reel-to-reel

[reel-tuh-reel]

adjective

1. of or relating to an audio sound-equipment system or motion-picture camera or projector through which the tape or film must be threaded onto a take-up reel.

reel-to-reel

adjective

1. (of magnetic tape) wound from one reel to another in use

2. (of a tape recorder) using magnetic tape wound from one reel to another, as opposed to cassettes

Word History and Origins

Origin of reel-to-reel¹

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

Not long afterwards she was looking through an old briefcase when she came across an ageing, brown reel-to-reel tape-recording of her lullaby.

From BBC

The photographer returned to Chicago with a portable reel-to-reel recorder to capture the voices and stories behind the black-and-white images.

From Los Angeles Times

During a talk she gave in 2020, she said he introduced her to Lowry and a friendship grew between them, which led to her taking a borrowed reel-to-reel recorder to his home in the Tameside village of Mottram in Longdendale.

From BBC

For 45 years, Peter Gordon has held onto a reel-to-reel tape of a show he performed in 1979 at the Mudd Club in New York City with a trio called the Blue Horn File.

From New York Times

But UT maintained its own archive on 12,000 reel-to-reel tapes.

From Science Magazine