I have done lots of jerky in all the methods you described. For whole muscle meat jerky the dehydrator works great and you can stick in the garage or basement when cooking. Mine are the american harvester available from wally world, they are anything but expensive but very effective for this purpose. For ground jerky I prefer the smoker, reason being is extra flavour really. Never did like oven done jerky, tried several adaptations never achieved great results.

I have 2 propane smokers one a large stand up/home builtfor doing large quantites of sausage. The second is a small unit that is similar 50 lbs of meat(mine is a smokey mountain model), I have found it will do about 10lbs of jerky as I like to make sure their is space around the meat on the racks. I have done game roasts, ribs, steaks, fish, whole chickens/turkeys/geese/ducks, smoked eggs, jerky and sausage in the smaller unit with awesome results. Mine will cook approx 24 on a 20lb tank of propane. IMHO a smoker is a must for anybody who likes to cook and mix things up a little. Truthfully I have yet to have a complaint from anything I have smoked, in fact I get asked to bring something smoked the potluck dinners or parties we attend.

One caution though when doing jerky keep your eye on the meat and you may have to pull some out in stages. A thin line between under and overcooked when it comes to jerky. You want it to be cooked, but not brittle or hard.