Considering an acquisition.

Any comments on the relative merits of this deck?

This will have Dolby B noise reduction included but is otherwise the same as the GX 630 D. Glass ferrite heads, which are good quality and long wearing. Nice transport that will handle up to 10 1/2" NAB reels. Quarter track stereo, 3.75/7.5 ips speeds. I have the GX 630 D but it's recording quality is doo-doo. At least for now. Very overload-prone (utter lack of any headroom, thus forcing one to record at too low a level if one wishes to avoid distortion) and has since become unacceptably noisy.

As for its playback quality, it's fine!

Thanks Jay, I'm planning to record with it (if I buy it) so appreciate the warning.