Is Reel to Reel the new Vinyl? Short answer: No. Long answer: It's complicated - Press Play.
In this video I'll be playing pre-recorded tapes from 1957 & 2017 The first half concentrates on the history & background, and the second moves onto the current day and the most expensive pre-recorded music format available for the home.
CHAPTERS
01:11 i) History - Explanation of the format
15:01 ii) Now - The ultimate in high-end analog music

More Information/Links:

The Tape Project
(Tapes & Useful Information)
http://tapeproject.com

The Verge Article from 2015
https://www.theverge.com/2015/10/5/94...

United Home Audio
(High end 15ips machines)
http://www.unitedhomeproducts.com

Horch House
(Tapes)
https://www.horchhouse.com

Opus 3 Records
(Tapes)
http://www.opus3records.com

Analogy Records
(Tapes)
http://www.analogyrecords.org

What Hi-Fi article
(quoted in the video)
https://www.whathifi.com/features/hol...

Clearly a short video like this can't hope to cover every possible aspect of the complete history of Reel to Reel from 1928 to 2017...for example it's missing facts like the first stereo tapes were recorded in Germany in the early 1940s, how the different thicknesses and formulations of tapes affect sound quality, and why tails-out storage of tapes is recommended. If you would like more information on reel to reel the following website is a great place to start: http://reel2reeltexas.com/index.html

If you are shopping for a Reel to Reel machine on ebay - here's my affiliated link http://ebay.to/2j1afnA

UPDATE: DUPLICATION PROCESS The company that I contacted have now answered my questions and clarified their duplication process.
They borrow the master tape, make a copy (or more likely a number of identical parallel copies on a bank of tape machines)...they then use these copies as their master to run duplicates off that they sell to you. The original master is returned to the studio.

The 1957 stereo demo tape can be heard in full on my website:
http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2017/12/...
...and yes the demo tape contains the voices of Art Gilmore as the narrator and June Foray as the bowler - you can see this written at the bottom of the tape box at 08:17

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