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This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Beolab 3 Repair
I`m a bit of a tinkerer, so like to repair items which should repair quite easily myself. This may daunt some folks but if you are able to do a jigsaw and like a challenge, then read on ..... it really does not have to be so tough
I'm currently working on a beolab 3 speaker and after spending hours on line trying to get some definitive answers on self fixes, have finally got stuck .... so some help is required. Heres a consolidation of my findings so far.
Fault: Power Failure, the LED is not turning on. A definitive repair was often quoted stating the entire chassis could be sent away and repaired for around 300 USD plus postage, import taxes etc. On looking at the board, other than the transformer itself all the component are readily available online, at a fraction of the cost so a likely low cost repair is more than possible. I would like to test this theory and provide a clear set of instruction on how to fix this common fault on these great little speakers.
Action 1: Dismantled speaker (approx 30 mins), extracted power supply board. Pic 1
Action 2: Identified Fuse and tested, it was blown.
Action 3: Found a post where someone who had repaired Beolab 3 power supply board stated the most common problem was the FUSE and its Capacitors:
Now I.m ready to repair but unsure of which capacitors to replace, it mentioned Ceramic Capacitors. Any help on which ones to change would be really helpful?
Once I work out how to upload images Ill update the post .... tks Noel
Pic 1 Top and bottom
Pic 2 Fuse
Pic 3 Are these the likely capacitors to replace?
One of my BL3 gave up yesterday, the second out of four... the first one did not switch on anymore, well know and was an expensive repair as the entire board was replaced. Today you could question if this makes sense economically any more (with the prices of used BL17 getting close to a pair of BL3).
The current unit stoped playing the lows, only the tweeter works. Any ideas?
Hi there, Gut feel if the tweeter works then it sounds like the electronics are all good - thats the expensive repair you had before.
If you are comfortable, it takes about 10 mins to remove the bass speaker from one of the good speakers and try it in the one that just has the tweeter working (just a few screws and three cables - check youtube for beolab 3 strip down repair and youll see for yourself how easy it is). If it works it means you have a faulty bass speaker which you can pickup a replacement on line for 50-100 bucks ..... hope this helps cheers Noel
Ah great! Thank you very much! I have the service Manuel for the BL3 so that should help. I will give it try :-) nice shop for the upcoming rainy weekend
noelhearle: Hi there, Gut feel if the tweeter works then it sounds like the electronics are all good - thats the expensive repair you had before. If you are comfortable, it takes about 10 mins to remove the bass speaker from one of the good speakers and try it in the one that just has the tweeter working (just a few screws and three cables - check youtube for beolab 3 strip down repair and youll see for yourself how easy it is). If it works it means you have a faulty bass speaker which you can pickup a replacement on line for 50-100 bucks ..... hope this helps cheers Noel
Almost zero change. The woofer hardly fails. It can happen, but most likely the amplifier is shot.
noelhearle: Beolab 3 Repair I`m a bit of a tinkerer, so like to repair items which should repair quite easily myself. This may daunt some folks but if you are able to do a jigsaw and like a challenge, then read on ..... it really does not have to be so tough I'm currently working on a beolab 3 speaker and after spending hours on line trying to get some definitive answers on self fixes, have finally got stuck .... so some help is required. Heres a consolidation of my findings so far. . . . Action 3: Found a post where someone who had repaired Beolab 3 power supply board stated the most common problem was the FUSE and its Capacitors: Now I.m ready to repair but unsure of which capacitors to replace, it mentioned Ceramic Capacitors. Any help on which ones to change would be really helpful? Pic 3 Are these the likely capacitors to replace?
. . .
I understand that some people make their living repairing these speakers and I wouldn't want to take away business from someone trying to feed their family. On the other hand, I know that some of us can only afford used B&O equipment and might need to self-repair to continue to afford these luxury items.
Those X2 capacitors are part of the power input filtering and are unlikely to be the problem - those are safety rated capacitors and should have very long lifetimes.
I found the same post you did mentioning surface mount ceramic caps as a possible culprit in blowing the fuse. Ceramic caps tend to fail short, so that makes sense: the short circuit in the cap blows the fuse. The way I find blown SMT capacitors is applying a small amount of voltage to the circuit through a current-limiting supply, and then point a thermal imaging camera at the board, where I can see them generating heat. Without such tools it is much more difficult to find the blown capacitor. If your multimeter has sufficient resolution (typically 4-wire mode) you might be able to find the ceramic capacitor with the least resistance across its terminals. You could also remove and replace them one as a time, which makes measurement easier but is obviously a lot more time-consuming. If you find a blown cap you may need to take the matching part off your good speaker for measurement of the value so you know how to replace it.
Best of luck!
Sources: 2x Beosound Moment • 4x Beosound Essence Mk II Speakers: 3x Beolab 8000 • 2x Beolab 6000 • 2x Beolab 3 • 3x Beolab 2 Integrated: 1x Beosound 2 • 1x Beosound Level • 4x BeoPlay M5 • 1x BeoPlay A6 Control: 16x* Essence Remote • 1x Beoremote Halo
* Yes, really! 🤦♂️
I found an amplifier board on Ebay which fits to my serial number, will give it try when the parts arrive.
You will find plenty of threads where help is readily offered for free but the Beolab 3 is relatively new and hence has not been repaired that often! Most dealerships use centralised repair facilities now so the old service technicians are simply not around. Also many repairs are now done by module replacement. However best of luck with this.
Peter
If any of you wish to sell faulty bl3 , i am happy to buy it for my cinema project. I have 2 pcs and looking for 4 speakers additional.
I was able to source the amplifier board from a striped down BL3 for very low budget on ebay, with the Service Manuel easy job to replace it. Good news, BL3 is back in my living room and it works! Shame that you only get the entire electronics as a very expensive set if only one component is broken.
Apologies to revive this thread. Where can we find the 4 inch woofer replacement?
Hi There,
I never managed to repair the Beolab 3, so have a spare woofer if you need one?
Hi Kawo. I currently have a speaker which is crackling and possibly an amplifier fault. Do you happen to know the part number for the replacement amplifier please?