I have a Sony ES deck and love it, the KA2ES. The Sony ES decks sound great, but mine went out of alignment after around six years of incredibly heavy use. The good thing is that they are relatively easy to realign and many A/V repair shops (even Best Buy) can fix it. Personally, I would try to find an ES deck before a "regular" Sony deck, as the ES decks are better built, have better bias features, and most of them have three heads.