Well not only have a learn't that I didn't really make a mistake....I have learned a lot about speakers too!! Thanks for all the posts. Its been SO interesting and informative. Now I just have to wait for the Beovox M150's to arrive!

Alex wrote:

My 6500 can be a little unexciting to listen to, although I've been told this is down to capacitors in the output stages, and that they can be removed if you want to improve the performance. I'm always wary of D-I-Y modifications though...

We've had a pretty good fight or two over those caps on the forum! I've removed them from mine and I still think that made a nice, although far from revolutionary improvement. But they will go back (maybe just smaller value) if the receiver is going to be used with a more difficult load than it has now.

(And no, I don't mean something physically big with a "difficult load"... just longer speaker wire runs or an MCL link setup. It's now ~3 m to a pair of passive Pentas and nothing else connected.)

I agree with most of the posts here. It is commonly forgotten that most listening in a domestic setting takes place at around 2-3 watts, so I cannot foresee any problems driving the M150's with a Beomaster 6500.

Simon 

I'm currently sporting some fire-retardent Y-fronts, so here we go...

The MS150 was meant to be partnered with the Beomaster 8000, hence their being contemporaneous in the product line. Yes, you can use an amp with a smaller power rating to drive them, and I'm sure it will sound fine at moderate listening volumes. MS150s were, however, built to perform above moderate listening volumes, hence their size and cost.

Having owned most of the 'good' B&O amps over the years (Beomaster 5000, 6000 (LED) 8000 (LED) and Beolab 5000), and having owned many of the 'bigger' B&O passives (Beovox Pentas, 5000 panels, MC120.2s), what I can say is that there is definitely a hierarchy of both B&O amps and speakers. Generally speaking, the bigger amps and speakers sound the best - this is not surprising given that the bigger ones were usually top-of-the-line at the time they were produced. B&O not being a shonky company, it usually charged its customers for what they got, i.e. more bang-per-buck. I'm sure at the time the M100s were current, someone somewhere probably went into a B&O store and asked to have a pair with a Beomaster 1500 or something similarly underpowered. Can you guess what the salesperson's advice would have been?

What I find perplexing and slightly irritating is that whenever we have a discussion like this, and some sensible advice is offered based on personal ownership experience, others with little or no experience of either the 'good' amps or the 'bigger' passive speakers chime in with esoteric information about power handling etc. If you have the experience to answer the question 'what will X sound like with Y?', then please do chip in. If you're just going to reel off figures about how you expect X will sound with Y, dismissing others' personal ownership experience then you are just making an assertion not based on any evidence.

And yes - sorry if this upsets people, but there are a lot better B&O amps than a 6500. It might come in a pretty box and not be a labour of love to have serviced etc. before you can get any performance out of it at all, but it is still not in the same class as the amps known to most collectors to be the most desriable produced by B&O. You offer any serious enthusiast a Beolab 5000 or a Beomaster 6500 and see which one they'd pick time after time after time...

j0hnbarker wrote:

And yes - sorry if this upsets people, but there are a lot better B&O amps than a 6500. It might come in a pretty box and not be a labour of love to have serviced etc. before you can get any performance out of it at all, but it is still not in the same class as the amps known to most collectors to be the most desriable produced by B&O. You offer any serious enthusiast a Beolab 5000 or a Beomaster 6500 and see which one they'd pick time after time after time...

I know which I'd pick between my 6500 and 4400! No doubt over which is the better amp, even given the age difference. 🤒

I had some (refurbished/driverss & cap's) connected to my BM7000 for a time & although it won't have been the very best amp for these it certainly wasn't lacking when driving them to a more than decent level. The M150's actually sound excellent at even low volumes. They are now residing in Ireland connected to a BM6500 & the owner loves the set up.

Chris.

John, the original question was whether it is safe to use a Beomaster 6500 with M150's, and the answer is quite simply "yes".

In fact, Henrik above says he's using a pair with a BM7000, and he doesn't mention "struggling".

Nobody claimed that this combination would be a match to your fine BM8000. Only that a Beomaster 6500 will perform just as a Beomaster 6500 is supposed to perform, even with these speakers. And that creates the irritation, as you are not discussing the same part of the picture.

Coming to your example of a Beomaster 1500 (which is actually a very good amp, with a circuit design closely resembling a BM4400), yes, it would've probably been silly to buy one with a pair of M100's. But now consider that setup anyway, and compare it with whatever the recommended speakers for it were, S25 or S30? Which setup would you expect to sound better?

Finally, your last question - I have one of each (and actually the entire shoebox lineup), and would still choose the BM6500, thank you, as having more of those would be far more useful to me 😁

I agree with Mika. Having had a very large collection of amplifiers and speakers, I have found that any of the B&O hi-fi range can be used with any of their passive speakers. The BM8000 is a fine amplifier but is not my favourite. I would actually admit that I have used my 5500 and 7000 far more with a variety of speakers including MS150s and M100s. The most important part of the equation would seem to be the source, followed by the speakers in my experience. My ability to tell amplifiers apart is one I would hesitate to try in an ABX test!

I have as main Beomasters:

2 Beomaster 6500

2 Beomaster 6000 '80s

2 Beomaster 8000

I have been using 6000 and 8000 since 2006 on and off depending on what was actually working and what was at Dillen. I can't make my mind up about 6000 or 8000 being my favorite of the two other than I think I can live with 6000 and the 8000 is to wide for any B&O stand I can find.

I have been using my first Beomaster 6500 for a year with the Beovox S80.2 and exept the right channel need for service the sound was good in my ears. Once you give the Beovox a touch of bass depending on the source as I find the S80.2 a little light on that it sounds just as well as the Beomaster 6000. I now got Beovox S120 waiting for the return.

Why 2 of each? 6000 and 8000 white and rosewood versions

I got the second 6500 by chance for not much.

In the future I'm going to go with the Beosystem 6500 and Beosound 9000 with the Beovision AV9000. I'm keeping the white Beomaster 8000 but that's going to be it.

tournedos wrote:

John, the original question was whether it is safe to use a Beomaster 6500 with M150's, and the answer is quite simply "yes".

In fact, Henrik above says he's using a pair with a BM7000, and he doesn't mention "struggling".

Nobody claimed that this combination would be a match to your fine BM8000. Only that a Beomaster 6500 will perform just as a Beomaster 6500 is supposed to perform, even with these speakers. And that creates the irritation, as you are not discussing the same part of the picture.

Coming to your example of a Beomaster 1500 (which is actually a very good amp, with a circuit design closely resembling a BM4400), yes, it would've probably been silly to buy one with a pair of M100's. But now consider that setup anyway, and compare it with whatever the recommended speakers for it were, S25 or S30? Which setup would you expect to sound better?

Finally, your last question - I have one of each (and actually the entire shoebox lineup), and would still choose the BM6500, thank you, as having more of those would be far more useful to me 😁

No Mika. Ben's original question was whether the 6500 'would struggle to power them'. I felt that the answer was yes, given the other Beomaster options out there. When I wanted speakers for my Beomaster 900M, I chose Beovox 1000s not Beovox 5000s. There was a reason for that. You yourself have answered my own question as to what would sound better using the hypothetical Beomaster 1500 situation, therefore I don't see what point you're trying to make. Of course the 6500 is more 'useful' in terms of being able to integrate into existing setups etc., but the bottom line is it will struggle (Ben's original question!) vis-a-vis other more powerful Beomasters, such as the example of the 8000 (the amp the speakers were intended for!).

I do like the 5000/5500/6500/7000 systems, but they are not good amplifiers (I owned the supposed 'best', the 5000) compared with what preceded them. B&O was moving towards the Beolab speakers in a big way by this point, and I'm afraid the amp in that Beomaster is not fully capable of exploiting the MS150s in the way they were intended to operate.