General advice sought re open reel machines
 

Evening Folks,
My collection of things old and audio-related lacks an open reel tape recorder. SWMBO will let me have one if I promise to thin out other areas of said collection. I have never actually owned such a device, but quite fancy something large, solidly built and between 35 & 40 years of age. Enough of my taste in human beings though! :-[
I like the idea of something German, something that would sound equally good whether connected to the Yacht Boy (ok, that's Portugese, but I've never held that against it) or to my '61 Blaupunkt Salvador 3D valve set when using either of those as a source of amplification.
Is it worth looking beyond the products of Grundig? Did Blaupunkt make a tape recorder?
I won't need a particularly high-end machine, as I'm not planning to use it with the modern separates system, but have no interest in tat either!
What to do?

???