Beocenter Help

26 replies

Hello,

I am a tech amateur and could use a little advice from all of you beowizards out there.  I recently moved into a house that has a B & O Speaker system throughout it.  In the main living room there are four cords coming out of the wall.  The previous owner did not let us know what was originally used to power the speaker system.  It was installed in 1988.  Does anyone know what systems would work to hook up to the cords to get this system going?  I am assuming something like a beocenter 8000-9500 would get the job done?

Thanks for any advice

I would guess that you have a MCL2 system - do any of the rooms have the transceivers in them? These should be white rectangular wall mounted items. The best device to get if this is the case is probably the Beocenter 9500. A Beosystem 7000 would be the most advanced system you could use.

If you8 can post some pictures of the bits you have found it would help. There should be control boxes around the place as well.

My B&O Icons:

BeoCenter-9500.png BeoCenter-9500.png
Beoremote-Beo4.png Beoremote-Beo4.png
Beovox.png Beovox.png
Beovision-11.png Beovision-11.png
Beotime.png Beotime.png
Beosound-Stage.png Beosound-Stage.png
Beosound-Moment.png Beosound-Moment.png
Beosound-5.png Beosound-5.png
Beosound-2.png Beosound-2.png
Beoremote-One.png Beoremote-One.png
Beoplay-Portal.png Beoplay-Portal.png
Beoplay-Earset.png Beoplay-Earset.png
Beomaster.png Beomaster.png
Beolit.png Beolit.png
Beogram-400x.png Beogram-400x.png
Beocenter-2.png Beocenter-2.png

All rooms with speakers have a volume control dial and 3 rooms have the rectangular wall mounted items you described.  I will try to get some pictures together for you. 

Volume control dials are unusual! Look forward to the pictures!

My B&O Icons:

BeoCenter-9500.png BeoCenter-9500.png
Beoremote-Beo4.png Beoremote-Beo4.png
Beovox.png Beovox.png
Beovision-11.png Beovision-11.png
Beotime.png Beotime.png
Beosound-Stage.png Beosound-Stage.png
Beosound-Moment.png Beosound-Moment.png
Beosound-5.png Beosound-5.png
Beosound-2.png Beosound-2.png
Beoremote-One.png Beoremote-One.png
Beoplay-Portal.png Beoplay-Portal.png
Beoplay-Earset.png Beoplay-Earset.png
Beomaster.png Beomaster.png
Beolit.png Beolit.png
Beogram-400x.png Beogram-400x.png
Beocenter-2.png Beocenter-2.png

First picture is light switch, volume control that is in every room that has speakers, and some sort of B&O control panel that is in 3 rooms.  Second picture is same panel, just close up.  Panel says 'timer' on the left and 'mute' on the right.

Third pic is speaker.  About 2 in every room.  There is about 12-16 throughout the house.

Fourth pic is the ends of the four cords that come out of the wall.  I am assuming these would hook up to a beocenter??  Can I buy adapters for this system to run it with something other that B&O? Or will this system only work with a B&O system?  Thanks Again!!

rhansen wrote:
Fourth pic is the ends of the four cords that come out of the wall.  I am assuming these would hook up to a beocenter??  Can I buy adapters for this system to run it with something other that B&O? Or will this system only work with a B&O system?  Thanks Again!!

Please REF your other post here.

1.) YES, as Peter mentioned a 9500 would be a nice piece.

2.) Adapters for non B&o: Not exactly... the 2 pin is for local speakers on SPK1. You could clip these plugs off and run the attached speakers w/ anything besides B&o.

The 3 pin is the problem. It is actually used to "drive" the remaining speakers in your house. I am not certain, but if you clipped these as well and disregarded the 3rd wire, you may get something out on at least the first set of linked speakers downstream. I am just not sure and it would seem a shame to tear up an already installed Master Contol Link system.

3.) Per 2 above, your best results would clearly be to obtain and install a B&o piece capable of driving the MCL system. Not sure where you are, but these are rather affordable now. Just get a good one!

With that said, I am curious to know if there are any other components visible in this system? Smallish white boxes with wires going IN and OUT referred to as MCL2A or AV's as well as maybe some larger black, heavy boxes (P's) with power to them? It is possible that they may be remotely hidden or as I am concerned... they may have been extracted... rendering the whole thing well, pretty much dead. [HINT] Can you extract one of the transcievers and see if it is attached to anything?

Let us know what you find and welcome to BeoWorld!

burantek wrote:

The 3 pin is the problem. It is actually used to "drive" the remaining speakers in your house. I am not certain, but if you clipped these as well and disregarded the 3rd wire, you may get something out on at least the first set of linked speakers downstream. I am just not sure and it would seem a shame to tear up an already installed Master Contol Link system.

Plus, what point would there be to attach speakers to a non-controllable 3rd party system that is located somewhere in another part of the house? Connect a B&O or just forget about the wiring.

Yes, I also read this earlier but forgot to return to when I had time 😕  The volume dials and speakers are not from B&O, so it is anybody's guess how they are connected. The volume controls might be passive at speaker level, which would require high power wire potentiometers... do they feel "scratchy" when you turn them?

Finally, I would expect a Beocenter 9500 or its ilk to have problems driving that many passive speakers. Two or maybe three pairs perhaps, but... so there would probably need to be some of the black box amps that Jeff is talking about somewhere.

 

Thanks for the insight fellas.  I am not home now, but I have removed a volume dial from the wall in the past (by the way, when turned they click, not scratchy).  Behind the dial there was a white box w/ several wires going in and out of it.  If I remember correctly.  I'm glad you replied to this thread when you did. I was on the verge of buying a Beocenter 9500.  Will probably hold of on that at this moment until I make sure it is the correct system.  Anymore info would be very helpful.  Thanks a million!

rhansen wrote:
I'm glad you replied to this thread when you did. I was on the verge of buying a Beocenter 9500.

 

Well, nothing wrong with that anyway! 😂😂😂 You could certainly run at the very least the local speakers!

 

rhansen wrote:
Behind the dial there was a white box w/ several wires going in and out of it.

 

Well, then it may be your lucky day! Did they look anything remotely like this?

rhansen wrote:

Thanks for the insight fellas.  I am not home now, but I have removed a volume dial from the wall in the past (by the way, when turned they click, not scratchy).

So they are rotary switches ("click-click-click..."), not continuous controls? They might be passive volume controls using several fixed resistors, which could work. Still, obviously a custom job by somebody.

The rectangular boxes are remote control transceivers, so at some point it has been possible to control the main system from those rooms. All of them should be connected to the MCL2x boxes (about the size of a small but thick paperback novel) though, they will not do anything useful by themselves...

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