agreed

Since a turntable is a combo of drive system, arm, and cartridge, with the arm cartridge combo being particularly prone to working well or not working well together, that's about all you can do.

But one thing that to me sets the Beograms in their own class is their isolation and immunity to vibration and feedback. If you live on a concrete floored home, not as important, but on suspended wood floors...makes a huge difference. I have lived in apartments where you had to tiptoe up to the turntable when it was playing.

Jeff wrote:

Since a turntable is a combo of drive system, arm, and cartridge, with the arm cartridge combo being particularly prone to working well or not working well together, that's about all you can do.

But one thing that to me sets the Beograms in their own class is their isolation and immunity to vibration and feedback. If you live on a concrete floored home, not as important, but on suspended wood floors...makes a huge difference. I have lived in apartments where you had to tiptoe up to the turntable when it was playing.

I agree on both points, and the isolation in the beograms is splendid!

I've got, IIRC, a 4000, 4002, 6000, 8000, 8002, 3000 and a 7000 (all tangentials) and I've had various MMC20CLs and MMC1s and 2s throughout the years. The 800x variants and the 7000 are the ones I've used the most as they have been part of my main systems. As some others have mentioned, the oldest tangentials are the most well-built but I find the 8000 and 8002 to be two good compromises between the old and the "new".

However, as most of my MMCxs have seen their better days i recently bought an sl1200mk2 in good shape and I put an Ortofon 2M Bronze on it. I use the 1200 mainly for needle dropping as I have lots of old vinyl that I want to digitize, and the bg7000 is still the turntable used in my main system (mainly because I don't want a non-beogram in my livingroom).

Thing is, the 1200/2mBronze combo is by far the best sounding setup I've had. The 8000/20cl combo, as well as the 8002/mmc1 combo can also sound really good from time to time, but the Bronze simply tracks better - even on the sl1200, which tonearm isn't the best tonearm in the world. On some records I'd say the B&O systems are in the same ballpark, but it's as if they are more picky – some records that give the beograms (especially the later ones) problems like distortion etc sound good on the Technics. Also, the MMCs seem more susceptible to surface noise.

Unfortunately none of my once really good MMCs are up to scratch anymore (I now use an MMC4 on my livingroom bg7000...), so I'm no longer able to do any needle drops to show you the differences. It would be very interesting to try a top-class MMC on the Technics (or a better turntable) to see whether the limitations are in the cartridges or in the turntables.

That said, even the sl1200 – known for it's DJ qualities – is less tolerant to vibrations and feedback than the beograms are. B&O did a fantastic job with the suspension in these turntables!

All in all, IMHO a Beogram 'system' can sound really good – at least on some records – but there are other options that may give better sound and more flexibility. ...in my opinion, that is. Others may disagree. For everyday listening I find the beograms good-enough (and very nice to operate!), but for more critical listening and/or needle dropping i would recommend some other solution.

BTW, before I bought the sl1200 I had a more "modern" turntable, a Pro-Ject RPM5, and I hated it. It was flimsy to use, tricky to adjust and also had a major flaw in its construction - the motor suspension caused the motor to vibrate and these vibrations affected the performance... i bought a modification kit that solved the problem, but I was still annoyed that they sold the turntable with such flaws. I looked at some other modern-day turntables and they didn't seem to be much better, so I opted for an older solution instead - hence the 1200.  I actually did needle drops using the same cartidge on the Pro-Ject and the 1200, and the 1200 was better (especially when it came to rumble), and then I got rid of the Pro-Ject.

I agree with Henrick on this one - I have a Beogram 4002 that has been serviced and setup with a new Audio Origins MMC20CL and I have a Linn Sondek LP12 that is probably a couple of years newer than the Beogram with a Moving Coil Cartridge and expensive preamp. The Linn is a PIA to setup a cartridge but once done it is done and works.

In terms of sound quality the Linn with the Moving Coil cartridge has a slight edge, there is less background noise and the sound is somehow more full and sharper - but it does depend on the record being played - on a new recording I have parts of a female vocal sound distorted on the Beogram compared the to the Liinn but the vocals sound more realistic. However when it had a Shure Cartridge i t had less detail and the Beogram had the edge.

I should add that I used the same preamp, amplifier and speakers to compare the two but obviously couldn't use the same cartridge, perhaps a more expensive cartridge in the Linn would bring about greater improvements. On the other hand it could be so slight as to be not worth the investment.

I was going to cut down to one record player and keep the Linn but I decided to keep both and have the Beogram in my living room and the linn in my Music Room. I love the look of the beogram and the fact that it is old school B&O.

The big advantage the Beogram has is that it is fully automatic and looks fantastic, the advantage the Linn has over the Beogram is that when I am listening to it, I am not thinking about what is going to go wrong next and simply enjoy the music. So the Linn gets used daily with the Beogram used whenever I get Beogram withdrawal symptoms - I knew if I sold it anyway I would want another!

In the past I have had a Thorens TD160 and Project RPM3 - neither of these has been as good as either the Linn or 4002. I started with a new BG1500 in 1980 and had that for years - upgrading the cartridge made a huge difference. The best radial B&O turntable I had was a BG1700

In summary both the Linn and Beogram, to my ears, are excellent and it would have be an interesting test when they were new. I doubt there would have been much difference. 

If I may bring a different, less technical and audiophile light one that question…

I've always been quite insensitive to that vinyl trend. And one day I met the Beogram 1200-2000-3000 decks.

I found them so beautiful objects that I immediately wanted one. You can find them for cheap, second hand, in fair condition.

Having her, caring her, listening to her even just to check it works, brought my attention to this world: Records hunt, endless searches about circular vs. elliptical and so on…

What i try to say is that I never found a deck so beautiful it could give me interest in the records world. Until I saw a Beogram.

And any hardcore record listener I show my deck to, find it gorgeous.

That all I can say!