Tubefan, your facination with tape is interesting because the content on the tape would have to come from a CD or LP unless some one is walking around with master tapes. To my knowledge those aren't availabel to the general public. So it seems you prefer a copy over the original. Reel-to-reel was dead by the time I got into high end audio so I have no idea if you could buy pre-recorded reels but I've never seen one.

Sir T, you brought up something noticed in my AN DAC but never really mentioned it as it was the only piece I heard, the sound stage was flatter than anything I've ever compared it too. What i mean by that is most sound stages seem to arc upward where the top of the AN went straight across. I was indifferent to the effect but found it interesting you heard the same thing, if that is indeed what you were talking about.