Going to be hard to find a new deck for $7.500. J-Corder refurbished decks could be had in your price range and United Home Audio decks have gone up quite a bit in price over the years. Metaxas is well above your budget. Otherwise, I'm not sure who else out there is doing top quality refurbished or new decks.
You also need to think about the playback electronics. I was never really satisfied with my Otari internal electronics so I had mine modified to take the signal direct from the tape head and run through external tube tape head preamps. This made a significant difference.
I buy my tapes from a number of sources. Prices range from $150 to $400. The higher cost tapes usually net me two reels of music at 15 ips. It's fun to compare the same title in LP and tape format. Tape almost always wins out.