A few very useful external links and info on the net:

Tape speeds
In general, the faster the speed the better the sound quality. Slower speeds conserve tape and are useful in applications where sound quality is not critical.

• 15/16 inch per second (ips) or 2.38 cm/s — used for very long-duration recordings
• 1 7/8 ips or 4.76 cm/s — usually the slowest domestic speed, best for long duration speech recordings
• 3 3/4 ips or 9.52 cm/s — common domestic speed, used on most single-speed domestic machines, reasonable quality for speech and off-air radio recordings
• 7 1/2 ips or 19.05 cm/s — highest domestic speed, also slowest professional; used by some radio stations for speech programs
• 15 ips or 38.1 cm/s — professional music recording and radio programming
• 30 ips or 76.2 cm/s — used where the best possible treble response is demanded

See more details also here:
 • Audio format
 • Audio storage
 • Audio tape length and thickness.
• Tape editing
 • Inches per second

Reel-to-reel recorder brands
. Akai
 . Fostex
 . Otari
 . Revox
 . Sony
 . Studer
 . Tascam
 . Technics
All info above copyright to www.wikipedia.org/


Analog Recorders

STUDER
http://www.studer.ch/index.aspx?
http://www.studerundrevox.de/
http://www.reeltoreel.de/worldwide/index.htm
http://www.revox.net/
FOSTEX
http://www.fostex.com/
TANDBERGS
http://www.nrhf.no/nrhf-TB.html
NAGRA
http://www.nagra.com/
http://www.fsfl.se/backspegel/kudelski.html
TASCAM
http://www.tascam.com/
http://tascamcontractor.com/contact/index.html
AKAI
http://www.akaipro.com/
http://www.reels-and-manuals.com/akai.html
SONY
http://www.sony.net/
AMPEX
http://www.atrservice.com/


Analog Tape Sites

AMPEX/QUANTEGY
http://www.quantegy.com/
SONY
http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/category/recordable-media?pSubCatId=39&pCategoryId=17

WHERE TO BUY TAPE:
http://www.usrecordingmedia.com/opreelrectap.html
http://www.cheaptape.com/\
http://www.tapestockonline.com/reeltoreel.html
http://www.tapetape.com/
http://www.elmarplastics.com/audiorel.htm

Audio Recording History
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/notes.html

Turntable History
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/tablehistory.htm