I've always found the folks at DigitalFAQ.com to be helpful. For example, here's [1] a thread about the best VHS players to buy.

I'm interested that you're trying to recover the audio only, and from an S-VHS tape. Both VHS and S-VHS could do Hi-Fi audio, and the former was cheaper, so are you sure it's not just regular VHS tape you have? (Alternatively, some professional S-VHS decks recorded PCM audio, which you'll need special hardware to play back).

In any case, as the thread on DigitalFAQ attests to, many of the best VHS machines for recovering tapes are S-VHS models, so if you don't mind the higher prices, getting a good quality S-VHS deck is a good way to go if you plan on doing more recovery in the future.

[1] http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-restore/1567-vcr-buyin...