A Beosystem 4500 is up there among the most iconic B&O designs.

As its been around for quite some time a visit to a good audio technician is well due.

The glue holding the glass panels will have dried out and will need replacing.

Lets know how the repair goes.

Welcome to the forum.

Anyone happen to have recommendations for service in the Seattle area? I called Northwest Audio Service which was highly recommended but that guy no longer services B&O.

Should I trust anyone willing to work on it who has good reviews, or is there something especially unusual about diagnosing/fixing B&O gear? I found the service manual online, and I know how to open the unit, so hopefully it isn't extremely different from a traditional high end receiver (other than the controls!).

It is quite normal analog technique apart control unit. I would start diagnosing power supply power stage (hydrib circuity).

Bad news. I took the Beomaster 4500 to a guy that was semi-retired and used to do warranty work for B&O. He seemed like he knew what he was doing, but a full month went by and I had to keep calling (once a week) to find out what was going on. No progress was made getting it running again.

However, he took it upon himself to pry the glass out of the frame pieces and slap some beefy double sided tape in there. In prying the frame off, he scraped a bunch of the paint off the back of the glass. He also put it back together with no space between the frame parts so that the glass wasn't even sitting in the frame on one end and then just jammed it back on the case. Also the mirror part had a new dent in it and the whole thing smelled like cigarettes.

I spent about 2 hours today getting the double sided tape off and repainting the back of the glass (only where the paint came off) with black model paint. It looks ok again, so my new backup plan is to find a beater on eBay that still works and swap cases. There's lots of 4500 parts on ebay right now, but with the high prices and as-is/no warranty stipulations I'll probably be better off buying a whole 4500.

Apparently (if I can trust anything the guy said) the main board with the eprom is dead, and even if I could find a new chip, I doubt I could find someone who has the firmware and a way to write it to the eprom. BTW, has anyone sent old stuff like this to Atlantic Systems? Any luck?

:(

I have seen a lot of these crappy repairs of the glass plates on these systems... People can really screw things up when they don't care or don't know how to do it properly..

I can supply a new EEPROM with SW 2.2(with full 2-way for BL5000/7000) for you, if needed, and I also have an old BM3500 which is fully working except the tuner, the 3500 and 4500 are 100% identical except the SW.

But I am in Denmark :(

You can send me a private email if you are interrested..

/Weebyx

I have a spare functioning BM4500 with the glass broken that I've been planning to put on ebay, so it would be a good donor. I live in Colorado. Send me a PM.

The most likely culprit is dried out electrolytic capacitors, which is a common problem for any consumer electronics 20 years old. There may be dozens bad in your unit. A trustworthy old school technician who can test and replace capacitors (doesn't need to be a B and O person) can likely bring it back to life. One way to go is to find someone local to replace all the bad capacitors (and use better ones once they do it) who is local, and see if it comes back to life. If it doesn't, then you can send it off to a B and O specialist but at least you won't have to pay them to replace the capacitors. Two B&O specialists I highly recommend are Atlantic Systems in MA (781) 826-8760 and Benny Amina at Modular Electronics in GA (770) 410-1122. They've both worked on these systems extensively. Benny can even repair Beolink 7000 remotes, and those are definitely for a B&O specialist.

A great article on how to choose the right capacitors is here: http://www.condoraudio.com/wp-content/uploads/Reviews/How-to-Choose-Replacement-Capacitors-and-Resistors.pdf Condor restores vintage electronics, including B&O, to a high standard but they are in Israel.

I have restored many of the glass panels and it is a huge PITA to get off the old adhesive without damaging the glass, but it can be done. At this point, it is safe to assume that any of the 4500, 9000, 9300, 9500 units with glass panels have failed adhesive and you are risking breaking the glass from it falling out. The 4500 system is particularly prone since it is designed to be hung on a wall, and the glass will fall out if not repaired. I use 3M automotive double sided tape that is used for holding on badges to car exteriors, with the proper prep wipe system.

The 4500 is an awesome system, with two way remote control and timers, whole house audio control, and the ability to power both vintage passive speakers and modern powerlink speakers.

IDO agree - its sutch a beautifulsystem. I just got myself a compleate one and first thing is to do the glass - how do you rmove the old without damaging the glass??

IDO agree - its sutch a beautifulsystem. I just got myself a compleate one and first thing is to do the glass - how do you rmove the old without damaging the glass??