Revox PR-99 (1981–)
A broadcast deck built on the B77's bones, with a raised deck plate and balanced lines that turned a home machine into a studio workhorse.
Overview
Revox introduced the PR99 as the professional answer to a familiar problem. The B77 was a lovely machine, but it was designed for the living room, not the control room. The PR99 kept the B77's proven transport and rebuilt the surrounding details for people who edited tape for a living. The most visible change is the raised deck plate. It lifts the head assembly and guides clear of the surrounding chassis, so a razor blade and a chinagraph pencil have room to work. Anyone who has tried to make a splice on a flush-mounted home deck will get the point right away.
The feature list reads like a broadcast engineer's wish list. Tape dump lets an operator spill tape quickly without threading up a take-up reel. Two-way self-sync with automatic sync/input switching means the machine can flip between playback and record monitoring without a manual toggle mid-session. That saves a take when a punch-in has to be perfect. Balanced line inputs and outputs are standard, and level adjustments can be run calibrated or uncalibrated, depending on whether the session calls for reference tones or a quick-and-dirty level tweak. Manual or remote control operation is supported, including fader start. That is the sort of detail that only shows up on a machine meant to live in a rack next to a console.
The PR99 was offered in two speed configurations: 3¾ and 7½ ips NAB, or 7½ and 15 ips in NAB and IEC versions. Contemporary studio equipment inventories from the period list TAD monitor speakers alongside Revox and Studer decks in professional rooms (Mix, September 1984, p.122). The 7½/15 ips machine is the one most working studios wanted. 15 ips is the practical mastering speed for a quarter-inch two-track, and 7½ gives a useful working speed for rough mixes and reference dubs. Studer's advertising copy of the period described the PR99 as built to "Studer precision" - a phrase that carried real weight in 1981, when the Studer name sat at the top of the professional tape hierarchy and Revox was its accessible sibling brand.
As a used machine today, the PR99 sits between the consumer B77 and the full professional Studer decks. It has the editing ergonomics and balanced I/O of a studio machine, but it shares enough of the B77's parts and service knowledge that it stays approachable for someone who isn't running a commercial facility. The die-cast aluminum transport chassis and head block described in the MKIII literature are the sort of construction that has kept these decks running for decades. The modular electronics are accessible for the routine servicing that any tape machine of this age will eventually need.
Collectors and studio owners report that the PR99 turns up in two forms on the secondary market: machines that lived in radio stations and show the wear of daily broadcast use, and machines that sat in project studios and were used more gently. The broadcast machines are often mechanically sound but cosmetically tired. The studio machines can be the opposite. Prices reflect this split, and buyers are advised to check the head wear and the condition of the pinch roller before committing, since those are the parts that determine whether a deck is a bargain or a project. Period listings show the PR99 trading alongside much larger Studer and MCI machines.
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