I hear you, blueranger...there's nothing like hearing a top quality cassette tape (or reel to reel). I opted for the 700ZXL because the Dragon had not yet been introduced, and the 1000ZXL looked like a piece of military gear, with the sliders and whatnot. Also, I had bad experiences with sliders over the years, so I tended to avoid them. I was ecstatic with the performance of the 700ZXL, and bought another a few months after getting my first. A couple of years later I bought the Dragon, and after ensuring proper break-in, started testing them both. The differences were quite significant, especially given the outstanding specs of the Dragon (not to mention the advanced technology). Time and again, however, the 700ZXL outperformed the Dragon, especially on the most demanding things available at the time (just released CDs, but primarily difficult to record vinyl, such as Sheffield Labs releases). On the Sheffield version of "America", the clarity of the transients was amazing...but the underpinning of the lowest frequencies was revelatory. I eventually sold off one of my 700ZXLs and kept the Dragon, though, since I sometimes listened to tapes from other machines.
At this point, however, I am considering whether it is worth restoring both units, since most of my listening is now done via CDs...