Cassette decks. How good can it get?

had an akai gx9 back in the day that was superb...that was hands down the best tape deck i've owned. never got my paws on a high end nak though. maybe someday.

right now i use an akai gxz9000 which i believe was a japanese-market-only 3-head deck, and then upstairs a nakamichi bx1 (their entry level 2 head from 83 iirc) that i picked up for super cheap. both awesome, reliable decks that sound excellent. all in all i've owned maybe a dozen decent ones, give or take. before these current two i had a suckface luxman, truly 'love it or hate it' lookswise, but for a 2 head deck just great sound. an old harman kardon 292 that was a workhorse for years. a whacked out jvc that looked like a coked out executive's idea of "futuristic tech"...a couple really nice sonys..etc etc

i'm not adding much here since the OP asked about TOTL stuff but i had to weigh in because i love the format and the gear.

pioneer came out at the last with a cassette deck [CT-W616DR] that employed a refined form of digital DNR and also "digital flex" [dynamic treble enhancement above 10kc], that reported nearly the same s/n ratio as [average quality 16 bit] digital equipment. reviews were mixed-

http://www.tapeheads.net/showthread.php?t=59361

My JVC KD-A77 I brought new still sounds great , it was good enough for Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab . I'm going to sell it .I just found a Technics RS 9900 US in perfect condition I'll keep this one 

Nak 1000 and Nak Dragon are about the best. Adjustable azimuth heads help. We hooked up the 1000, I think, and A-B’d it with the vinyl back in the day.

Biggest difference was that the Nak added a hard-to-describe "hollow" sound to the playback. Other than that, it was identical (Audio Research/Magnepan system) using a Linn Sondek, as I remember. Can’t remember the cartridge--moving coil, I am sure, but we also tried it with moving magnet ones as well.

I think Tandberg had a good one as well...hard to remember that far back any more.

Cheers!

@richopp The Tandberg model you are referring to might be 3014/3014A. They're great at what they do with  lowly cassette tape.