Hey there,

I would only buy stuff with original box and papers.

In terms of service, the only thing that needs service on the Beosound 9000 is the laser unit.

I have a BS 9000 MK2 which was serviced some years ago and regardless of the usage, the laser machanism needs to be serviced again ( complete swap) .

The mechanical parts on the inside are very sturdy in my opinion and the glass door was only a problem of the MK1 version if I remember correctly.

I plan to sell my BS9000 as well, depending where you live this could be an option for you ( comes with box, manuals, Floorstand ( also boxed ) ) and a freshly B&O serviced laser unit...

Feel free to reply / pm me directly for pictures etc. if you are interested ( I live in Germany )

Stephan

Hi Stephan,

I was getting pretty excited until you mentioned that you are in Germany. Sorry I did not mention that I was in the U.S. It's easy for me to forget this is a very internationally based forum.

Let me ask this... What actually goes "bad" in the laser pickup? I believe the clamper is a complete self contained unit so is it the servo motor that spins the CD that goes bad or the laser itself? It sounds like in this case I better get the unit that has been serviced, because the other unit despite having the original box, has no indication of prior service history.

Of course there's another way to look at this... Buying the floor stand for the player that's been serviced is going to run between 3 and 500.00 US. I don't know what the laser replacement will cost on the local unit if and when it ever ends up needing the new laser. Perhaps I'm really splitting hairs at this point and just get the local unit if it's working properly now.

Yeah I'm still not fully clear on what he meant by "re-certified with warranty until May 2013". I mean that makes sense that the warranty would be on whatever was serviced. But it probably was the laser based on what Stephan is saying.

Keep in mind most of the time the unit will be used on the AUX input anyway as I don't listen to a whole lot of CDs, so the CD mechanism isn't going to get a ton of hard use, but it would be nice if it worked when I wanted it to.

Scenarios of a faulty laser:

You choose a CD, the clamper moves to it, disc starts spinning - no sound, disc sops, switches to the next one

Clamper reaches CD, spins it right and left, no sound, no playback etc.

You can see that the laser is about to break if the discs arn't positioned correctly anymore ... if you line up the CDs with their label and then switch to another one and its not exactly in the same position, I would start to worry.

The swap of the entire Laser unit was 220 Euros ( 5 years ago ) with a B&O technican coming to my home doing it.

A pity the you live in the US, I would love to sell my unit here and not over ebay ...

You have to see the units in person, slot all 6 CDs and try it out...

Stephan

And, the re-warranty thing looks strange to me as well... I don't know how this is handled in the US but in Germany there is not such a thing as extending the service plan of a unit....

Hmm... All of this has given me a second to pause and think about what my ultimate goals are here. I really want to have one iconic piece of B&o gear after loving my initial introduction SO much, but given how prickly the BS9000 can be to get at the right price AND make sure you don't end up with a lemon, and given the fact that most of my music listening will be piped in from my Apple TV (accessing iTunes), I'm beginning to wonder if that investment is not best utilized on the best pair of B&o speakers I can obtain.

The only reason this came about is that I was referred by a friend to a mutual friend who is moving and wants to sell his BeoLab 1 for approximately 2400.00 US plus what it will cost me to go get them (no way I trust anyone to ship something like that as well intentioned as they may be). At first I was pretty excited about this possibility knowing where these sat in the B&o lineup at the time they were released. Unfortunately the majority of the personal conjecture I've read here about these has not been very positive. Yes, I know, speakers are a personal preference issue, but I need to think of the law of diminishing returns here and wonder if the BeoLab 1 are 3x better than my BL4000s as they would cost 3x as much. They sure sound like an impressive and beautiful piece of B&o gear. Had never even considered replacing the BL4ks, but if the BL1s are worth it then I'd much rather invest in something that will get all of the use, rather than some of it.

I have BL1's and love them ! Are they better than BL4's.... YES. I also use a BL2 with them. It would be harder to get a good pair of these than a BS9000 which are starting to show up more on ebay. The price is a bit steep but go listen to them and make your own mind up.