LOL... The Holy Grail? I think not, but okay. Not only did I own one, but I sold many during my time in music retail. It's not a bad deck, it's good for home studios, but certainly not what would considered pro, or " the Holy Grail", compared to other Tascams - or to any other manufacturer's models in a similar price range, either.

Tascam's best tape machines were the MS16 ( 1") and 40 and 50 series 8 track broadcast decks ( on 1/2"). The MSR 24 was your basic, pro-sumer, affordably priced 24 track on 1" tape.

FWIW, your asking price is about $500 more than the average, going rate for this deck in working condition. Just sayin'. ;)

fwiw, the major downfall of these machines is the semi-pro (-10) operating level and the one head design which makes calibrating difficult.

the price may be on the high side but it's consistent with machines that are Dolby vs. DBX equipped. Dolby S machines are more desirable.

with Dolby S even these narrow gauge machines can perform pretty well @ 15ips and much better @ 30. imo, it's well worth it to get one converted if you can find the right tech to do it. the trade off is increased tape costs.

Dolby is much more forgiving of the erratic +/- 3dB frequency response that plagues narrow gauge formats. DBX will double errors rendering a frequency response that in theory varies as much as 12 dB!!! on the other hand, Dolby kicks in when signal levels fall below a pre determined level. additionally Dolby only affects higher frequencies so the low end is not impacted as it is with DBX. this is why more studios went for Dolby A. Dolby B & C were intended for consumer formats.

the Dolby S system this machine has, uses multi band detectors that only kick in on areas of the audio that need it. very elegant. SR takes it a step further by splitting the audio into even more bands.

Back then I went through some Fostex B/G16 then ADAT and back to a TEAC 85-16B. After having been spoiled by digital and ADATs I liked the TEAC a lot, though the transport was slow. It had some mojo going on. But I was only doing demos at that time, no major work. A friend was using a MS16 in his studio doing major work. VO, jingles, sound for film and gaming. He put a lot of mileage on his deck, something like 20k hrs with only few minor repairs. This machine was stunning. A real workhorse. He still owns it though he´s into PT now since 15yrs now.
Edit: Sorry for being off-topic