i read that the a light touch on the panel of the 3500 gives access to the system: is that a controls access or does that mean that the door opens with the light touch (is the door automated / mechanical or is it manual, would be the other way of asking the question!)

thanks again!   i am still leaning towards this beauty, too bad about the rl35 not hanging though!     
 

The panels are motorised. If you touch 'load' on either the Beocord or Beogram CD, then the panels open to reveal the cassette or CD, and some secondary controls in the case of the Beocord.

Ben

upon further review... i have a pair at hand...

i actually don't think now that the rl35's had a wall mount option.

my bad, unless anyone can confirm otherwise.

in the product section it says:

"Red Line loudspeakers followed your music tastes right up the wall if you wanted! All models except the RL35 could be hung on the wall or be suspended from the ceiling;"

Ralf

so now someone has put a beocenter 8000 under my nose and I am starting to compare... all comments welcome !

I read on one of the beo sites that you can compare a Beocentre 9500 to a Beosystem 4500, and a 8500 to a 3500. The Beosystem 4500 and 3500 are basically 9500 and 8500's in seperate boxes.

One of the advantages of the Beosystem is the ability to be wall hung.

An 8000 is an even more basic version, which lacks the ability to connect in multi room systems, with only 2 pin speakerlink, and no powerlink for connecting any of the powerlink equipped speakers.

If you are only looking to drive passive speakers, it may be fine for you! The glass control panels still suffer the same as the 3500 and 4500 though, so make sure you rebond well.

yes you can mount the 8000 but i think i need to find mounts since none are incuded? the 3500 i am looking at includes them which makes it easier (although the 3500 has the rl35s which can't be mounted and the 8000 has rl60.2s which can be!!!)

 nothing is easy.. .. i have emailed a couple of shops hoping to hear that they can sell me mounts for the 8000 at a reasonable price but haven't yet heard back - nor found too many alternative sources so far (fact is, I actually have to do a little work in and around my b&o shopping!)

cheers again!