Revox PR-99
A broadcast workhorse that spent its life in racks and terminal rooms, not on hi-fi shelves — and the used market still prices it that way.
Overview
The PR-99 is the machine broadcasters bought when they wanted Studer engineering without Studer money. Revox's own advertising for the deck leaned hard on exactly that pitch, describing Studer reliability and Revox economy as being built into the same chassis — a claim the rest of the spec sheet backs up with genuinely professional appointments rather than consumer conveniences. Balanced inputs and outputs with XLR-type connectors, calibrated or uncalibrated level settings, and ASA-VU metering with LED peak indicators put it in a different conversation than the typical home reel deck.
The transport is the part that matters. The PR-99 uses a Studer-designed transport with a die-cast head assembly block and tension arms, and the advertising copy promised instant, smooth start-up and outstanding tape handling as a result. The chassis itself is rugged die-cast, built for rack or console mounting rather than sitting on a credenza. Reel capacity is 10.5 inches, and tape speeds are selectable at 3.75, 7.5 or 15 ips, with a vari-speed remote control offered as an option.
Editing was clearly designed in from the start rather than bolted on. The machine offers dump editing, full head access, and two-way self-sync — the last of which is the sort of feature that separates a production deck from a playback deck, since it lets an engineer overdub against a previously recorded track without a second machine.
What the PR-99 actually did for a living is best seen in the station installs it populated. In one FM facility's on-air control room, two PR-99s sat in custom cabinetry alongside the console, turntables and CD player. A New York station's terminal room held ten of them for downlink recording and distribution, plus separate machines for recording feeds from remote units. Another station used PR-99s to record commercials and promos in its two-channel production room. And in a fourth studio at a remote chapel location, a single PR-99 handled reel-to-reel duties next to a Revox A700.
The used market tells its own story about how these were treated. Broadcast trade listings from the late 1980s and early '90s show PR-99 Mark II stereo reproducers new and still in the box at $1,950 each F.O.B., good-condition playback decks pulled from service at $1,000 each when a station switched to DC players, and record/play units at $1,700. That spread — roughly half price for a deck with a working life behind it — is the honest shape of the market. These are ex-broadcast machines, and buyers should assume they've been racked, run hard, and pulled when a format or a facility changed.
Collectors note that the PR-99 shows up in studio equipment inventories as a two-track alongside far more expensive tape machines, which is roughly where it belongs: not a showpiece, but a deck that earned its rack space. Contemporary studio listings bear this out — a Southern California facility's gear inventory from the late 1980s listed a Revox PR-99 among its two-track machines, according to Mix (September 1987, p.184).
Buyers should expect to inspect heads and transport condition carefully, since the surviving stock is overwhelmingly decommissioned station gear rather than carefully stored home equipment.Similar items on eBay
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