Top 10 vintage cassette decks

Nakamichis were clearly overall the best performing decks, but not all that reliable, Same for the Tandbergs. Great when they worked. The Japanese decks with solenoid controls overall were as reliable as they got, but tended to be a little noisy electronically. The JVC were sleepers, extremely reliable and quiet and the HK 300 & 400 (3-head) were another. Mine never gave me any issues.

AIWA AD-F1000 - pretty much indistinguishable from vinyl when using Sony UX-Pro tapes.

I remember auditioning cassette decks in the 70s. My goal was a deck that was indistinguishable from the LP. I settled on an Aiwa, way too long ago to recall the number but cost about $350 I think. Nakamichi was considered the tops. Anyway, the first deck didn’t live up to expectations back home, so I traded up to the next Aiwa model for the difference in price with my local audio store in Dallas. That did it. I had an ARxa turntable at the time, probably a Shure cart, Marantz 2230 and large Advents — very 70s lineup. By the time the head wore out CDs were here so I didn’t pay for the repair. I remember CrO2 tape was the best.

Brent,

Lot's of replies for various decks.  Can't say one way or another which is best.  But, I would like to interject.  If you are not looking for absolute performance (and I can only assume you are not if you are looking at cassette decks), I would suggest looking at a cassette and a R2R that match each other.  My go to pair would be a Pioneer RT-909 and a Pioneer CT-1250.  Neither of these decks is the best in their class and neither of them will be a bargain.  But they can give you decent performance and they'll look good doing it.  At least that's my opinion. 

Good luck however you proceed.