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
Ok, I thought I had written something like this before, but I couldn't find the post. So here goes:
http://www.dinside.no/bolig/na-er-det-lp-hylla-som-gjelder/67403856
This is just an example article. And you don't need to read it to have noticed that LPs are all the rage again, and it doesn't seem to be a passing trend. Sales of LP players are also soaring, and have been for some years now.
I don't currently own an LP player, but I want one. B&O products are usually excellent quality and timeless design, so buying a used 70's or 80's Beogram and putting it in my living room wouldn't put my Beosound Moment and Beolab 18/19-combo to shame. Quite the contrary, I think that for instance the Beogram 4000 and the Beosound Moment has quite a lot in common, design-wise. They would look fantastic next to each other, I think.
But how about a re-release of that ultimate classic? I imagine a Beogram LP player that is as good as identical to the Beogram 4000 on the outside, but stuffed with some nice new technology on the inside: WiSA, so you could play wirelessly directly to your new Beolabs. Beolink Multiroom, so you could stream the LP to another room. Fully remote controllable via the new B&O app. And maybe the only visible design tweak from the original could be that the small meter/display above the buttons could be replaced by an OLED display.
So what do you say, Santa? Pretty please?
Just an off thought: The 50 years' anniversary of the Beogram 4000 is in five years, isn't it? That would seem a fitting occasion. On the other hand, I really would hope to see something before that.
What do you think? Any other ideas for features?
-h.
Maybe you should suggest this to the Create team and see what they come up with! The problem with LPs is that they need proper cleaning and need turning over half way through. Add in the fact that unless you have a tangential arm that really works, the centre tracks have a fair degree of distortion and you are reliant on an accurate RIAA curve and it makes decent digital files seem very attractive - and this is from a multiple Beogram owner!
Peter
Peter: The problem with LPs is that they need proper cleaning and need turning over half way through.
The problem with LPs is that they need proper cleaning and need turning over half way through.
Maybe they can make a multiroom capable app for that too ;-))
And yes - I, too, have a vinyl player, a BeoGram LP4500.
MM
There is a tv - and there is a BV
Yes, there are probably more obstacles in the way than I can come up with. And even if it wasn't, I've never thought of B&O as a very nostalgic company. Timeless and classic, yes, but nostalgic, no. I don't really see them doing a remake of old technology just because. It would be somehow out of character, I think.
But since I'm already way out in what-if-land, let's keep going:
The turning half way through could probably be solved, I suppose. Somebody posted this on the forum recently:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/865809794/wheel-by-miniot/description
I thought the idea of having the arm beneath the LP was neat when I first saw it, but it just hit me now, when you mentioned turning half way through: a combination of two arms, a "traditional Beogram style" tangential one above the LP and one designed like the arm on the Miniot Wheel beneath it, could work in tandem, one taking over when the other one reaches the end. They would have to be electronically controlled, of course, with good sensors monitoring the grooves. This would also enable "repeat all" mode. Does anybody know if this has ever been attempted in an LP player?
There is of course a lot more hassle with LPs, cleaning and all like you say. But this hasn't stopped them from seeing a huge popularity boom the last five or so years!
B&O Create team, are you getting this?
Why the fuss with creating a vinyl master, pressing copies (not all of these good), creating, manufactoring and maintaining a complicated Gyro Gearloose/Petter Smart machine for playback, when you can playback the PCM/FLAC file on any halfway good media player?
If you really want vinyl in a modern B&O context, just connect a good tangential BeoGram to the line-in of an BS Essence or the BS Moment....and jump up to flip the disc every 20 minute.
Peter: Maybe you should suggest this to the Create team and see what they come up with! The problem with LPs is that they need proper cleaning and need turning over half way through. Add in the fact that unless you have a tangential arm that really works, the centre tracks have a fair degree of distortion and you are reliant on an accurate RIAA curve and it makes decent digital files seem very attractive - and this is from a multiple Beogram owner!
The problem is inner groove distortion is cooked into the cake that is LP due to the fact everything is bunched up due to the slower linear speed of the groove there. A regular radial arm does tend to exacerbate it though, as in addition it adds problems with the angle of the stylus not being perpendicular to the groove wall.
I will, now and then, get nostalgic and start playing LPs for a while, but it doesn't take too long before the whole cleaning ritual, short time between changing sides, noise, etc. makes me remember why I enjoy the modern approach again.
Jeff
I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus.
Livingroom: BL3, BL11, BV11-46 Kitchen: Beosound 1 GVA, Beocom 2 Bathroom: M3 Homeoffice: M3, Beocom 2 Library: Beosound Emerge, Beocom 6000 Bedroom: M5, Essence remote Travel: Beoplay E8 2.0, Beoplay EQ, Beoplay Earset
How you have connected it to moment?
peterafox:The double arm LP player is not new. My parents used to have a Sharp system with double arms which could do repeat, random and even skip tracks by detecting the breaks on the LP surface. And this was early 80's.
Awesome. Never knew such a thing existed. Something like this, then?
https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/gallery/image_page.php?album_id=1476&image_id=21593&sk=t&sd=d&st=0
Being able to play both sides seems like such an advantage that I'm surprised the design wasn't adopted by more. Do you remember if there were any specific downsides to the design?
akoitidis: How you have connected it to moment?
RIAA and phono cables from Soundsheavenly connected to Line-in.
Moment senses when I press "play" on the Beogram and "automagically" switch to Line-in.
...and that also works from a linked device/room.
Henrik,
Here is another interesting turntable called Mag-Lev. The innovation in vinyl LPs and turntables does not seem to be a passing fancy at least for now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky0D00iyHAA
This turntable looks like more fun. It has bluetooth and an app.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/493608538/love-the-worlds-first-intelligent-turntable
I remember them well - they also did a music centre version - they were not very good - no record support!
What about just combining a Beomaster 5500 / 6500 / 7000 and a Beogram in the same series?With a 1611 converter and a NL/ML converter you have a multiroom, remote controlled Record Player.
If B&O released a "Datalink > NL gadget" you could eliminate the Beomaster, the 1611 and the NL/ML converter.