Google search reveals nothing conclusive, or current, so I'm asking:

Any opinions on either of these two fairly inexpensive cassette decks?
Or opinions on one's superior value over the other?

It's killing me to even have to buy a cassette deck. And it's killing
me to not be considering a state-of-the-art machine (if such a thing
isn't an oxymoron), but it just seems ludicrous to spend $1100 on a
122mkIII or whatever just to be able to transcribe 20 year old tapes.
So I'm looking for a deck that will sound good on playback, be able to
record decently for the 1 out of 30 clients who still require it, and
hopefully last long enough to be the last cassette deck I ever have to
buy.