Almost all of the For.A, Hotronic, DPS, and Leitch act identical. And for consumer videotapes, all are junk.
The FA-125 acts different, but only if not abused. It's fiddly to try and DIY recalibrate, and near-impossible if you have nothing to compare it against. Unity is not to-spec.
For a frame TBC made for videotapes, $500 is cheap. So cheap, in fact, that you need to ask what's wrong. Not much different from finding a car for $500, or even $5k for that matter.
The only decent rackmount is the IDen 7, but it's not a fun unit to own (if not already put to-spec). It needs to be modified to remove the fan, and then it always needs calibration. But the calibration controls (and defacto proc amp) are irritatingly fidgety, as the QC was lousy. It's not smooth. And again, you need something already calibrated to calibrate against. And unity is not to-spec here either.
You'll often actually make VHS tapes look worst by using a bad/cheap TBC.
Get a good TBC. Buy it, use it, resell it.
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