Reel to reel , is it real the hype!

1/2" tape is for professional use. I wouldn't expect to find many prerecorded tapes. Maybe a master recording.

I used 1/2" in studio and it  sounds wonderful. 

Spending $9K on an Otari is a waste of money. Get an old Revox or Teac and buy some old commercial tapes on eBay. That'll give you a taste of the tape sound. People claiming to have copies of master tapes are pulling your leg! Stick to LPs for Analog! 

before you do anything, you may want to see what is available in tapes first. There are a number of companies that sell them. As others have noted far from cheap. But once you hear true high speed tape it blows the other formats into the weeds. The other comment I will add, is once you spend an evening listening to tape, you MUST power down for the night. Reverting back to any other format is akin to powering up the AM radio for a listening session. Just be careful, once you jump in, C Note bills will fly out of your wallet faster than a bear going after the honey pot. 

I got into R2R this year (fully refurbished 2T HS Revox B77 Mk2 and 2T HS PR99 Mk2). With the right, expensive, tape nothing beats a 15ips, 2T well-recorded R2R tape for SQ. Plain and simple, why do you think high end manufacturers are now using R2R tape to demonstrate their products?

My favorite R2R tape is Lyn Stanley's London With A Twist; I guarantee, on a top quality system, you will think you are listening to live music, quite simply unbelievably real. Also from Acoustic Sounds; Nora Jones Come Away With Me, Oscar Peterson We Get Request and Muddy Waters Folk Singer. Again, all 3 tapes sound like live music being played in front of you. I have been a HiFi enthusiast for 55 years now and owned a lot of equipment in that time and heard many wonderful recordings (LP, CD, Streaming, FM Radio and now R2R); well recorded 15ips 2T tape beats every format hands down.

If you need a good source of R2R tape machines try: https://www.techtrader.ch. Urs is a great guy to deal with and his refurbished Revox/Studer machines are as good as they get IMHO. Beyond being a customer I have no affiliation with this company.

R2R system is mainly the Revox PR99 Mk2 (IEC) playing into a McIntosh MC52, MC312 power amp and Magico A5 speakers. The Revox B77, Mk2 2T, HS is setup for NAB equalized tape.

EVERY analogue copy adds a generational loss. No exceptions. You heard wrong.