What should I be looking for when buying my 1st Reel To Reel ?

you want auto reverse, which means 6 heads,

Playing back pre-recorded tapes, 7" reels, you want a deck with 3-3/4 and 7-1/2 IPS speeds. 15 and 30 are for semi-pro, not pre-recorded, and often decks with 15 ips do not have 3-3/4.

7-1/2 IPS is preferred, sounds better, but sometimes you will still want a tape that you can only find in 3-3/4.

I love my Teacs, x1000r and x200r, their last pro-sumer decks.

Expensive and very time consuming. PARTS at a reasonable price for one.  A lot of the heads interchange. There are a lot of RtR nuts out there. I'm one of sorts. I use a direct head playback unit. It's still a matter of good source material. 

You're almost better off making your own. The biggie is when you finally get to hear a great 15ips recording like Roy Orbison, or Old Blue Eyes and you wonder why they ever stopped producing it. I'm not a huge county western fan but the old "Opry", and the Outlaws had some really great tapes at one time. CCR, Carlos, Steppenwolf and one of my favorites on tape is Momma Cass. 2-600.00 is not uncommon.

Did I mention RtR is time consuming and VERY expensive.

Thanks for the input everyone, good information!

Best

Robert

@rbtstock: PS Audio "publishes" a great online magazine: Copper. It's free, and is delivered to your computer's in box. UK reviewer Ken Kessler (Hi-Fi News & Record Review) is up to Chapter 11 in his Copper column dedicated to all things reel-to-reel. Highly recommended.

You can also check Tapeheads.net for good info.