B
Beck
Guest
Actually, a three head deck will have a slight advantage in playback because the dedicated play head doesn't have to be compromised like a combo record/play head. The gap can be optimized for playback.
When manufacturers of cassette decks first started offering models with 3-heads this may have been the case, but advances in head design (particularly by Tascam) made this a non-issue long ago. Same for the latest open reel decks. The distinction between record and repro heads became insignificant. But that's because the record heads became that much better... equal to and even surpassing performance of older repro heads.