My advice, spend more now, get auto-reverse, far easier/thus more enjoyable/likely to use frequently than single direction, manual flip, rewind ...
I progressed thru every Teac generation, bit by bit, ended up with Teac X1000R (6 head auto-reverse), and their last Prosumer version X-2000R (same as X-1000R but has cobalt heads). The meters are slightly different, I prefer the X-2000R meters.
They are built like tanks, if you are handy and have some tools, you can work on the mechanics/alignments/speed/brake adjustments yourself, experts needed for electronic issues which I have luckily not had.
An expert could make the head alignment 'perfect', but just know: ALL the decks I messed with, the heads were aligned well enough to sound terrific. I even bought/swapped out a complete plate with heads, bingo sounded sounds terrific.
My use is playback pre-recorded tapes, mostly 4T factory, some home recorded by myself or purchased.
