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
Hey everyone,
As I mentioned before, I received a bad BL7000 remote as part of a package I recently won on Ebay including a BM7000 and a BL1000 as well. The seller has decided to just go ahead and send me all of the rest of the items that he was originally advertising to make up for the failed backlight in the BL7k... Among these items is a pair of RL6000 speakers.
It's relatively easy to find reviews for B&O active speakers and some of the old uniphase stuff, but I can't really find anything for the RL series, and particularly the later ones without the ABR. I'm trying to decide whether these are worth hanging on to and keeping connected to the BM7000, or if I just should sell them on if they aren't any good...
Thanks.
Playdrv4me:It's relatively easy to find reviews for B&O active speakers and some of the old uniphase stuff, but I can't really find anything for the RL series,
Why not do a review then ?
If they sound good and you have a spot for them- keep them.
Why not just listen to them and make your own mind up?
Does it matter what other people think?
In my opinion, RL6000's are really rather good but I didn't need other people to tell me that, I used my ears!
Regards Graham
He actually has two pairs so I'm assuming there must have been some kind of surround sound setup. I can have the other pair for just a little more than the cost of shipping if I want them, otherwise he's going to keep those and list them. If they're even reasonably good I may as well collect the entire set and find a place to use them later.
And in general I've enjoyed reading the reviews of various speaker types here in other threads. I've found them to be rather useful, actually, by comparison to many speaker reviews.
RL6000s are very similar to RL60.2s. I think they are really rather good but need to be stand mounted to get the best out of them. If used directly on the floor, they can sound bass heavy and muddy. They almost all need new capacitors in the cross over which improves the sound back to where it should be.
Peter
I like my RL6000's, but I don't use them for intense listening. They are fine and do work wonders as TV speakers/bedroom speakers/casual system speakers; they are almost identical to the RL60.2 and will sound similar to the original RL60 with the ABR. A sharp design and overall fine speakers; I plan to use mine in a surround system with MS150.2's in the front.
Vinyl records, cassettes, open reel, valve amplifiers and film photography.
Thanks for the input everyone. I'll enjoy having them if nothing else just to have a nice companion for the BM7000 since it's the only BO component I even have that can power them, anyway.
So what's the deal on the Bang and Olufsen capacitor issue, anyway? Is it just expected that ALL old audio equipment from this era will have cap failures? I've had a ton of old Sony ES gear from the '80s and '90s over the years, along with TEAC, Panasonic and everything else that has not had at least to my knowledge, these capacitor problems. In fact, when I search Wikipedia for capacitors "drying out", which is the term I normally hear when referencing the B&O gear, all I can find is reference to the major DEFECTIVE Chinese capacitor debacle in the mid-2000s.
I currently have a beautifully working BM7000 and BL7000, or at least I think they're working beautifully. As a matter of fact, the "broken" BL7000 that spurred this whole thread works just fine from a two way IR standpoint, it's just the display's EL backlight that died. Heck, the FM tuning stage on my BeoSystem 2500 works fine, too. From everything I've seen and read on here, I should be expecting the two way communication on the BL7000 and VARIOUS parts of the BM7000 to be dying just about any day now. I love both of these components, but are they even worth keeping around if their electronic death is imminent? The BL7000 in particular, is a big deal to me, but I don't know if Atlantic Systems even touches these like i know they would with the BM7000. In other words, is it just a matter of time, or do some of them not experience these problems? The BM7000 can be rebuilt, the BL7000 I'm not sure anyone will touch it.
Knock on wood!
Most capacitors of this type will drift out of spec. B&O used red capacitors in its 70s equipment that have now started to leak and fail. They were quality items when fitted and failure was not expected. Most electronics of this era has been thrown out and those pieces still working will often need servicing. It is certainly not just B&O - it is just that there is a lot of of B&O still being used!
The BL7000 is a tricky beast but if you look through threads, you can see that some can service it!
Playdrv4me:So what's the deal on the Bang and Olufsen capacitor issue, anyway? Is it just expected that ALL old audio equipment from this era will have cap failures? I've had a ton of old Sony ES gear from the '80s and '90s over the years, along with TEAC, Panasonic and everything else that has not had at least to my knowledge, these capacitor problems. In fact, when I search Wikipedia for capacitors "drying out", which is the term I normally hear when referencing the B&O gear, all I can find is reference to the major DEFECTIVE Chinese capacitor debacle in the mid-2000s.
Well, you should be finding issues of all kinds of recent electronic gadgets (STBs, broadband routers, etc) malfunctioning due to failing caps. This started around the time switched mode power supplies became the norm. They are usually thrown away rather than repaired though, so the exact reason is often not found nor mentioned.
For older B&O, this is because they actually are different from most other makes. B&O used things like electronic signal switching and microcontrollers very early, when most others had knobs and push buttons. And all this additional circuitry is usually stuffed in a tiny space because the electronic designers had to fit in a given slimline physical design, not the other way round as the others mostly did.
And as Peter said, mostly devices from that era have been thrown away or retired already, either because they failed or outlived the context of their external design, to say it nicely - whereas you don't need to be a vintage enthusiast or even a hobbyist to own and use daily some 25+ years old B&O kit.
--mika
Good replies. Thanks.
Ok, so generally, the answer is that simply due to sheer age the capacitors have just drifted out of spec. This DOES tend to agree with the wikipedia page I was reading about capacitor design which are expected in general to be functioning at 50 percent of their rated specification within some period of time.
So because of the tolerances in the precision circuitry that B&O were doing relatively ahead of their time back then, I suppose deviations in the specifications of these aging capacitors tend to have a greater effect on the functionality and performance of the devices. I guess you just use it until it breaks and have it re-capped and refurbished in general if you want to enjoy it for another 20 years. Easier said than done on the BL7k versus the BM7k, but I'm sure there's someone out there who I could pay to restore it when that time comes (don't trust myself tearing that thing apart).
Playdrv4me:I don't know if Atlantic Systems even touches these like i know they would with the BM7000.
I'd imagine they can - if they can get the parts. Call Paul and ask him.
I don't see a schematic for the RL6000 in the B&O Library, am I not looking in the correct location?
Go to the Beoworld main site.Click on the "Products" tab and then find user/servicemanuals at the top right.Silver and gold members can go there.
Martin