I once followed a few threads on Doom9 about this, I'll try to summarise what I remember:
1. Don't consider anything other than JVC or Panasonic.
2. Professional edit decks have better tape transport build quality, so should give better results than even top of the range consumer decks.
3. SVHS decks with s-video outputs do offer an advantage, because even on standard VHS the chroma and luma are separate.
(However, there is some dispute that the VHS-only professional units may have bigger tape heads that are more suited to VHS playback than SVHS decks)
4. A time base corrector is essential, either built-in to the deck or as a separate unit.
This is the deck I use.