LP playback vs Reel tapes made from LP

Sometimes that's true. I used to have a Tandberg R2R that had a built-in phono preamp. This preamp, as I was later to realize, was far, far better than the phono stage in my 1972 Altec-Lansing receiver, through which I normally played my records. The Tandberg architecture enabled me to record directly from the turntable into the tape machine. Doing a line transfer also--as you mention--took a lot of room-borne noise and vibration out of the playback, so the net result was that the tapes sounded better than my LP playback. Other situations might create opposite results. The Tandberg also had a better s/n than a typical turntable, unlike the Teacs and Sonys of the early '70s, so they didn't add noticeable noise to the signal chain.

I agree for similar reasons.... having done such a thing in the distant past. I used a pro TEAC w/10 in. reels and 15 ips.

Add to that such a method was common to extend the life of LPs as well... back then... and yes... in my situation too, my phono setup paled to that of the analog tapes.

the one major issue then was you could put several albums onto one reel... Finding the albums and specific tracks was a whole other ball game. ;-))

Hard drives have replaced the reel to reels BTW. Using HDD and associated software, one can improve upon the recording quality of reels by removing artifacts which could not be done back then. So reels had all the pops and/or noise the recorded LPs had. Eeek!

Blindjim, what software are you using? I record my vinyls using Alesis ML9100 and struggle to select a correct software to master clicks and pops. I also know about Sound Forge but probably it's out of budget if I won't find any better deals arround.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I have a large collection of 10 inch reels, all professionally recorded from LP's, some almost twenty years ago. Some were at 15 ips, 7.5 ips and 3.75 ips. Some are two track stereo, other 4 track stereo. Some of these tapes were produced by various broadcast music services like Drake, Media General. Others were produced by the government, e. g. AFRTS. I have many of the source LP's and I have compared the quality of the tapes with the LP's. Again, some of the tapes are great, others trash. In general, most do not have any artifacts. I've recorded many of my LP's with a high end sound card in my computer using Steinberg software. Again, some times the tapes shine other times not. A lot has been written about the Drake production methods and the tight quality control that was used. Most of what we heard on FM radio were Drake tapes. So, if the LP's were well recorded and you use a top line rig, they always win.

If you have a very good LP setup then tape will not sound alike to LP unless you got for 15ips, high bias tape and high bias machine. Still, there is some lost of space and corruption of imaging that it very hard to get on tape if you have a truly able LP setup and properly cut records. Reversely. if you have a very good 15ips recording then it is VERY difficult, practically imposable to match it on LP. The LP at 45rpm has more promise but there was no good music cut on 45rpm.

If you looking to backup some of your most valuable LPs then nowadays probably digital at 24bit is way to go but prepare that it will be very difficult to get in digital the quality that LP might offer. It might be very pricy and VERY complicated if the demands for quality are high enough.