Best REEL TO REEL blank tape?

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I completely understand the fun of playing around with it and watching the reels spin. I had a pretty nice Teac deck at one time and enjoyed fiddling around with it but sold it when the price of blank tapes got so expensive and I realized I would never have many tapes. But the idea that putting something on tape and playing it back makes it sound better is completely foreign to me. Sounds different of course since you will be applying EQ with transistor circuits and playing back through more transistor circuits, but since all you can do in the process is lose information and add distortion I'm not buying into it sounds better unless the distortion it introduces is pleasing to your ear. It might be and the fun factor is there so I say go for it if you want to hassle with it.

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I'm curious why you want to do this. The tape will be as expensive if not more than the record plus the effort of recording. Tapes also deteriorate just sitting there, records don't. You also need to be concerned about setting up the deck properly and whether or not the heads are properly aligned and the bias is set. You gain nothing in convenience as playing the tape is as much or more of a hassle than the record. Seems like a lot of work and expense for no benefit.

Why not play the record and just buy extra copies of your favorites if you are concerned about preservation, it will be cheaper in the long run. I do see why people would want to digitize something; that does it make it more convenient and portable, but what is the benefit of R2R?

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I understand completely, I do not need to be enlightened.

It distorts what's on the record in a way that you find pleasing. You choose to call this "better." I have no problem with that.

By recording it you change the frequency response both recording and playing back, the dynamic range changes, there is distortion from wow and flutter as well as the introduction of tape hiss and distortion on peaks when it saturates. You also introduce harmonic distortion in the active devices (transistor or tube) that you've added as well as the cabling. This can't be argued. These distortions are very real and measurable.

I'm sure there are many records that do benefit from this distortion. Better is in the ear of the beholder but don't try to make it sound like something magical is going on.

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