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 have a pair of Japanese market 110V Beolab 8000's that I bought very cheaply - £100! - at the moment I am using them with a stepdown transformer on each - but these are bulky and use more power in standby (I would imagine). I read or heard somewhere that it is simple to convert the 8000's to 240V - has anyone done this - I can't find it in the service manual.
yes ..it's possible on the trafo pcb board, just change seting jumpers.
Andrew: I read or heard somewhere that it is simple to convert the 8000's to 240V - has anyone done this - I can't find it in the service manual.
Which service manual are you looking at? Pages 17-2 and 17-3 very early in the manual on site. You will need to cut some traces and solder in some jumpers for the traces that shouldn't have been cut (voltage selection was designed to be done only once at the factory).
While you're in there, get rid of the old sticky dampening foam. I didn't (nobody talked about this problem yet back when I bought and modified my US model 8000s) and now I have one mute speaker waiting for repair.
Keep in mind that these jumper wires carry the full mains voltage, so do the job safely and properly.
--mika
Hi - great, many thanks - I will take a look and most likely wait till my father visits and ask him to do the work - will look at the manual again as I must have missed it.
Thanks again
Take care with this issue.I remember having to convert a pair of BL8000 from Japanese spec to Euro.
There are of course two mains transformers,one for the main power to the amplifiers,and the other for the standby supply.
You can indeed change the main transformer configuration,but the standby transformer is fixed for the specific market mains voltage.
I had to replace the standby transformers on both speakers to Euro spec devices,and they are specially made by B&O,so only available from them.They seemed very reluctant to agree to supply,apparently it's "not done" to convert modules,you are expected to replace,with all the cost that that entails!
Nick
Hi Nick,
are you sure that was BL8000 you are talking about? The service manual on site definitely shows a dual primary standby transformer (wired in series at 230/240V, parallel at 100/120V).
Anyway this service manual snippet only covers Japanese BL8000 model 6804 - there might well be some other models that cannot be rewired.
Yes indeed,BL8000! The diagram is misleading as the actual pcb can be different,with no apparent way of reconfiguring the connections.On the units I was attempting to convert the standby transformer windings were joined inside the device,so no way to separate them to connect them in series for 220V
This is why I suggested caution,as it looks easy peasy on paper,but may be more awkward in fact.
B&O were emphatic about not approving of any rework of the power supply board,as it breached the original safety spec..They weren't happy about supplying Euro spec transformer's as replacements either.Mad or what?
Of course,there are way's to achieve a successful conversion and as Andrew hopes,to avoid having to use the ugly and hot step down transformers.
n.b.The mark 2 Beolab 8000 may be different too of course,as it uses Ice power and a different psu arrangement.