Fantastic discussion guys! There are some amazing systems that are in the possession of some of the members here. And, I suspect, some systems which are also very impressive in light of the modest budgets that it took to put them together. Whichever category yours falls in, harnessing the potential of the individual components to make them all speak with one voice requires a great deal of time and patience.
In most cases, learning to get the most from whatever tape machine you have and realizing the potential of the Tape Project releases will also take each of us some time. I'll keep doing my best to help novices to get up and running as quickly as possible but be patient with yourselves. There really is a lot to learn and some things can only be learned by doing.
On another note, we should also be aware that there are a number of members such as Charles (Stellavox), Rich (u47) and Marie who have tons of experience with reel to reel. I think that these members are important for taking our technical discussions to the next level. I just hope that they'll stick around long enough.