I currently have five Marantz PMD### cassette decks but with the large 
number of cassettes in our collection, I'm concerned about having enough 
decks around. My repair tech tells me these aren't very well made (pot 
metal parts), are difficult to repair, and spare parts are almost 
non-existent now. I'd been planning on purchasing more used decks for 
spares and parts to keep us in business for the next few years, but I'm 
reconsidering my decision now. I'm wondering if I should shift over to 
another deck that's better and easier to repair, or stick with Marantz? 
My ideal requirements:

plentiful/inexpensive used supply
available parts
ease of repair
balanced outputs
auto reverse

Anything else that should be on this list? It seems the only pro deck 
still available new is the Tascam 202mkV (no balanced outputs) and Sony 
still makes the TCWE47 which is an inexpensive consumer deck. Should I 
just buy lots of the consumer decks, wear them out and toss them or 
should I try to maintain an inventory of working professional decks? I'm 
not particularly interested in high-end consumer gear like Nakamichis, 
but there must have been an era of well made decks that are still cheap 
and plentiful and have good service records. Maybe a flavor of the 
Tascam 122? Anybody have suggestions on what might be a good choice 
moving forward?

David Seubert
UCSB