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
After some time there is a listing on Ebay for Beolit 39/40 again:
Beolit
As we all know, it is a quite rare item and very collectable and desired object for B&O collectors
What I can see in the listing with my Beovintage eyes: beside the little crack in bakelite case on the side and not very successful attempt of repaint /re-lettering the scale, it does not look very bad to me. I already saw better ones but honestly, most of the listed Beolit 39/40s were much more damaged as this is. At least the white speaker grid is complete (not offten to be seen) and the knobs are all here still.
Unfortunately we can not know much about inside of the device as the seller didn't write much about it. But nevertheless, it says "Functioning"!
I would be happy to hear your opinion about this specimen.
Theomaster
Vintage Bang & Olufsen
I have bought an old radio to him. badly packed, arrived damaged.
good com, attractiv products but I wouldn't trust him more than 60%.
4 beolab 5, beolab 9, beolab 10, beolab 5000, beolab 8000 mk2, beolab 6002, beolab 3500, beovision 7 55 mk2, 2 beovision 11 46 mk4, beotime, beosound ouverture, beosound essence, beoplay A8, beomaster 900 RG de luxe and the collection continues...
Hi,
Just take time to have a close look at all the pictures and you'll find almost all the answers to your questions.
The only thing the pictures are not showing is, whether or not the set is functioning.
Rudy
Apparently a Beolit 40 with a Beolit 39 power plug at the rear.
Not a Beolit 39 but close and still a nice radio though the same description has been used previously somewhere else, and that doesn't make it any better:
'This model is the first radio, which has a cabinet made of bakelite'.- Not true. There were hundreds before it. It wasn't even the first radio from B&O with a bakelite cabinet. The Beolit 39 holds that titlethough the cabinets were identical.B&O produced several bakelite items from 1936 (maybe even earlier) - just not any radios.
'The mold got lost under a bombing of the factory during the war'.- That is not confirmed.The huge press that was used together with the mold to form the cabinets was most likely damaged to some extent during thewar (photos from the time shows it standing tall in the middle of the fallen building, but the press was used again in 1947/48 forthe Beolit 48 so it wasn't lost.The mold itself was most likely worn out and discarded at the end of the Beolit 39/40 production.However, it is of little importance since production already stopped in 1940 and the factorybombing wasn't until january 1945.
'The production was first resumed in the 50s'.- Not true. The Beolit 39/40 production was never resumed.A different bakelite model (Beolit 48) and an external speaker in a similar cabinet, was produced after the war, but it was before the 50s.A somewhat Beolit 39/40-inspired model was produced from late 1949, namely the JET 505, but it was mirrored, it had aconsiderably different looking cabinet, an all new chassis with completely new electronics and was housed in plywood rather than bakelite.
Of course, none of this makes it a particularly bad set - merely a bad description.
Martin
Hi Martin,
I agree, it's a Beolit 40 with the back cover of a Beolit 39.
Inside is a Beolit 40 chassis.
It has the red ECH 4 mixer tube and also the 4 wholes drilled in the back of the chassis.
A Beolit 39 has a CCH2 tube in stead of the ECH 4 and the chassis has no holes drilled in the back.
When you have a close look at the pictures, you can see a difference in color. The Beolit 40 cabinet, brown/black bakelite),the Beolit 39 backcover in black bakelite.
The dial glass has some signs of age . Most sets have this problem.
One of the knobs, the one on the right is damaged.
The crack worries me a bit. These cracks occur when tension builds up on the screws which hold the chassis (in this case) or the loudspeaker due to fluctuation in temperature. When shipped, the cracks can become worse due to vibrations during transport. Ideal would be to pick up the set in person or when shipped, to remove the chassis and speaker and pack all 3 parts separately.
The speaker grill has only one small crack. Nothing serious.
I have seen many sets in much worse condition.
The pictures are giving a very good idea of the condition the radio is in.
Thanks a lot Martin and Rudy for your information.
@olisab
Yes, I also know this seller, I bought already few items from him in the past. The packaging was good but not perfect. Nevertheless I had luck to get the items undamaged. Of course, as Rudy suggested, with bakelit Beolit 40 the perfect packaging would be needed ...
@Martin
It was interesting to hear those details about the WW2 and bombing the B&O factory. I heard already some stories about that but not so detailed about the press and mold. Thanks for that info.
@Rudy
I also didn't realize till now that the Beolit 39 and Beolit 40 were actually not the same devices. I thought it was only update of the model name according to the production year. Now I know that the other tubes were used in BL40 as in the BL39. Do they share exactly the same bakelite case? Was the color of the bakelite also different (if I understood you right, BL39 was black and BL40 brown/black)?
I know, those Beolits are really rare and not easy to get but I think I will pass this one...
Regards
I've searched for pictures to show you the difference in color.
The first is a Beolit 40.
The second is a Beolit 39.
The Beolit 40 was a kind of MKII version. The ECH4 was a newer better replacement of the CCH2.
I think Martin is in a better position to explain the technical l differences between the two tubes.
I wouldn't be to sure about the cabinet colors. I never saw a Beolit 39 in speckled brown (not counting a fewprototypes and/or custom ones that looked nothing like the one Rudy shows) but I have seen a couple of Beolit 40s in black cabinets.The differences between the ECH3 and CCH2 valves are minor, it's mainly down to the heater voltage.This means, that the Beolit 40 had to have an extra dropper resistor in the series heater chainto eat the excess voltage and a couple of other minute modifications around the valve to set the operatingconditions right.The IF valve was different too (EF5 in Beolit 39 and EF9 in Beolit 40), not that it's a huge deal though asthey are even closer to being identical.CCH2 was never a particularly good valve, at least that's my opinion and experience.It's practically impossible to find a usable one today.I remember doing a Beolit 39 restoration thread a couple of years ago, where I had to replacethe CCH2 frontend triode/heptode valve with a ECH3 because it was bad (surprise not!) and introduce aseries dropper resistor simply because a good CCH2 couldn't be found.Things went fast back then and many valves were one-year-only products.ECH3 was released in January/February 1939 and replaced by ECH4 not even a year later, so couldas Rudy suggests, have been fitted to the latest Beolit 40 production individuals - or at least usedby repairers as replacements (perhaps with minor modification to the heater current).Beolit 40 is definitely collectable and certainly up there among collectors but it's not a Beolit 39.Martin