Your choice was scratches or tape hiss. In the late 60's tape was better. There were bunches of pre recorded tapes and except for the hiss the machines were stellar. In the early 70s dolby came along and R to R machines like the Revox were being sold with it but interest in pre recorded tapes fell off and they all but disappeared from the market. Most of us just recorded albums. Turntable playback continued to improve. Now R to R is a niche market operating off rebuilt machines and ridiculously priced pre recorded tapes of very old stuff. It will fade as the supply of transports dries up and people get use to the inherent superiority of High Res Digital (appropriately mastered of course). There are some who will snuff up their noses with this assessment but I would be willing to wager that the R to R market will be all but dead in 10 years.
