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
Beomaster 2000One of my all time favourite Beomaster designs - and what it sound it produces, so warm and present.Owner told me it had gone "pling" inside whereafter one channel had dropped in volume to a mere whisper.I was curious so I asked him to send it to me.It arrived well and fine. I took a look inside and found one of the little orange cylindrical caps in theamplifier input area to have blown its top off. Visual fault finding at its finest.The paper roll inside, that was once wet with some kind of boric acid was now bone dry and protruding in aspirally fashion apprx 3mm from the open top of the cap housing, suggesting that a small explosion had taken place.No doubt, the "pling" was the resulting sound of the cap top leaving in a hurry.The amplifier received a fresh set of capacitors and the heavily oxidated trimmers and fuse holderswere also attended.The volume potentiometer was taken apart and cleaned to remove scratching noises when operated and adrop of Araldite glue fixed the lose antenna socket.The cap top was never found.
Martin
Hi Martin,
That BM2000 post gives me an opportunity to remind everyone (and thank you) for the amazing job you did on my Beomaster 2000 bought from a Danish small ad.
I can't believe what a warm sound comes from that Beomaster playing through S45's. Even better now that it has an Olive One feeding it via its tape socket.
Graham
At the moment I have to repair my Terminator T-800 and my Iron Man MK3 because their LED eyes died recently. Hard job because you can not simply loosen some screws to get to the innards. :(
http://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/p/189/122481.aspx#122481
Ha! that is the same mute switch as on my Sony PS-X600. Whiich is giving me problems,but mine is pristine clean. Can't find any visual damage or continuity issues.
I am now working on a 2404 with bothersome hum and a loud mute switch sound during on/off - probably a ground problem but can't find any broken or loose connections or wire.
Troubleshooting so far for the deck with the hum problem: tested with two carts, no difference; tested with both an old original and a new replacement DIN/RCA and no difference.
I have another 2404 which I just picked up for parts that cost me shipping only! When I plugged it in, it's working great and no hum. And maybe the best part: It came with an MMC3 that plays great and is beautiful under a 200x scope. Been playing it for 3 days now.
Oops, sorry, I was commenting to an old post dated back last year, 2014 - I thought I was in this current active thread. Didn't notice until after I hit send...
Welcome to Beoworld If you tell me where your post belongs, I'll be happy to move it.- Or delete it if that'll makes more sense.Let me know.
Beolab 5000Handcarried to me by the danish owner living in Scotland, home on a visit, this one had turnedsilent on one channel, apart from a faint hissing.With the lid off, the problem was soon spotted in the form of a broken corner to the preamp PCB, leavinga fairly large and essential portion of the preamplifier without power.This is actually - and sadly - a quite common problem in these otherwise so well built amplifiers.All pieces were present so the corner was built up again using strong Araldite, theaffected copper track was bridged with a piece of insulated lead and functionwise all was fine again.This amplifier would really benefit from a complete overhaul, I felt it was lacking a bit, but timewas an issue as the owner wanted to bring it with him back to Scotland again, leaving me withonly a very short time to fix things.No doubt it will come back later for a more thorough service, something for which I actually like torefer owners to Frede of Classic Audio in Struer who is by far the best when it comes to completeBeolab 5000 system restoration jobs.
Beomaster 8000A very beautiful piece with what the owner told was "a strange fault".This Beomaster was never opened since it left the factory and it would play absolutely fine fromall sources etc. but the volume control acted up a bit;While one channel was doing the right thing, increase and decrease with fine continuity, theother would move a bit more up and down at some points, not following its mate at all times, making itdifficult to set the volume control at a spot where both channels were at equal volume.This Beomaster has an electronically controlled IC-based volume control, fed by a series of digital (binary)signals from the processor and the way it acted my initial thought was that a bit was missing.A scope to the binary signals showed all fine at both the processor and the business end, leavingthe only component suspect the volume control chip itself.This is an obsolete IC but luckily I happened to have one in the drawer, which cured the thing.Normally, I would do a once-over and replace known troublemaker components, capacitors, trimmers etc. butthis Beomaster was so pristine inside, looking brand new, only serviced by me since factory and it wasstill performing absolutely fine, so I made an exception and let it go out again as-was, only now witha working volume control.Martin
That brings up a question about recapping (and parts replacement in general). Often it is a good idea to recap and go completely over vintage units that you don't know the history of (where they've been, how they've been used, how they've been stored). In this case of your Beomaster 8000, you know its history and obviously it lives in a very good environment. The Beomaster 8000 is probably around 32 years old now. Is that surprising that the capacitors are still working fine and how long do you think they can go? I still have a Beomaster 4400 that I use every week but have never recapped. I have parts to recap it but I don't see the need to do it yet.John
For me, a Beolab 5000 amplifier. Faultless. I only replaced the power-on bulb a few weeks ago, that's it. It also looks pristine inside. I think I'll do it when the first suspicious/ominous noise happens.
Jacques
Beomaster 3000-2This one came from an owner, who first had the Beomaster in for service somewhere else.They were asked to repair several issues but "I have no faith in them anymore", was how he put it.At the very moment he handed it to me, I immediately understood what he meant...
hehe...details, details, detailsThat would make one question a repair shop. It makes you wonder how many other things are put in backwards.John
Obviously one meant for the Australian market - priceless!
Dave.
There was a Beomaster 4400 on eBay with a similar situation, only worse. I thought about advising the seller of their problem obtaining a single bid, but decided to stay out of it. Thanks Martin, for the morning chuckle!
Beogram 4000, Beogram 4002, Beogram 4004, Beogram 8000, Beogram 8002, Beogram 1602. Beogram 4500 CD player, B&O CDX player, Beocord 4500, Beocord 5000 T4716, Beocord 5000 T4716, Beocord 5000 T4716, Beocord 8004, Beocord 9000, Beomaster 1000, Beomaster 1600, Beomaster 2400.2, Beomaster 2400.2, Beomaster 4400, Beomaster 4500, Beolab 5000, Beomaster 5000, BeoCenter 9000. BeoSound Century, S-45.2, S-45.2, S-75, S-75, M-75, M-100, MC 120.2 speakers; B&O Illuminated Sign (with crown & red logo). B&O grey & black Illuminated Sign, B&O black Plexiglas dealer sign, B&O ash tray, B&O (Orrefors) dealer award vase, B&O Beotime Clock. Navy blue B&O baseball cap, B&O T-shirt X2, B&O black ball point pen, B&O Retail Management Binder
In America we call that "comedy gold."
JET505From my own collection.I have owned this set for decades but it just stood on a shelf in the dungeons until now, whenI felt the urge to hear it play.Dial printing a little blurry as most of these are, two tiny wormholes on one side - not asurprise either, but otherwise a very beautiful set.Experience has it way back from my childhood, that the high-voltage filter capacitorsshould be respected. One particular cap in an old TV set found in the street, almost had me reconsiderelectronics as a future hobby when it went bang the moment I switched on the set.You tend to remember things like that.So from then on, I am always checking, and depending on type and age preferably replacing, the HT filterand reservoir cap(s) before applying power to anything valve-based that stood unused for a long time.So a replacement cap was lined up on the bench already before I had the back off the set.And wow, what a beautiful set; No fingerwear to any knobs, no wear to the dial string, no heatdistortion to the masonite back, - apart from a thin layer of dust and a couple ofdead spiders I'd say it looked new.No heat marks on components, no milky or black deposits at the inside of the valve glass envelopes.Hey, not even a trace of a crack to any of the ceramic power resistors, which is otherwise quite common.If I didn't know better, I'd say it looked unused. I could hardly wait to get this thing working.Well, the filter cap was duly replaced. As were a couple of other problem-prone caps, the outputpentode grid coupling and decoupling caps, the mains suppresion cap and a couple of safety caps relatedto the inputs.The mains cord felt a little crumbly, so was also replaced with a new length of cloth sheathed modern PVC.All ready to fire up.First test saw all the valves light up and of course the large dial lamp. A healthy hum sneaked out fromthe test speaker, a buzz could be had when a small screwdriver was inserted in the gramophone input, butno radiostations could be found anywhere. Not even static.I checked the frontend valve - it was fine, as were all the other valves, absolutely like new.I then checked a few more caps that could have been the cause but that didn't bring any results either.Out came the multimeter to check the anode voltages on the frontend valve and it was soon discovered, thatno voltage could be found anywhere around this valve.The next valve in the lineup was fine and its DC voltages was within reason.No wonder it was silent on all wavebands with no power to the first valve.The voltage comes from a splitting point near the rectifier valve and I had fine voltage there but nothingat the other end of the white lead that goes to the frontend anode circuits.I measured again and I doublechecked. I had voltage on the splitting point but not at the business end.Birds nest constructions, as this, can be difficult to work on, components hide eachother and sometimessome components will have to come out to gain access to others deeper in the nest.I desoldered a few components near the splitting point and pushed them aside, which allowed me to see theproblem. There it was in plain sight. One white lead, prepared for soldering to the splitting point butsitting 10mm away from its blank and empty soldertag.It was never soldered...So the set never played anything - well, gramophone at the most, but nothing else.No wonder it all looked new, then.I cut a fresh 4mm off the insulation on the lead (it had a little oxidation so wouldn't accept solder),soldered it to its tag and with a mere 66 years delay I finished the factory guys job.Power on. All voltages now fine. And lots of stations with just about one meter of lead as antenna.I can't seem to understand, how this set passed the final tests and quality control and I suppose theshort answer would be, that it didn't.But it has a radioshop label at the back, so it was sold.I've found factory mistakes before - even the odd missing component - but they were all of minorimportance and the sets all worked - sort of - as were, but never something like this.Must have been a great disappointment to the previous owner.But now, finally, it was allowed to do what it was made for. And it did so for the rest of the evening.Truth be told, there isn't a lot of interesting stuff going on on the AM wavebands, mostly weatherforecasts,fishermens notes and the likes - and most of it in russian - but I managed to find a good german stationbroadcasting nice classical music in very good quality, fine with me and it seemed to suit the JET as well.Martin
What a nice story!
//Bo.A long list...
Hey Martin,
this JET505 must be a figment of your imagination as there are no pictures!
Sounds like another great job. Would be nice to see it.
Very nice story indeed, and exceedingly well written.
Martin one would NEVER know that English wasn’t your first language…. and I really mean this.
Jeff
sonavor: I still have a Beomaster 4400 that I use every week but have never recapped. I have parts to recap it but I don't see the need to do it yet.
I still have a Beomaster 4400 that I use every week but have never recapped. I have parts to recap it but I don't see the need to do it yet.
I'm sure everyone will cry "apples to oranges" (at least those familiar with this English idiom), but you would never hear someone say, "I'm not going to worry about replacing the tires on my car until they blow up as I'm driving down the road."
Rich:I'm sure everyone will cry "apples to oranges" (at least those familiar with this English idiom), but you would never hear someone say, "I'm not going to worry about replacing the tires on my car until they blow up as I'm driving down the road."
Hi Rich,
I am not technically oriented, but if someone has a Beomaster 4400 (like I do) and has had it properly tested, and the 4400 was largely within specs, I’d say it was safe to use it regularly.
However failing components can take out a lot of other components in line. Pressing an older amp with aging or leaking caps is kind of like asking for trouble.
The tire analogy is also a good one, and one I can identify with specifically. I have 10 year old tires on my car with very low mileage, lots of tread, and look essentially new. The car lives in a garage so the UV exposure is very limited and that more than anything destroys rubber tires.
As such I have be assured that under normal local driving circumstances the tires are absolutely safe, but not to even think about a long road trip.
Continuing this analogy, I didn’t “assume” the tires were OK because they looked fine, I asked my dealer. If I had an original 4400 I personally would want to have it tested by a qualified technician who knows what they are doing.
Martins English is exquisite, and I know as I have met him, he also speaks Danish without accent , i take his word for the Jet, no pics needed, the explanation is so vivid that I can see it all for me while reading, on the other hand I never saw a Jet in pics or otherwise so maybe if Martin could find the time we could enjoy the pics together
Collecting Vintage B&O is not a hobby, its a lifestyle.
Danish sans accent? Who would have ever guessed?
Now that I think about it, I don’t really know what a Danish accent would sound like. Perhaps like a softer version of the German.
Now Swedish I know….OMG, Ja sure you betcha. Lived in Seattle for 7 years and their Ballard community is ALL Swedish…. Great people, accordions everywhere, drive SLOWLY and always with their turn signals permanently on, plus lutefisk. (You can have the latter!) The “J’s” all become “Y’s” and lots of bombastic uff das.
I was living in Sweden from 1971 to 81, 1974 the accordion music just got too much, so B&O offered an accordion filter, just like the High and Low filters we all know, but it was mainly bought of foreigners living in Sweden.
Søren Mexico:I was living in Sweden from 1971 to 81, 1974 the accordion music just got too much, so B&O offered an accordion filter, just like the High and Low filters we all know, but it was mainly bought of foreigners living in Sweden.
Hi Søren,
I can well imagine the need for the accordion filter in Sweden, however in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle there is something special….. warm and fuzzy about the folks of Swedish decent.
It is like they were all cut out of the same mold.
The Swedish accent is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
They all then to drive very, very slowly with one turn signal left on at all times, and in the eighties with the seat belt dangling outside the car door. Then when they park one tire is always left on the curb. Why? Who knows, they just do it.
You hear Uff da shouted like it was the only word they knew and spicy food must be avoided at all costs.
And good God but they DO love accordion music and polkas.
A filter was unneeded as there was a gentle charm to the folks of Ballard….. and going to Ballard it is always “shocking” to see that they really DO drive that way and park that way…. probably while going for their accordion lessons.
Uff da!
Beomaster 5500This one would go into standby the second after being powered on.Thinking it was just one or more of the usual issues, I accepted to take a look at it.However, I was wrong;Both outputs measured fairly OK within the brief moment I got from each power cycle, soclearly, this fault must have a different and "non-standard" cause.A scope showed that the standby command came from the protection circuit and it came immediately after power up, butsince there were no idle current(s) running astray, no overheating and no DC to speak of on any of the output rails, the fault could only bewith the protection circuit itself.It's a fairly simple circuit, two transistors and a small handful of other components.TR22, a BC556B measured bad but the voltage on the base pin was also extremely low at about 2 volts or so wheresomething much nearer to the 40 Volts of the positive rail was to be expected.The base pullup resistor R41 had burned badly and I began to wonder what the reason for all this could be.A few more measurements revealed an almost dead short NTC resistor on the rear cooling fin.This 330Kohm component (at about room temp.) showed a mere 40 ohms or so.I never saw an NTC fail before - let alone shorted but a fresh NTC as well as new components forR41 and TR22 cured the thing.Out of the Beomaster, I could see the NTC had a very tiny scorched mark to the underside,not a lot more than a punctuation mark in size and under normal circumstances I may not have noticed it, but itwas probably related to the components failing.The Beomaster then had the usual issues fixed to counter for most of the otherwise inevitableproblems in near future, a good soak testing and back to Italy it went.Martin
Beocenter 3500.A beautiful white design one.One output had gone silent. The owner, eager to diagnose, had then swapped the speaker cablesafter which both channels had gone silent. That's when he brought it to me and I asked him tobring the speaker cables too...Cables first, - homemade, not the best job if I may say so, and sure - one had a dead short.I made a new pair to the same lengths.Typical of a burned output stage in these wonderful amplifiers is, that you will have to replacepractically all components to make a good and stabile repair.When one component shorts, others will almost always do the same due to overloading, and evenif some components apparently seem to have survived, they can easily have internal scars that will only showafter some time. With fifteen of its components replaced the left channel went back online andthen it was just a matter of doing pretty much the same in the right channel.Parts of the tuner board trimmers were found rattling around inside the Beocenter so I foundit a good idea to fix this while this wonderful thing was on the bench.It was difficult to find a spot for the volume slider where both channels would play atthe same time, so a badly needed potentiometer cleaning was in order.I also fitted an FM preset cover, a lamp for the stereo indicator and a trebleslider metal cap, all of which had gone missing in action.A shot of contact cleaner to the filter buttons - a common need when not used regularly - roundedthis repair off nicely and the Beocenter was back with the owner yesterday, according to whichit had performed the job of picking up christmas vibrations from the dusty and worn grooves of his old recordsand sending them into the livingroom, while the family decorated the tree, excellently.Martin
Beogram 2000The 1980s model.The owner contacted me, telling that he uses his Beogram every day but recently it had started acting up.Sometimes it would play, other times not. Sometimes it would start but not lower the tonearm etc.My first thought was oxidated contacts in the mech. Not a particularly exciting or exotic repair and Ihave had so many other repairs in recently and very little time to do them. I'm quite booked up, but Icaved in and let him deliver it.It arrived and at that exact moment I found myself in a small dilemma...
This is nicotine and dust in a nasty, sticky and smelly combination. You will have to imagine the smell andthe stickyness, the rest, well, look at the photos.No longer any doubt about failing contacts - and lots of them, I'm sure.And the dilemma; I really wanted to clean this poor thing - to save this other poor thing from putting iton his bench and sticking his hands into its innards.But on the other hand, once returned to the owner, wouldn't it look completely out of place next to theBeomaster 3000, Beocord 2000 and what other stuff, furniture and whatnots in his home?Hmmm...Martin
Around 8 years ago, I bought a Beocenter 8000 from apparently a smoking household. Nowhere near as bad as that disgusting Beogram, but even today, I can smell the aroma when the doors open.
--mika
Man, that is completely disgusting, one can imagine the smell. Nothing smells quite as bad as stale tobacco residue, not even the cat dander in the Pioneer open reel I had.
That's bad enough you should just shoot it and put it out of its misery, like a horse with a broken leg.
I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus.
Tidy, this man is not and although I am not particularly certain that he will appreciate or even notice the difference, you really can’t return that Beogram in that deplorable condition.
Yes, that's more or less what I felt too.So I did it...
And what do you know; Underneath all the nasty stuff was a Beogram 2000.And a surprisingly well-preserved one at that.It has a surface scuff on the front rail but apart from that it is absolutely pristine.Not even the tiniest mark on the dustcover.Definitely one of the nicest ones I've seen of this type.My fears now are, that I will be seeing the remaining pieces of this guys Beosystem in for repairs shortly.Oh, and it WAS just dirty contacts...Martin
Does that mean the nicotine/dust film works as a good protector for dust cover scratches?
Dillen:Yes, that's more or less what I felt too.So I did it...
Wow, now that's more like it!
Maybe the owner WILL notice a transformation like that..... maybe.
Seeing all that dust on the dustcover, I had no hopes for its condition. More than a surprise, the restored condition is a shock.
Excellent job Martin on the cosmetics as well as the electronics.
sonavor:Does that mean the nicotine/dust film works as a good protector for dust cover scratches?
I KNOW you are only kidding as dust leads directly to scratches.
The only thing that gives real protection is either a plastic polish or car wax. Why? Glad you asked, because anything that allows a contacting item to glide over the surface reduces the chance of abrasion.
A dull surface is MUCH easier to scratch than a smooth surface. This is why I polish all my Beogram dustcovers twice a year, plus OMG does a good polish ever make them look like new!
Even if we think our dustcovers look “fine” try polishing half and I promise you, you will see the difference. They will even feel better to the touch.
Hi everyone!
Yes that's what I use too Jeff. I couldn't agree more.
Ha ha Martin, I knew you'd clean it!
I got a Beocenter 3500 in this condition, and it came out very nice too. But I couldn't save the grey plastic parts over the keys, which desperately remained yellow...
I've found the sliders on the BC3500 as well as BM3000 and BM4000 very difficult to rectify once they turn very yellow!
Seems to be reasonably common but I have eventually replaced them with clear sliders!
Ben
Beolab 4 PCI rarely do the newer things. They are still supported by B&O and lots of repairshops worldwide aredoing them, but every once in a while I get curious and let one in.Half of the pair had stopped working, it was just emitting a faint zeerp-zeerp sound from its internalswitch-mode powersupply, a typical sign of a too heavy load.A little measuring around revealed, that the ICE-Power module had a short from +12V to -12V correspondingto a completely collapsed output stage.Since the ICs used on this module is not commonly available (as anything but empty plastic chips withmetal pins sticking out, produced somewhere in China - you simply choose the lettering on them when ordering),a replacement module would have to be purchased or found.The dungeons are useless when it comes to the newer things, so I asked a B&O dealer, who also runsa repairshop.I was told, that B&O no longer sold spares. Not even to the danish repairshops.- WHAT?The only way to get the thing repaired was to bring it to a dealer, who would then send it onto B&O for repairs.Needless to say, a policy like this won't exactly encourage me to take more of the newer things in forrepair, actually I would recommend owners to buy something older instead - something that can still berepaired.Or simply buy SONY, Samsung or something else.This is the brand new world, I suppose.Not particularly satisfying and not to my liking, I'm afraid.If someone has a module - or can help me order a module from outside of Denmark, I would be happy tohear about it and I'm sure so will the owner.Martin
Do you have a picture of the module in question, Martin?
I have a couple of circuit boards from newer BeoLabs lying around, but I think they are from BeoLab 3/7 - not sure though. I have no idea whether they are working or not either, but could be worth a try.
/Dennis
Dillen:The only way to get the thing repaired was to bring it to a dealer, who would then send it onto B&O for repairs.
Same experience here in Mexico, "we dont sell spare parts, we sell equipment", I think that the lack of qualified repairmen worldwide is one part of this problem. not only B&O but also a lot of other known brands, I have had the same experience with Panasonic, LG and Samsung.