Reel-to-reel audio tape recording (also called open-reel audio tape recording) is the form of magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording medium is held on a reel that is not in a cassette. In use, the supply reel (feed reel) containing the tape is mounted on a spindle; the end of the tape is manually pulled out of the reel, threaded through mechanical guides and a tape head assembly, and attached by friction to the hub of the second, initially empty takeup reel.
Reel-to-reel systems use tape that is 1⁄4, 1⁄2, 1, or 2 inches (6.35, 12.70, 25.40, or 50.80 mm) wide, which normally moves at 3 3⁄4 or 7 1⁄2 inches per second (9.5 or 19.1 cm/s). The tape in a compact cassette is 0.15 inches (3.8 mm) wide and normally moves at 1 7⁄8 inches per second (4.8 cm/s). By writing the same audio signal across more tape, reel-to-reel systems give much greater fidelity, at the cost of much larger tapes. In spite of the larger tapes, less convenience, and generally more expensive media, reel-to-reel systems, which first started in the early 1940s, remained popular in audiophile settings into the 1980s.
Reel-to-reel tape was used also in early tape drives for data storage on mainframe computers and in video tape recorders (VTRs). Studer, Stellavox and Denon still produced reel to reel tape recorders in the 1990s, but as of 2017, only Mechlabor continues to manufacture analog reel-to-reel recorders.
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