Rock.


I would rather listen to good music on crappy system than some crap on high-end system. I don’t care about Rock. This is not my cup of tea.

@brettmcee And only old square white people call it ‘rap.’

haha, exactly
We call it hip hop

The genre was born because they start playing breaks from an old jazz-funk records and rhyming over it in the late 70’s and it was oldschool, then they start sampling an old records to make their own beats (included a rock records too).

There are some nice instrumental hip hop and many top jazz musicians performed and recorded with hip hop artists in the 90’s when the scene was completely different compared to modern hip hop. This is Donald Byrd (from Blue Note) on trumpet with Guru on Jazzmatazz LP and i still like this stuff.

I wasn’t into Rap or Rhyme too much, but i like the original jazz-funk records that early hip hop producers used to make their beats. Those original 70’s LPs are perfectly recorded and sounds amazing on High-End system. Here is the most famous example: Bob James "Nautilus" (on CTI Records).

But i think our sleepwalker65 is not into jazz, it’s s typical rocker’s attitude, no wonder. So keep on playin’ your country stuff, lol. Just don't tell us what is crap or not when it comes to music.
Like so many here I completely disagree.  My Pioneer RT-1050 running in half track and 15ips absolutely kills my Nakamichi deck. 
My B-77 also half track does likewise.  

I had the foresight to purchase spare head stacks for the Pioneer.  I have two new head stacks for half and quarter track and after over forty years of use I’m still on the original stack. Yes, it they still meet spec.

There are several companies that can re-lap your worn tape heads for many more years of service.  ReVox heads are especially well suited to re-lapping as there is so much material to work with.

I have also been enjoying second generation masters from Horch-House and the Tape Project, not to mention all of the standard quarter track 7.5 ips production tapes that are available on the used market.  

Judging from the Munich 2019, reel to reel is doing just fine.