I’m lucky enough to live in France near the Swiss/German/French border so collecting buys from sellers within Europe (and on occasion Denmark or up to Hamburg) is relatively easy.  My latest buy was from a guy a few kilometers outside of Berne in Switzerland (just under 2 hour drive for me) and what a beauty I think it is.

The Hi Fidelity B&O amplifier 608, which he was selling on behalf of an old friend.  Mine for the princely sum of 260€.  Just a note to say that this amp is smaller than I was expecting having never seen one before (463mm wide x 204 mm deep x 176 mm high) but very heavy!

The case was in need of a clean and polish but it looked very impressive apart from a missing dial button as can be seen in the pictures – hopefully sourced from someone reading this w ho may have one spare.  These were used on various audio units and televisions (e.g. Capri 609 23K which I have but don’t want to remove one from it).

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I opened her up yesterday for an inspection.  Out dropped the schematics from under the plate which by the look of it has never been unfolded, as fresh as the day it was printed. 

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Removing the pristine back cover, it almost looks brand new inside.  I don’t know the history of this amp as the seller wasn’t the owner.  As I haven’t seen one of these amps in the ‘flesh’ before, perhaps ‘Dillen’, Peter or some other experts/owners of this amp can say how original they feel this one might be?  It looks too good to be true.  All components look as though the unit was made a few months ago – not 50 years ago.  Maybe it’s been unused in a box for decades or the previous owner has restored it – I’m perplexed by its condition.  Even the wood casing looks new inside apart from some heat markings above the tubes.  Now the case is cleaned (Isopropyl alcohol and a ‘magic sponge) and treated (orange oil especially for cleaning, feeding and polishing wood in an all natural product), it looks beautiful now.  The printing on the front panel is perfect and the panel itself is unmarked.

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The important thing for me is that it is fully functional – all controls operate without noise and do what they are supposed to do – including the loudness, filters, bass and treble indicators etc.  All inputs work and the sound is lovely and warm as a tube amp should be – even though the connections/speakers I made to test the unit (and using a digital Project tuner!) were ad hoc.  The speakers were a previously untested pair of Beovox 1000 (HT 1000 type 6208) and a Beogram 4004 with an MMC20EN styl[View:http://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/themes/hawaii/utility/:800:700]us.

 I’ll set her up today with a spare pair of Beovox 3000 (Type 6220) and my Grand Prix Moderne 608.  I’m not sure which turntable to use on a permanent basis – recommendations are welcome.

I found the use of the ‘loudness’ function made the sound too treble heavy for my preference, almost ‘tinny’, so I leave it on the low setting.  The ‘rumble and scratch filters’ operate and do make a big difference” but again, I feel that for my ears, the scratch filter removes too much of the total higher frequency sound and creating a muffled type of sound. 

When I listened to a CD4 Test Vinyl the other day (in preparation for sorting out a Beogram 3400 and Beomaster 6000 Quad set-up) I discovered that on a stepped sound test, my ears don’t hear above 11 kHz or below 80 Hz.  My wife who is 8 years ‘less old’ than me has a larger hearing range as you’d expect so what sounds OK for me, may not sound good to others.I’ll set her up today with a spare pair of Beovox 3000 (Type 6220) and my Grand Prix Moderne 608.  I’m not sure which turntable to use on a permanent basis – recommendations are welcome.

I found the use of the ‘loudness’ function made the sound too treble heavy for my preference, almost ‘tinny’, so I leave it on the low setting.  The ‘rumble and scratch filters’ operate and do make a big difference” but again, I feel that for my ears, the scratch filter removes too much of the total higher frequency sound and creating a muffled type of sound. 

When I listened to a CD4 Test Vinyl the other day (in preparation for sorting out a Beogram 3400 and Beomaster 6000 Quad set-up) I discovered that on a stepped sound test, my ears don’t hear above 11 kHz or below 80 Hz.  My wife who is 8 years ‘less old’ than me has a larger hearing range as you’d expect so what sounds OK for me, may not sound good to others.

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More pictures for fans of this amp or for general interest:

Under the base plate

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BAse plate in-situ

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Rear cover and connections:

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 More inside:

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I hope this pleases you as much as it does me.

All the best from a hot and sunny France,

Dave