Hi Nmook. Did you find out what as causing the problem?? Both my beolab 5`s have same problem. Think its caused form overheating. 

Best regards Lennart

We tried replacing the mid-range speaker, but it didn't help. The tech had to replace the entire circuit board for the speaker. It cost around $900, I believe.

I've just swapped-out my two upper tweeters. One had weakened to a point where very little was coming out of it and on replacement found that the other was not performing as well as the new unit. Thus two new upper tweeters of the same age replaced. Beolab5's as good as new now.

Somewhat behind the diagnostic curve on your issues but I would recommend playing L then R sine-wave test tracks to each loudspeaker. The lower tweeter seems to cut at approx. 1250Hz IIRC so no point playing tracks above that (however, it could be useful to identify any potential inequality in these tweeters with 1250 - 10000Hz inputs). I would ensure you have quite a few tracks from 80 to 1250Hz to capture the lower bass to upper bass cross-overs. It is very distinct.

When diagnosing my fault, the B&O technician simply swapped the two ALT heads over and we replayed the test tracks. It was very quickly clear that the tweeter units was a fault and not signal/DSP/Amplification etc of a particular unit....I would imagine swapping the upper bass drivers over on your BL5's could diagnose a similar problem; is it the driver or the internals?

If the problem is internals, then I'm sure your B&O servicer engineer will have a procedure to swap over cards one by one. You should only pay for the units consumed as most faulty components are sent back to Sturer for either re-build or simply swapped as part-ex value.

2 cents worth

nmook wrote:

While the tech is investigating, I figured it couldn't hurt to ask if anyone has experienced anything like this before? Really hoping I don't have to spend a bunch of money on a replacement electronics module...

The symptoms you describe lead very much to the main chassis as culprit. I had the same faulty behaviour on both speakers with a delay of maybe a bit less than a year. This has happened 5-6 years after the speakers have been bought new. Unfortunately, replacing the main chassis is somewhat expensive and costs around 800 Euros/speaker here – the speakers should be serviced entirely at your place. Having said that, the replaced main chassis are working like a charm since then, the upper woofer never failed again.

HTH,
David

David Andel wrote:

nmook wrote:

While the tech is investigating, I figured it couldn't hurt to ask if anyone has experienced anything like this before? Really hoping I don't have to spend a bunch of money on a replacement electronics module...

The symptoms you describe lead very much to the main chassis as culprit. I had the same faulty behaviour on both speakers with a delay of maybe a bit less than a year. This has happened 5-6 years after the speakers have been bought new. Unfortunately, replacing the main chassis is somewhat expensive and costs around 800 Euros/speaker here – the speakers should be serviced entirely at your place. Having said that, the replaced main chassis are working like a charm since then, the upper woofer never failed again.

HTH,
David

By "main chassis,", do you mean something like the main circuit board that other circuit boards plug into?

Usually, when I see the word "chassis", I think of "frame" which I'm guessing is not what you meant.

D

Doonesbury wrote:

By "main chassis,", do you mean something like the main circuit board that other circuit boards plug into?

Usually, when I see the word "chassis", I think of "frame" which I'm guessing is not what you meant.

Yes, me too.

The badly named chassis is the main circuit board.

And beware, it seems it is most often refurbished (with warranty), not changed for a new (even if the seller say it is "new"...)

I had the problem 3 weeks ago. One has changed the whole chassis, has cost 760.00€. Now it functions again.

😎The tittle an interesting paradox

Doonesbury wrote:

By "main chassis,", do you mean something like the main circuit board that other circuit boards plug into?

Usually, when I see the word "chassis", I think of "frame" which I'm guessing is not what you meant.

It’s how they (= B&O) call the main electronics board which is indeed misleading. And it cannot be repaired, only replaced entirely. The replacement part has been ordered from B&O and was new, the PIN remained unchanged. After the board has been switched, the problem just vanished, so no other part was involved.