Can you get great analog sound from analog tape?

I must agree with the posts above. One caveat: tapes are expensive and not always easy to find. BUT, recording from vinyl with care (i.e. paying attention to wires of all sorts as Detlof notes) you would need a VERY revealing system to gauge sonic differences -- esp. if you're well calibrated &, I've heard (i.e. hadn't tried), if you use dolby.

Since I don't own a reel-to-reel, I cannot attest to this, but I'd be a bit surprised if an analogue tape copy were truly sonically indistinguishable from the vinyl original. Whatever wires you used.

I use a Nakamichi CR-7A, which is calibrated and clean. It makes very acceptable analog recordings. The noise floor is higher, but the imaging is right on with the source. I use this primarily to tape things I either wish to keep stone mint or can not obtain. I also have a Sony ES DAT deck, but I find myself using the Nak more often even with the DAT run through an Ultra Link II DAC. Tom

Bomarc: you're right in yr post above (doubting that tape is indistinguishable fm vinyl). I should have noted "subjectively" indistinguishable!
I find that the musical "essence" is retained i.e. the intrinsic qualities of vinyl are easily perceptible. In my experience, the tape (used to) draw me into the music more than into the reproduction quality of the medium (the latter happening to me when I listen to the cd version of a vinyl I have).

Agreed, Greg. A good tape recording of vinyl playback will certainly capture the "intrinsic qualities of vinyl," as you call them. Whereas a CD made from an analogue master tape will not. (Which just goes to show that it's not being analogue that does it; it's being on vinyl.)