Forget reel to reel, for all the reasons previously stated. I have a few reel to reel machines and they are all used for playback of pre recorded tapes. Go with a Nakamichi Dragon, the best cassette tape machine ever made. Tons of features. Also, look into the 'D-VHS' decks which tape the VHS format to the highest level. I have such a machine and have made a few recordings that do sound better then the Dragon. Tapes are expensive and getting service would be impossible.
An analog question for those who record
I am going to buy either a reel to reel or a VHS recorder to record my vinyl onto for repeated playbacks. Is recording vinyl possible by simply hooking my preamp up to a VCR hitting record and dropping the needle. This would be ideal as it has a long run time via the VCR tapes. I have heard VCRS have good analog sound. Should I just go with a reel to reel? Cassettes arent really an option but I have heard some recordings from vinyl onto cassette that sound great. I also am aware of digital recording using audacity and have used it hundreds of times. However I like analog and if I want digital I will just pop in a cd. Do you think there would be a huge difference in the quality one way or another.