One engineer, two names: Studer for studios, Revox for homes.

Studer is the professional half of Willi Studer’s company; Revox was the name he gave its home equipment. Willi Studer (1912–1996), born Wilhelm Mosimann in Zurich and raised by foster parents whose surname he took in 1927, was largely self-taught in radio electronics, the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland says. Before founding his own firm he had run a short-lived radio maker in Lotzwil and co-founded the instrument maker Metrohm in 1943, German Wikipedia says.

On 5 January 1948 he registered a sole proprietorship, “Willi Studer, Fabrik für elektronische Apparate,” in Herisau, and that September moved it to Zurich, where it made high-voltage oscilloscopes, German Wikipedia says; the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland places the 1948 firm in Neu-Affoltern, in the city of Zurich, and English Wikipedia simply says Zurich. Tape recorders followed in 1949, when a Zurich importer asked Studer to make an American recorder work properly; his own Dynavox machine reached the shops before Christmas that year, German Wikipedia says. From 1951 his consumer machines were sold as Revox, and the first Studer studio machine, the A27, appeared the same year.

The company built its first plant at Regensdorf, north of Zurich, by 1960, and it became the headquarters. Management, development and the production of all the studio equipment were based there, German Wikipedia says, while from 1966 Revox recorders were also made at Löffingen in Germany’s Black Forest. By 1986 the Studer-Revox group had about 2,000 employees and annual sales of 220 million Swiss francs, according to the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.

The J37, the A80 and the A800.

Studer’s reputation rests on the tape machines and mixing desks used by recording studios and broadcasters. The best-known is the J37 of 1964, a four-track valve recorder using one-inch tape: two of them at EMI’s studios on Abbey Road in London were used by the Beatles from 1967, including for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, German and English Wikipedia say. Studer’s own website still tells that story.

The A80, introduced in 1970 and built until 1988, was Studer’s longest-running and best-selling tape machine, German Wikipedia says; a 24-track version followed in 1973, and Britain’s Science Museum Group holds one in its collection. The A800 multitrack of 1978 — in 2024 Australia’s Mixdown magazine said many consider it “the pinnacle of analogue tape machines” — was followed by the A820 in 1984. Studer also built mixing consoles, from the Studer 69 of 1958 to the 089 and 289, and, as studios turned digital, D820 recorders using the DASH stationary-head format; the multitrack D820MCH of 1989 was, German Wikipedia says, the last machine Willi Studer worked on, at the age of 77.

Recognition went mainly to the founder. ETH Zurich awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1978, according to both German Wikipedia and the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, which also records a Silver Medal from the Audio Engineering Society in 1976; German Wikipedia lists other AES honours, including a gold medal in 1982. After he left, Studer moved into digital consoles: the D950 of 1998 was its first large digital desk, and the Vista series of 2003 introduced the Vistonics “knobs-on-glass” controls, English Wikipedia says.

Swiss audio in context.

In the decades after the Second World War, Europe’s radio, television and hi-fi makers were household names. By the 1970s several were losing money. Norwegian Wikipedia says Tandberg faced strong competition from Japanese and other Asian producers and made losses from 1976; German Wikipedia ties Dual’s decline to Japanese competition, and English Wikipedia describes Far East competition in Lenco’s.

Some names were absorbed by larger groups. The French Thomson group took over SABA in 1980, after GTE left consumer electronics, then Dual in 1982 and Telefunken’s television and radio business in 1983–84. Philips took a 31.6 per cent stake in Grundig, with management control, in 1984.

Others failed. Lenco went bankrupt at the end of the 1970s, Tandberg in December 1978 and Dual in 1981; Grundig filed for insolvency in April 2003. Studer, a maker of studio equipment, took another path: Willi Studer sold it in 1990, and it passed to Harman in 1994.

Many of the names lived on as brands rather than factories. Grundig belongs to Turkey’s Arçelik; the Telefunken brand, licensed through Telefunken Licenses GmbH in Frankfurt, was bought by Gordon Brothers in 2023; SABA is a licensing brand of Talisman Brands; the Dual name in Europe belongs to Dual GmbH of Fuchstal, in Bavaria; Lenco to the Dutch Commaxx group; Studer to Canada’s Evertz; and the Tandberg video-conferencing company to Cisco.

This guide sets out what can be checked about each brand — who founded it, who owns it, and what it says about where its products are made — and marks clearly what rests only on the company’s own word.

From Motor-Columbus to Harman to Evertz.

Willi Studer decided in 1989 to step back and, German Wikipedia says, turned down approaches from Philips and Sony; the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland records that in 1990 he sold the company to the Motor-Columbus group. The new owner split it into Studer, Revox and manufacturing divisions in 1991, English Wikipedia says, and German Wikipedia describes heavy job cuts. In March 1994 the professional business went to Harman International; English Wikipedia says Harman paid 100 Swiss francs for Studer-Revox AG and took on about 23 million francs of debt, while Revox was sold separately to private investors. Willi Studer died on 1 March 1996.

Under Harman, the work moved away from Switzerland in stages. English Wikipedia says manufacturing and support went to Hungary and to Potters Bar in England, home of Harman’s Soundcraft, and that the Swiss entity in Regensdorf was closed in March 2018. On 11 January 2021 Evertz Technologies, the Canadian broadcast-equipment maker based in Burlington, Ontario, announced that it would buy “the Studer brand, technology and related assets” from Harman, and it completed the purchase on 9 February 2021, its press release says; no price was given. Today Studer’s website is part of Evertz’s, describing Studer as “an iconic audio brand for more than 70 years” and offering the Vista and micro console series. English Wikipedia says Evertz builds the Vista consoles in Burlington, but that statement carries no source, so we leave it open. Revox is now a separate company.

For a design guide, Studer shows how a professional brand is defined by the rooms it works in. Compare Revox, its consumer sibling, and Nagra, another Swiss maker of professional recorders. For this guide we use a studio grey, a tape silver and a red with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Studer’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.