JVC VHS Hi-FI Stereo machine choice

[mrmarbach]

Hi have a box of sound-only tapes made on a JVC VHS Hi-Fi Stereo machine in the late 1980s which I need to transcribe to digital. The machine in question is long dead and gone.

I was thinking of picking up a machine on ebay and having a go. I thought I should stick with JVC. Can someone give me guidance as to which models would be most suitable for the best sound?

For example should I be looking at HR-S, HR-J or HR-V series? (There seem to be a lot of HR-S6xxx around. And some very expensive HR-S7xxx and HR-S8xxx.)

What will be most likely to work?
What will produce the best sound?
And are the higher numbers always better?

It's been decades since I played with a VHS machine. Are there machines that automatically align for Hi Fi Stereo? Or is that the same as auto-tracking (which I guess is common?).

TIA

[hech54]

I doubt you would need a high end machine just for analog stereo audio. Unless you know for certain that you recorded these in some JVC ONLY, SLP Super Long Play machine....any old stereo VHS machine would do the trick.