Why do people like reel to reel players?

Back in the late 70's i had two R2R decks:  A Sony TC-880-2 and an Akai GX-265D--i used both to record vinyl to tape on first play to keep the vinyl pristine until the tape degraded (and rthen ecord it again) but mainly to create long-playing party mixes--i used the Akai auto-reverse for that and could play up to 3 hours at 7.5ips-i even had a few tapes recorded at 3 3/4 that could play 6 hours!  So it was a way to play a lot of music without the hassle of changing records and lasted longer than cassettes.  The SQ of the Sony at 15ips was spectacular and i couldn't tell the difference between vinyl and the R2R recordings at that speed.  BTW somebody said cassette was superior to 7.5ips R2R--don't know where that notion came from--perhaps some garbage pre-recorded R2Rs (which i've never owned) but no way can cassette compete--i have a Nakamichi CR4 cassette deck which is a very good deck but it can't compete with my 7.5ips R2R even using metal tape.  Sadly my Sony machine (and many vinyl records) was destroyed in a flood but i still have the Akai and occasionally listen to my tapes b/c i no longer have those particular vinyl recordings but ultimately it's just in my system now because it looks cool--it's the first thing everyone comments on when they see my system--but i've moved on to streaming those lost records --and when i'm really picky i still play the surviving vinyl but don't record albums any more given streaming music sources that can play endlessly...so i guess that answers more the question of why we liked R2R back when vs today--if i didn't already own an R2R i wouldn't buy one...

 I own two RT-909s and two RT-707s.  Never owned any other RtR decks.

I bought my first 707 around 1980.  IIRC, this was prior to - or near to - the invention of cassettes, so if you wanted to record, tape was the option.

Why do I keep them all these years?  I bought all of my current decks before consumer ADCs were affordable and widely available.  So again, if you wanted to record, tape was it.

And once you had the decks in those days it made sense to pick up some pre-recorded tapes.  Theoretically less wear and tear vs. repeated plays of an LP, and the pioneers are fine sounding.

Anyway, that's my story about RtR.

Nowadays I record on a Sony or Korg to high res pcm or DSD...

I would sell the tape decks but the chances of shipping them without damage is basically nill.

I like reel to reel because of the expense and inconvenience of the format.

@mitch4t 

😊 I think you have something there.

"I like reel to reel because of the expense and inconvenience of the format."

Vinyl too ..