With the astonishing resurgence of Lps in recent years, why hasn't RTR caught on with a similar return? Decks are easy to come by, relatively cheap and not really all that hard to service, if you know what you're doing.
Probably lots of reasons:
Open reel tapes were never anything more than a niche product to begin with. I would be surprised to find out that tapes ever sold more than 5% of the total copies of LPs, except (maybe) for some classical or jazz titles. So, I guess the base was already there for a huge LP resurgence, just dormant.
Open reel does not, I think, have the "retro" charms of LPs, for those "youngsters" getting into vinyl for the first time. After all, you can't hardly see a movie from the fifties or sixties without some very hip characters playing a record, while open reel, not so much. Last I checked, you can buy TTs and LPs at Urban Outfitters, not open reel...
Expense. Wasn't this always most of the problem, and won't it always be? After all, some two-tracks in the fifties cost what would be now be well over a hundred dollars apiece. To make tapes more affordable, high-speed duplication, the four-track format, and lower speeds were introduced. This reduced quality enough that tape no longer had any significant sonic advantage, if any. Tape is still expensive, just like it always was. I don't see how you could produce and sell a high-quality tape that can be much under $100 for an album today, if at all. Although I hear they are spectacular, Tape Project tapes are $300 each. Even if you assume that tape cost is the only expense, which it is not, a four-track at 7 1/2 ips (cutting the amount of tape needed by 75%) of the same album would still be $75. Hard to compete with 180g vinyl in the $20-30 range...
Moreover, for most, the handling of the tape is more of a hassle than an LP. Of course, if you clean and handle your LPs the way you're supposed to, that's much more involved, but how many do?
Also, new players are hard to come by and very expensive. I think Otari is the only one left, and that player is something like $5000. On the other hand, you can choose from hundreds of brand new turntables, some of which I understand are quite good, many for well under $500. I can certainly understand the reluctance of a casual music-lover to buy a twenty-year-old tape deck that almost certainly needs some work, even if it relatively easy.
Don't get me wrong -- I would
love to see some new releases or reissues in a two- or even four-track dolby format (like the Barclay Crockers) that were realistically priced, say in the $30-50 range, but I just don't think its possible. I would also love to see a high-quality new deck in the $500 range, but I don't see that happening either.
I'm just glad to see some growing acknowledgment (even in the audiophile press) of what I believe to be the case: there is no format that has even been commercially produced that sounds better that open reel tape--particularly the 2-tracks released in the fifties and early sixties. Pretty amazing for stuff that's almost sixty years old.
Just my two cents...
