Revox PR-99 (1979–1993)

A die-cast Swiss workhorse that studios bought by the dozen and engineers still trust with a master tape.

Overview

The machine on this page is the Revox PR-99, not a Gates product. The breadcrumb above is a filing artifact from the archive's Gates shelf. Every source excerpt that names this recorder attributes it to Studer Revox, designed and built in Switzerland and West Germany, per the company's own 1984 advertising. It is the two-track quarter-inch deck that sat in the machine room of nearly every serious studio of the early 1980s.

The PR-99 was pitched as a budget-priced professional recorder. Studer's own advertising called it "the world's most versatile and dependable budget-priced recorder." It still had a die-cast aluminum chassis and headblock, balanced and floating +4 inputs and outputs, self-sync, input mode switching, and front-panel microphone inputs. Real studio interfacing at a price small rooms could absorb is why the PR-99 shows up again and again in period studio inventories. Mix (June 1987, p.165) listed one in a professional room's rack alongside Crown D-75 amplifiers and JBL monitors. Mix (September 1987, p.184) found another in a facility running Lexicon 224 and Prime Time delays. Studio Sound (June 1993, p.95) documented a studio using a PR-99 two-track next to an Otari MX-80, a Tascam MS-16, and an Alesis ADAT. It was the reference deck in rooms of every size, the machine you bounced to and printed the mix on.

The MKII revision, announced in 1984, is the version most collectors encounter. It added a microprocessor-controlled real-time counter reading from −9.59.59 to +29.59.59 with less than 0.5% error, address locate, zero locate, auto repeat, and a front-panel varispeed control spanning −33% to +50%. That is roughly a half-octave of pitch adjustment, spread across the center range for fine tuning. Mix (August 1984, p.184) reported the MKII's suggested list price at $2,250. A serial data port gave direct access to all the microprocessor-controlled functions, which was unusual at this price point. The MKII kept everything from the original: the die-cast chassis and headblock, the balanced +4 I/O, self-sync, and the front-panel mic inputs.

Three marks are documented in the UK trade press of the period. Studio Sound (October 1990, p.?) advertised a PR99 Mk Two at £1,200, a Mk One with new heads at £900, and a Mk Three new in stock at £1,800, all plus VAT. A year later, Studio Sound (September 1991) listed a PR99 Mk Three IEC at £2,000 plus VAT, and a summer clearance in the same issue moved a PR99 Mk3 at £595. A 1990 dealer offer quoted the PR99 at £1,499. New stock commanded four figures while used examples traded for hundreds.

The PR-99 is a quarter-inch two-track in the classic Revox mold, and the MKIII was catalogued across a wide range of formats on quarter-inch tape, per Studio Sound's 1991 analogue tape machine survey. The die-cast headblock holds its geometry, which is why so many PR-99s are still in service decades later. The balanced +4 I/O and self-sync made it a natural companion to a console. The varispeed and locate functions on the MKII turned a straightforward transport into a production tool, and auto repeat between two memory points alone saves an enormous amount of time when auditioning a mix.

Collectors note that the PR-99 occupies an odd spot in the Revox hierarchy. It sits above the consumer B77 in build and interfacing, but below the Studer C270 two-track master recorder, and the used market has always reflected that. The B77 is the deck people buy to play with. The PR-99 is the deck people buy when they actually intend to record. Parts and service support have thinned as the Studer-Revox organization has changed hands over the decades, so buyers should expect to source heads and rubber from specialist suppliers rather than the factory. The die-cast construction means the mechanicals survive. The electronics are the usual Revox story of capacitors and connectors that want attention after forty years.

What the PR-99 does not have is romance. It is not a sculpted object; it is a working instrument with a plain face and a transport that means business. But put a well-aligned PR-99 next to a tape and it will tell you the truth about what's on it, and that is the whole point of a two-track. The deck earned its place in the machine rooms of the 1980s one session at a time, and the ones still running today are running because someone kept them aligned. That is the highest compliment a tape machine can receive.

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Related Models

• Gates Revox PR-99
• Braun TG-1000 (1970–1975)
• Teac X-1000 (1981–1986)
• Teac X-1000M (circa 1982)
• Teac X-1000R (1981–1986)
• Teac X-10R
• Teac X-2000
• Teac X-20R (1978)
• Teac X-300 (circa 1983)
• Akai GX-270D (1978)