3 head cassette decks

YEARS ago, I USED to own a Pioneer
CT-A9X in black.
It was a very good 3-head deck, and it had
VERY SOFT TOUCH CONTROLS.
They pop up on flee bay every now and then.
I bought mine from Digital TV in Burbank, IL.
I was the sole owner for over a LONG time.
I bought it as a floor model, had the box
and manual. Bought it in 1989, sold it on
flee bay back in 1999. Great sound, BUT
I switched to the Pioneer Digital Processing
cassette deck W616DR. Although it`s NOT a
3-head tape deck, it has digital processing, and it
get`s rid of tape hiss 99%, that was the selling point
for me to get this model. You MIGHT want to look into
this model. It alows you to listen to cassettes
WITHOUT all the tape HISS. However, the tapes sound
like a CD, so I don`t know IF THAT`S what you`re
looking for, just thought i`d let you know of
my experiances.

Akai. Still own one.

Back in the late eighties/early nineties I had a Teac V-800X that was quite good. During that time a local high-end shop had a Nakamichi rep come in with a promotional offer to perform a free tune-up and test on any deck as a means to compare to the Naks. After running tests on my Teac he seemed genuinely surprised at the Teac's performance. It was a surprise to me also as it measured better than its specs.
Unfortunately the Teac died. Maybe from lack of exercise.

Tandberg and Revox are already mentioned, as are Teac's. If you don't mind spending some serious money, the Teac Z-series are awesome. Also the better Technic's decks are quite capable, as is the Yamaha KX-1200.
Best for it's money I ever had was an Aiwa AD-F800: sturdy, easy to use and very good-sounding. Ultimately I prefered my Nak ZX-9, but for the price paid the Aiwa was unbeatable.

I still have a Yamaha K1000, but don't use it very much. It has 3 heads, 2 motor direct drives and was one of the few decks that has DBX. It still sounds great.