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.