You can find a lot of these recommended machines, including Studer A807, 810 and 80 machines on the Reverb site. They do not sell things for cheap prices, but, they are generally fair. It is worth window shopping there.
I don't know if I would say that a system is not complete without a good R2R deck. If one is satisfied playing a relatively small selection of music, and insist on really topnotch performance when playing those few selections, then maybe, a high end machine is justified. How high? Why not insist that only an ATR 100 series machine will do?