Sony TC-K611S. A fantastic deck. Owned two. Sold the first when I thought I'd done with tape. Bought a second when I realised I hadn't. Upgraded to a Nak and sold the second one a couple of years ago for £40 or so.
Excellent playback and recording.
The Denon
DR-M44HX was another cracker of a deck that I owned.
Prior to these I had a
Pioneer CT-9R. That was a great piece of kit. Built like a tank. A huge tape deck. Looked great in a champagne finish. Thirty years old now, but I'd have another.
Working in hifi retail in the 90s, I played with lots of decks.
Aiwa had a few good ones, like the
AD-F910 and
AD-S950
Technics had the
RS-AZ6 and
RS-AZ7
Yamaha, as mentioned, did the excellent
KX-580SE
A manufacturer that I liked, that never gets a mention, is Luxman.
They did some really good decks. There's one in particular that I sold around 1996. I can't remember the model but it sounded fantastic and was built really well. It was probably the
K-373 but it was 16 years ago so I can't be 100% sure.
Of all of these, I have a soft spot for the
.
A briliiant piece of kit for the money.
Ideally, I'd say get a Nakamichi. But they aren't cheap. And probably overkill for your needs.