Otari or Technics Reel-to-Reel ?

Correction: Demagnafication is after each recording session, which will be more than one reel. Here is something that can easily slip your mind; your recorded tapes must be a good distance away from the demagnetizing process, or those tapes will be damaged by the demagnetizer. It's little things like this that require planning, meaning that you might walk through your recording session the night before.

I played some tapes this evening, and rediscovered they are well worth the effort.

Of course, they are worth the effort. Speaking of nights, I can only record between about 2am and 5am because this is the only time interval when the wall current is okay.
Yes, sometimes while recording, you get a tick or something in the middle of the track, then you have to re-record this track or sometimes the entire side. And sometimes, you have to figure out how to find a few extra seconds of the tape to record a particular track in particular order. Etc.
Still, it is all worth to me.
I'll keep in mind what you said about the demagnetizer, thank you.

Inna, this is stuff dreams are made of, it's called EE tape. If a person had a reel with a EE seting , he could record at the slow speed of 3 3/4 and get 7 1/2 quality of sound. That doubled the playback time without reducing quality of sound. This was long before I got into the high end, and playback time was our concern.

As it turns out, you don't need those EE settings, this tape will work on any reel. I'm listening to it on the 2 track Technics and what I'm hearing is truly unbelievable. ( A 2 track Otari will be even better) Holographic is an understatement, the musicians are here in the listening room.

This reel was not in a gold EE box, but as soon as I heard the first tune, I knew it was EE tape. War "All Day Music" was the first LP; it's hot fun in the summertime. "Let's go to the beach, play in the park, or roll in the grass long after dark". The year was 71 when such things, even for us, were on the good idea list. On this tape, each vocal or instrument is surrounded by air, decay time on any thing that rings is forever and the musicians are in the listening room.

Everyone whose heard EE tape wishes it would come back. I'm positive, no matter how good someone else's rig is, they wont get sound this good unless they got a reel and EE tape; think about it, the high end is the starting line, then you throw in a reel; that boosts it up a notch; next you add the EE tape, that puts it over the rim; I sure hope they bring it back.

Top notch gear is only half the story, good recording results require explicit planning and execution. "Watch power cords and interconnects, arrange so as not to create hum". Enjoy when it's time, but don't rush.

Otari MX5050 B3 will be my personal choice. Very versatile and easy to use machine with incredible recording abilities. It's also easy to service and high reliability.

I saw many EE reels on ebay. I always thought that backcoated tapes were the best. But perhaps not for the 3.75ips.
In any case, the consensus is that Otari two track is the way to go. Except Studer A810..