Are audiophile R2R tapes worth the money if you do not have a professional R2R deck?

When I worked at a recording studio in the 1980s-1990s we had Technics 1520s in the studios as our semi-pro machines. We had pro machines for all our recording (MCI and Otari, being more affordable than Studer or Ampex). My biggest concern for you would be parts availability. Parts that wear out are the pinch roller, roller guides, and reel clamps. If I recall correctly, those Technics are 3 motor direct drive, so fewer problems with belts and gears inside. Eventually the heads wear enough to require resurfacing.

The biggest issue is tape formulations that turned to goo over time, like the way some plastics get sticky. High output tapes in the ’90s were the worst for this. R-R tape can be fabulous, but expensive. Everything about tapes is crazy expensive due to the very limited market. Tape decks are astronomically priced, I believe ATR Magnetics (might be made by RTM) and EMTEC are the only tape manufacturers left.

You need to know the head format of your machine when buying pre-recorded tapes. Does it have 2-track and 1/4 track heads? Ours had both playback heads but recorded only 1/4 track (that’s why we had them.)

Professionals always store their tapes "tails out" meaning you need to rewind before play, to avoid the pre-echo problems of print through. 

I don't know about reels but Maxell Metal Vertex cassettes that I use can seemingly last forever. Some of them have 500-600 plays on them and they sound as good as new, as far as I can tell, a little noisy when rewinding but I rarely do it, anyway. I also use LAST Factory tape head preservative before each play, and of course the head is always cleaner than in fact it has to be.

Cost of a refurbished Otari or even Studer and Ampex can be about the same as the cost of a high end cartridge, that means low if you've got the funds. As Bill said, cost of master tape dubs is another matter, well, depending on what you buy and how many.

In any case, this tape endeavour is for a very dedicated audiophile, you have to be truly engaged.

All good suggestions above. It's best to refurbish, lubricate, check the shape/alignment of the heads and replace if/as necessary the PS caps. You'll need the 2 EQ setting mentioned  and be sure to properly load the heads if using an outboard tapestage. You might consider having John French redo the head block and put in Flux Magnetic heads for the best sound.

Here's a list I just published of the top 75 15-ips tapes currently available.

https://www.audionirvana.org/forum/the-audio-vault/all-things-reel-to-reel/195199-end-of-2025-best-of-15-ips-tape-finally

@myles_b_astor - nice list, thanks for sharing