I just bought a reel to reel, after all these years of telling everyone how stupid they are if they do it!

Personally I'd stick with Revox but always check the Rifa caps before switching on for the first time. If you want something guaranteed to work then you probably need to go to a dealer because just about any machine could have something wrong with it. At least the issues with Revoxes are well known, spares are available (though sometimes at a price) and they're easy to work on.
 
I had not realized Rob that you had the Revox PR99? This is perhaps THE most desirable version of the deck and there was an interesting feature about it in Sound on Sound a few months ago.
If it wasn't too expensive, might have been worth further investigation?

Dave.
 
The seller tells me he'd never plugged it in but has some others. I told him that if he has a working one that doesn't go up in smoke I may still be interested. I'm waiting till ebay give me the money back first.
 
There's an ASC PR99 near you currently at £495 on Ebay so you could probably pop round and check it out before bidding. It is shown powered up but is collection only so wouldn't attract as many buyers as one that could be posted. Reel to reel prices have gone up dramatically so that's a very reasonable price if it doesn't go too much higher.
 
Well - my bid was way, way beaten - it just went for £817 - which is crazy. I'm going to try a Frenkenstein Revox A77 - there's a guy selling one in Northern Ireland who has a weird one. Says it is a mk2 but it has very odd meters and what looks like a few mk4 parts - but is two track and High Speed. We will see.
 
If it is a high speed Mk2 you need to check it very carefully. As far as I know there were no factory built high speed A77s made at that time so it will have been converted by a third party. The larger capstan diameter affects the head wrap on the A77 so the capstan motor has to be moved back to compensate. Some people just changed the capstan without moving the motor which means that the tape doesn't make good contact with the play head on these machines. The one on Ebay looks a right Frankenstein with meters from a completely different machine and the back is missing so they've just slapped on a piece of hardboard. It would probably be fine if it stays at the current price but I wouldn't pay much for it - especially as there are no pictures of the heads.
 
Yes - the speed control section has a sticker over the original in German? A bit of a Mk2/3/4. I put in just the bid you can see and that will be it! If it works for that pric e it's a win. The metering section is a real bodge!
 
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