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
New though I am to the delights of vintage B&O, I continue to suffer an itch for more that resists scratching. To that end I've been cruising the popular auction site for a BM 8000 to use with my most excellent Beogram 8002. In scanning the ads they all need repair, not surprising given their age and complexity, but finding one that is close to functional shouldn't be too hard, right?
Well time will tell since I won a mystery 8000 last night. Seller specializes in clothing, stuff for teens apparently, and knows next to nothing about audio. He made some silly claim in his ad about "this may work great or may have some minor problems, in excellent pre-owned condition" and "I don't have the right equipments to test this unit but when I plug it in the outlet it lights up" which doesn't tell us much. The auction pictures were very good though and the unit appears immaculate, in far better shape than any of the other used units I've looked at.
I sent the seller a note shortly before the end of the auction to try to get some idea of the receiver's functioning. Could he maybe just plug in some headphones and see if there's a signal on FM? Here's his sort-of comprehensible reply:
"I used a regular headphone not the one required with the star input, I head a sound when turning the frequency know and the signal multipath pin was moving and a lot of light lid up on the screen. I hope this helps as you can see from what I sell I really don't know much about electronics."
Points to him for responding, and agreeing to test it further. There is no way to tell the condition of the receiver save for holding my breath and buying it. So I did. The price I paid was pretty OK I think. If it is close to working.
I know enough to know I shouldn't try to fix this myself. I am fortunate to have a B&O certified tech I trust close-by (who has an impressive cache of B&O parts too), but costs to repair may get out of hand fast if I'm not lucky.
I'll post again, with pictures, when I receive the unit.
Chris
Good luck with your purchase. The 8000 is a great unit when everything is working properly, but chances are that it will have some issues if it has never been attended to in its lifetime before.
Let's see some pictures when you get it :)