If you’ve never heard good recorded music played on a good reel to reel deck through a good stereo system there is no way that I can accurately describe the experience to you. Nowadays the norm is digital audio from CDs, DVDs and files like in Ipods. The closest comparison I can come up with is the difference between watching and hearing a DVD or VHS video played through your TV and seeing and hearing the same one in a good movie theater. Presence, warmth, and brilliance of sound comes through in analog recordings like reel to reel tape players record and reproduce, whereas I would describe digital audio as being crisp, clean and precise. You say you like surround sound…just listen to a good Quadraphonic reel to reel tape played through the proper vintage Hi Fi stereo 4 channel system with good front and rear speakers. These are from the 1970s, over 30 years ago.
Reel to reel tape recorders were the recording industry standard from the fifties and well into the nineties and many recording studios and professional musicians like Paul McCartney, I understand, are still using them to record and produce their masters. A great many radio stations used them long after the appearance of audiotape cassettes on the scene. When you hear the phrase digitally remastered this means they recorded from the old analog master tapes into digital files on a hard drive.
A genuine audiophile aficionado prefers the sound of analog recordings like you hear from reel to reel reproducers or vinyl recorders even, although with records you may hear snap, crackle, pop, hiss and rumble. Expensive editing software and equipment can filter these noises out but then you end up with digital sound. Think about getting a reel to reel deck and some other good old stereo equipment if you truly love the sound of good music.