Ahhhhh, but comparing would necessitate the purchase of both a r2r and a cassette deck. Well, I have an Akai GX912 (had a Tascam 122 mkI) but it needs setting up and I'd think I'd get a Studer/Revox A/B710 anyway.
Yeah, there's NAC in the states. The tape they use is new old stock (they bought everyone's pancakes when all but them went over to burning CDs) but they make the cassettes to order. There's a minimum order of 100 tho, but even with the shipping it still works out at about £1.50 a tape and they're very good quality. Google 'em. I went halves on 100 cobalt type IIs (they just ran out of that tape stock) with a chum. We kept 30 each and sold 40.