I owned a slew of Technics cassette decks, culminating with the near top-end RS-M234X, which sounded great and had dbx, Dolby C and Dolby B noise reduction systems. After my brother destroyed it, I bought a Sony TC-K570 which is a 3-head, 3 motor design with Dolby HX Pro, Dolby C and Dolby B. I wish my old Technics decks could have sounded so good.
Vintage Cassettes: Direct Drive, 3 Heads: Sendust
Hey folks...I am leaning towards 3 head Denon or Harman Kardon decks with DD innards...I don't want to monkey with belts, etc...and yes NAK are quality decks but the majority of my taping was not on a NAK deck to begin with...I am looking for reliability, features, and decent sound. Others: Onkyo, Yamaha, Sony ES. These would be 80s\90s offerins primarily.