Hmmm....

Turntable - The Beogram 5000 is a better sounding deck than the 5005 or 5500

Receiver - The Beomaster 5000 is also a better sounding receiver than the 5500, plus it has the advantages of having controls on it, and not having ridiculous design howlers like the preamplifier output being an attenuated version of the loudspeaker outputs!

Cassette deck - bit trickier here as the 5500 is definitely higher tech and has more useful features than the 5000. However, I still maintain that the 5000 makes better recordings. So, on balance - 5000.

CD Player - the CD5500 is a lovely sounding unit but the one I owned seemed unable to reliably clamp the disc centrally - sometimes it would clamp off-centre and so wouldn't read the disc. Maybe I was just unlucky but, for this reason, the CD50 gets my vote.

So, there you have it - Beosystem 5000 every time. As an added bonus, the 5500 system should sell for more, so you can buy more B&O at a later date. Just remember to hide it from the wife... 😁

Hi,

I agree with Adam.

The CD 5500 clamp wobble is unfortunately normal, it is a design flaw. But do do my various Sony first gen players.

Adam, I think your example had another problem.

That said, the CD 50 is good, reliable once sorted, but the 5500 is the better player.

I modified my BM 5500 to give it a proper preamp output instead of the silly attenuation.

chartz wrote:

I modified my BM 5500 to give it a proper preamp output instead of the silly attenuation.

Tell me more...

Martynka wrote:

 

chartz wrote:

I modified my BM 5500 to give it a proper preamp output instead of the silly attenuation.

 

 

Tell me more...

 

It should be somewhere on the forum... basically I had to cut two tracks and fit resistors. Let me have a look.

Found it 🙂

Here

thanks,

I start reading,

Well I am going to argue the other way.

Beomaster 5500 - great connections and Beolink 1000 compatibility - trumps the amplifier argument. Also MCL2 so you can use active speakers.

Beogram 5500 - the 5000 sounds better - well yes but record a track from the 5500 and the 5000 and play them back blind and tell me which is which. The 5500 has more remote features and you have the 5x00 system because it works by remote.

Beogram CD5500 - simply the best CD player B&O made - the CD50 is a bit flaky - the single DAC which switches is fascinating but B&O were experimenting with the CD50 as is seen by the fact they are almost all slightly different! They are also really noisy - I took mine back as it annoyed me so much when it first came out. The 5500 is much quieter and has the sublime TDA1541A DAC.

Beocord 5500 - good automatic recording level which actually worked.

I still have a 5500 system and it is great!

I've read this and it's simple to do.

First question:

Does the signal from the preamplifier have the same level as in the BM5000 or the BM5500 has other preamps ?? I'm asking because going directly with the preamp was an important argument for BM5000 and you just killed it.

The second question is about CD5500:

Here is man in Poland, Lukas vel "Lampizator"  ... one of the best specialists in the world from tube amplifiers and D / A converters (he is really one of the best). And one day before he started to build and sell his projects in the world, he took various CD players to the workshop. He wrote about CD5500 that it was one of the best made CDs he saw. Details here:

Peter wrote:

Well I am going to argue the other way.

Beomaster 5500 - great connections and Beolink 1000 compatibility - trumps the amplifier argument.

Really?! Personally I prioritise sound quality over convenience, even with B&O!

Martynka wrote:

First question:

Does the signal from the preamplifier have the same level as in the BM5000 or the BM5500 has other preamps ?? I'm asking because going directly with the preamp was an important argument for BM5000 and you just killed it.

The BM5500 has the same output level as the BM5000, it's just that the signal itself is not as good quality because it is not generated from a properly buffered preamplifier circuit.

[quote user="Martynka"]

The second question is about CD5500:

Here is man in Poland, Lukas vel "Lampizator"  ... one of the best specialists in the world from tube amplifiers and D / A converters (he is really one of the best). And one day before he started to build and sell his projects in the world, he took various CD players to the workshop. He wrote about CD5500 that it was one of the best made CDs he saw. Details here:

That is a good question.

It depends on features in my opinion. You don't have any options to expand on the limits a 5000 has. A 5500 now you are talking Beolink 1000 and MCL for multi room and Beovision light control. Only thing missing is Beolab active speakers option.

The 5000 is great for a stand alone Beosystem where you don't need anything else from it. Also the most 1985 dated you can get. 

In the end where does your heart lie?