The Sound Quality Of Commercially Pre-Recorded Reel-To-Reel Albums

@8th-note I think that it depends on the kind of distortion which you can tolerate.

I don’t mind wow and flutter, but it drives other people bananas. The audible high frequency ’fizz’ that sits on top of almost all digital recordings, like the crap on top of an electrolytic capacitor, drives me nuts - I can’t listen to more than a few seconds of the worst, and get no pleasure from the best.. I even have to choose my cartridges carefully, lest they pick up the electrolytic caps used in the recording studio.

Apparently, your milage varies.

Hello Mitch4T!  I have many "pre-recorded" commercia tpes from 50-60 years ago, broadway shows, movie soundtracks, etc. They Stil have EXCELLENT sound. The years have added a noticable hiss from sitting inthe earth's magnetic field, however.  I also have many tapes recorded from LP's and FM radio programs as well as live recordings of musical groups. The hiss can be easily removed by using a program like Wave Pad. First: record your music digitally. Then find about 5 - 8 seconds of space between songs that should be silent. It should be in the program material itself.  That way, you can remove noise and hum in the original presentation Plus any noise and hiss in the original recording equipment.  If it is just the blank tape sound, you can get rid of the hiss from the aging of the tape and any hum in the equipment. The trick is to record this "blank - supposedly silent" area and then make a copy and reduce the level by about 10- 20 percent and use that reduced level copy as the "noise sample" for the computer to remove. This way, you will avoid cutting the high frequencies in the actual music by any noticable amount. The results are remarkable. Happy listening!

I’ve had a Teac X-10R since 1981.  During the 80’s and very early 90’s, I recorded about thirty 10.5” reels of old school soul/R&B and contemporary jazz albums.  Each tape is dbx encoded.  I don’t know how, but my dbx tapes sound better than the original vinyl album.  My 15ips reels sound the best.

I have had numerous pre recorded R2R tapes back in he day. Some good, some not so good. Unfortunately, back in the 60's and 70's and probably 80's, many tape editions were afterthoughts. Although some name Mastering Engineers did do a "Tape Duplicating house" master, many times it was left to staff underlings for such. Probably much less so for classical. I'm not certain if RVG mastered the tape editions. RVG did do many 45rpm single masters. 

Generally, the higher the tape speed, the better the sound. Also, two-track machines have more head space to work with so usually, better sound.

Pre-recorded tapes from 50 years ago were good if they were 7.5 ips and barely better than a Dolby-encoded cassette at 3.75. 

Working with R2R tape is a lot like having a turntable. There's something very satisfying about looping the tape around the pressure guide, past the heads an over the capstan, etc. The TEAC decks mentioned are among the best you can find. According to the guy who restored my Akai GX-620, ReVox A77's aren't all that reliable and when they break, they're a bear to work on, thus, expensive. However, they sound really good when they work. 

These $10k play-only 15ips decks are grossly overpriced IMHO. If you want to go that route, find a used Otari 5050 or Tascam 32 and save yourself several thousand dollars. Both are reliable, sturdily built and sound fabulous.