Studer Model 169
A modular broadcast and recording console that ended up on some of the most important audiophile records of the late 1970s.
Overview
The Model 169 never got a glossy consumer brochure, because it was never meant for consumers. It was a professional mixing console, part of the same modular console family as the Model 269 series and, later, the Model 369. When Studer announced the 369 in mid-1979, the company called it a complement to "the existing Model 169 and Model 269 series," so the 169 was already an established part of the lineup by then. Studio Sound (July 1979, p.34) carried that announcement, noting the 369's 32 inputs and four master outputs with PPMs. That places the 169 as a smaller sibling in a deliberately modular range.
The 169 turns up in some high-profile sessions. Telarc's earliest digital recordings were made with Dr. Thomas Stockham's Soundstream system, the 50kHz/16-bit recorder that was well ahead of its time, and they were cut using a Studer Model 169 console. So the 169 was the front end for recordings that helped make the case for digital audio, at a moment when a lot of audiophiles were still fiercely loyal to analog. Telarc later moved to a Neotek console by the time of the 1980 Stravinsky Le Sacre du Printemps sessions with Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra, so the 169 era at Telarc was a short, early window.
The 169 also shows up in orchestral work of a different kind. Engineer John Newton is described running up to a dozen Schoeps Colette CMC-series omnis through his Studer Model 169 console for Boston Pops sessions. That was accent miking rather than multitrack-and-post-mix, with the orchestra taped direct to two-track or occasionally four-track. It was used as a classical and acoustic-music desk, not a 48-channel rock console, where a handful of high-quality inputs and a clean signal path mattered more than channel count.
Studer's own 1979 news also places the 169 in international broadcast and studio installations. The company reported delivering a Model 169 console as part of a package for two multitrack studios in Peking, alongside a Model 189 18/8 console, an A80/VU 8-track with autolocate, and B67 stereo recorders. The same announcement described a large turnkey project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where "several Model 169 consoles" were supplied as part of a master control room and multiple studio build-out. These were broadcast and institutional facilities that needed a reliable, modular desk.
Collectors and studio people tend to run into the 169 today through the tape machines it was paired with, the A80 family especially, rather than as a standalone object of desire. The Telarc/Soundstream connection gives it a small but real place in the history of the digital transition.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.