ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
I will be moving house shortly and am considering which of my two turntables and amplifiers to use in my new home. Whichever I use will be feeding into a Beosystem 3 and out to Lab 5s.
I could use my present turntable, the Beogram 5500, and my Beomaster 5500 or substitute older seventies components I have: a Beogram 6000 and Beomaster 3400. I will almost certainly audition both in the new home and make a decision, but does anyone hear have any views as to which will sound better?
Also, does anyone know a way to set up the quadraphonic turntable and amplifier to feed quad sound through the Beosystem 3?
Had both of these - the Beogram 6000 is something special and the Beomaster 3400 has the silliest tuning scale ever made. I still use a Beomaster 5500 on a daily basis with my iMac. The problem is the source material - do you have many quad records? They are not that great in many cases. What cartridge do you have on the 6000? It is likely to be getting old and may not track CD4 records anyway.
The sensible decision is the Beogram 5500 and Beomaster 5500 as this has the potential to link into a Beosystem 3. Not easy, but possible. If it was me, I would keep the 6000 though as you will be cleaning the record anyway, make sure you have a spanking new cartridge, maybe even a new Soundsmith The Voice, and then decide whether the 5500 or 3400 floats your boat. I would not bother with quad though!
Have fun.
Peter
Yes, I only have a handful of quadraphonic records, but it would be nice to hear them in quad. No idea what stylus the 6000 came with; I agree that it would need a new one from Soundsmith if I were going to use it. My Beogram 5500 currently has an MMC2.
Quick question: would any of the Soundsmith cartridges play CD4 records? I'm sure they used to have one that would, but I can't see any mention of it on their page. And would it be possible to connect the Beogram 6000 via the Beomaster 3400 into my Beosystem 3 as I currently do with my Beogram 5500 and Beomaster 5500?
The tracking ability is related to the stylus configuration - a line contact or shibata tip is required. Basically it has to be able to track up to 45kHz which sherical and most elliptical tips will not. I have little doubt that most will be fine. This is only for CD4 records - SQ records can be played by any stereo stylus but need a decoder found in the Beomaster 6000. They are not that great in my opinion. CD4 gives four separate channels but if the record has been played with a heavy tracking cartridge, the rear channels are often damaged.
Thanks Peter! I understand that the Beomaster 3400 will decode SQ records too — that's what the "matrix" button is for. In fact, my dealer and I tried the turntable and amplifier out with four passive speakers and got quad sound from an SQ album. The challenge now is how we could get the same through my active speakers (Lab 5s front and Lab 3s rear). Is there a way?