Sony APR-24
Four hundred pounds of two-inch analog tape machine, built to outlive the engineers who bought it.
Overview
The weight comes first: the APR-24 and its Remote Control Unit together come to 400 lbs (181 kg). You don't argue with that figure, you plan around it, ideally with a forklift and a floor that can take it. Collectors who own one tend to describe the transport as the reason they keep it.
Sony's advertising in Recording-Engineer (March 1989, p.25) billed the deck around a synchronization system that accepts video reference, LTC, and VITC signals. That was aimed squarely at post-production work. The same campaign pointed to a "rock solid" casting in the transport, long-life amorphous heads, and microprocessor-assisted alignment as standard on every machine. Those are marketing claims, not bench measurements, but they line up with what the service documentation treats as routine. This machine is designed to be aligned and re-aligned, not babied.
Power draw is the other number that sorts the real owners from the tire-kickers. The manual lists power consumption at 1200 watts, with fuse ratings that vary by operating voltage: 100V/15A, 110-120V/12A, 200V/8A, and 220-240V/6A. The deck can be wired for any of six nominal mains levels: 100, 110, 120, 200, 220, and 240 volts. You reconfigure the power-supply connector strip and install an appropriately rated fuse to match. Sony sold the machine into studios across several continents, and this is why a forty-year-old deck is still usable outside its country of origin.
The remote is part of the package. Its cable is ten meters (32.8 feet) as supplied, with a maximum recommended run of twenty meters (65.6 feet), so plan the control-room layout around that. There is also an MB-24U rack-mount accessory that lets the Remote Control Unit sit in a standard 19-inch rack panel or cabinet. Time code is generated internally at SMPTE 2400 bps or EBU 2000 bps, with an internal generator accuracy of ±50 ppm (±0.005%).
The manual is dry about it, but the APR-24 asks for patience. Punch-in and punch-out behavior is adjustable through Erase and Bias Ramp Durations, and the documentation spells out the trade-offs. Faster ramps suit musically tight, time-critical punches but produce a more pronounced low-frequency artifact. Slower ramps suit simultaneous multi-channel punches and edits amid low-level signals or silence, at the cost of higher distortion at the punch points. Sony's own guidance is blunt: unless there is a specific need, leave the defaults alone, because spacing the two ramps far apart can cause holes and overlap in the program material. Owners report that this machine punishes fiddling.
There is a known factory issue for anyone shopping. A 1989 technical bulletin (89-094) addressed excessive punch-in/punch-out noise on early units, with a modification to the MST board and all CNL boards. Units from serial 10,106 and higher left the factory already modified. A second bulletin from the same period (89-090) concerns PAL usage in current APR models, applicable to serials 10,001 and higher.
Routine maintenance, per the manual, covers hours-meter replacement, cleaning, demagnetising, lubrication, and inspection or replacement procedures. The mechanical adjustments (tape path, lifters, pinch roller, reel motor brakes, shields) are only meant to be touched when a part is replaced or a problem turns up during inspection. The cosmetic top panel has to come off first.
Sony's later advertising, in Recording-Engineer (July 1991, p.11), made the pitch explicitly forward-looking: in a couple of years it would become even clearer why the buyer chose it. It emphasized reliability alongside the built-in synchronizer and automated transport, alignment, signal-routing, and timecode functions.
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