[Mark J]

New prerecorded tapes are produced by The Tape Project. Top Quality, limited.
NOS tapes will be rare
Used are everywhere, both the early 7½ips and later, tape saving 3-3/4ips with a bit lower sound quality. Finding a nice collection and buying it is a good way to get some prerecorded tapes. They can sound nice. I know ehoove (Jim) has done that and he enjoys listening to tapes now and then. You can see by the pricing that the format is getting more popular.

There are also folks recording certain records or copying tapes and selling them on the bay, copyright infringement, that folks seem to want to buy for way too much money. If I need a tape of something, I'll record it myself.

The current home use of RtR machines is growing and some go to the trouble to have the machines refurbished to work properly. There are some tape technicians out there for the different brands that do excellent work and I was lucky enough to find a Crown SX-724 that got a complete recap and mechanical rebuild then I sent the headblock and the electronics (a 13 pound package, not 65 pound for the whole machine) to the current Crown guru, Chuck Ziska. He lapped the heads (they had a slight bit of wear but are like new now) and installed them and the electronics on one of his transports and set up the bias and eq for the tape of my choice.

Today we see some do that but most are just happy to have a tape machine and then use the deck without getting it set up for a tape. Since these machines were set up for TDK, Maxell, Scotch or Ampex of the 70s they won't be best with today's tape without an adjustment and some older machines might not adjust for the best tapes today.

When I got my first machine, Tandberg 10X, I had it set up for the case of tape I purchased about the same time. Maybe like others, haven't redone that adjustment but the machine has been playback only for a few years, hence the acquisition of the Crown, its easy rebuild and set up, now allowing the recap of the Tandberg.

The look of the reels spinning is just mesmerizing and the sound for these fine machines is very good. Was excellent but cartridges, tonearms and phono amps have gotten better. Digital is not analog so I don't discuss it, it is different.