Why not magnetic tapes in stead of vinyl records?

The real reasons were pretty simple if you think about it and they were durability and production oriented. You can not mass transfer from tape to tape. To high speed dub from tape to tape, you lose frequency response. Significantly so depending on the speed. Secondly, the vinyl can be mass produced depending on your pressing capacity. For instance, a 45 minute session to replicate 1:1 from tape for maximum fidelity would take 45 minutes....maybe 2:1 would be negligible loss of frequency which would take the transfer to 22.5 minutes. It might take 30 seconds more or less for good vinyl....you can see real quickly that it is simply a matter of economics. The second reason is tapes degrade over time whereas most vinyl is stable indefinitely. Regards.

Ghasley makes some excellent points. In addition, I have a nice Akai 4-track tape deck and about 60 prerecorded tapes that I play infrequently. Too much of a PITA for me (and this from a guy who plays mostly vinyl).

Tape will never surpass vinyl in resolution and signal to noise ratio and dynamic range....Even a top of the line Tandberg Home Reel to Reel. And I don't think people want to spend 1,000 for a 70's tape player. Having said that I still would like to have one to play around with :-) they are fun !

Yes, the time and cost of reproduction per unit assured the LP's market domination. And although unlimited money can be spent on a turntable to extract that last Nth of music and detail, the entry point for a reel-to-reel tape machine was always higher, and the mechanical complexity is much higher.

The reason for the 14" transcription LPs and 12" tonearms to play them came from a time when live radio programs and performances were recorded, mastered, and stamped to send out to radio stations all over the country. A radio station could easily stamp 100 or more transcription LPs and send them out overnight, where 100 tape duplications would have taken 4500 minutes, or 75 hours.

Also, there were until maybe 15 years ago, companies who produced high quality tapes copied at lower speeds. Barclay
Crocker was one of them. Their catalogue was all Classical music. Joe