I know this thread is a bit old now, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents.
I bought a Fostex B16 1/2' 16 track machine with a Tascam M520 20 channel mixing console for $300 last summer. At first, nothing worked AT ALL, just screeching noise on every channel. I then spent about a month disassembling the whole board and cleaning every single contact, pot, and fader. Then I disassembled and cleaned the tape machine. And miraculously, everything worked fine and sounded good. I probably went through 10 cans of contact cleaner and 1,500 q-tips.
Since then, I've had to replace several things, including one specific fader that was expensive ($40 new old stock from tascam). Every week, an issue will come up that needs addressing. Either a function will cut out, or there is on and off recurring noise from different places. I have to identify where it is in the signal path, then clean the connection or troubleshoot the component. It's very fussy and fragile, and very time consuming to troubleshoot when there is an issue (unlike a DAW).
Also, I have to recalibrate the input and output bias and align the heads every couple of months. I also have to demagnetize the tape path and clean the heads every 6-8 hours of use.
Getting all the patch cable snakes was expensive too.
Also, the tape. It's hard to find and expensive. You can get burned if you don't know what to look for because some brands go bad and "shed" material on to your heads. A 2500 ft roll of 1/2" tape (the good stuff, used or NOS) is about $75- $100 a reel, and even more if you buy new. That gets you about 30 minutes of recording time.
I tried to find some really good ebay deals of tape reels, and some of those reels I've bought were sold to me in moldy condition and I had to clean them thoroughly. Another batch I bought was mislabeled, and was actually 911 dispatch audio logging tape. It works with my machine, but it's much thinner/cheaper, and it doesn't capture high end as well. Each brand of tape almost has it's own sound to it. And some of 'em suck.
All in all, I'm sure I've easily dropped over $1,000 into this rig by now. I don't even know what the real number is.
And I know when the tape heads wear, or something major breaks, there's probably not much I can do, since replacement parts are impossible to find. This baby is living the last of it's life now. When it goes, it goes.
But it is fun to use. The sound isn't "better", but it's different and cool. The saturated and idiosyncratic or inconsistent sound is really just giving it character, it's not definitely not higher fidelity by any means. I like how it changes your workflow. You have to make decisions and stick with them, because of destructive editing. If you've been getting burned out on the anxiety of options in the DAW world, it's a breath of fresh air.
But it's also a huge fucking bitch. There's a reason studios used to have a dude who just maintained the tape machine and shit back in the day. It's an every day thing.
And the whole rig is really large. With the board, the tape machine, the patchbay, patch cables, etc., it's one whole side of a room.
Definitely couldn't be recording in a smaller place comfortably without it being asses and elbows.