The last cassette deck I owned was a Nakamichi 700ZXE and it was just as enjoyable as my TT/CD decks (this was 20 years ago).
My wife had a lot of commercial tapes and I had a "some" tapes recorded from LP to a Nakamichi 600.
The majority of my old tapes were stolen from the back of my car when I was moving in with my fiancé (AKA my current wife) 32 years ago.
I used to do a lot of live band recordings (bands I played in) and also owned a 550?, plus a 250/350 (forget which) for playback in my car (mated with a 12V capable Advent 300).
I also used various VHS decks as well as a heavy/cumbersome Beta deck for recording.
The SQ of the Beta deck was really nice.
Oddly enough I also used an old inexpensive Akai cassette deck (not a clue as to the model) that was just as good as the 600, plus it was less fussy about tape.
In addition I owned/used an Aiwa double deck with synchronized SOS for mixing, but forget the model (think I bought it around 1980).
Love a good cassette deck.
DeKay