New member and fresh owner of Beocenter 1400 & 4600

7 replies
A(
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Airman49 (archived2)
Bronze
Posted February 24, 2014 at 23:59 GMT
#2247781

A few days ago I saw an ad regarding a Beocenter 1400 for sale and since I had been loking for a stereo from the seventies for a while I called the guy and said that I'm interested. Then he told me that it is one Beocenter 1400, one Beocenter 4600 and a pair of Beovox 3702 speakers he had for sale. Asking price was the equivalent of 70 GBP.

I have never owned any B&O equipment so I had a look on the internet to see what I had said yes to buy. Among other sites, this forum. So I found out that the MMC 20E pickup alone was probably worth the asking price, provided that it was ok.

I was a bit excited when I came home this afternoon with the equipment. Had not been used in years but looked like it had been well taken care of. No damages worth to mention.

Most of the pushbuttons on the 4600 was stuck but thanks to this forum I knew what the problem was and how to fix it. An hour or so later after cleaning the pushbuttons I connected the speakers and plugged it in and had Pink Floyd "Wish you were here" ready. Yes, everything worked as advertised, even the turntable. I haven't heard Pink Floyd on vinyl in years and even the wife was pleased. The only thing not working is the slider for the radio channel search. The presets works fine so I guess it's a mechanical problem. Have to find out how to take it apart and see what the problem is.

After playing Pink Floyd twice it was on to the Beocenter 1400. I like the design of this thing so I think this will be replacing the Sony compact stereo in the living room. Have to find a compatible CD-player.

All the pushbuttons and sliders seemed to work fine so I connected the speakers and turned it on. Well it worked, sort of. One channel at least. Left channel was dead. After fiddling with the buttons and sliders I found out that the problem was the on-off slider for the cassette player. So after a while it was working fine but obviously the buttons and slider are in need of cleaning. Again I have to find out how to take it apart.

So I am very pleased with my purchase. Maybe I have got myself a new hobby :-)

BTW, the seller threw in a strange Ferguson amplifier as a bonus. Haven't checked it out yet.

vikinguk
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vikinguk
Bronze
Posted February 25, 2014 at 11:08 GMT
#2247782

Welcome to Beoworld!

A membership upgrade will get you access to the service manual, where you will almost certainly find that the 4600 radio slider works with thread and pulleys behind that ultra modern front!

Putting these pulley systems back into working order can take a great deal of patience, as you will find if you search through the forum, not forgetting that there is often more information to be found in the archived forum (top right tab button on page).

Graham

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Airman49 (archived2)
Bronze
Posted February 25, 2014 at 23:06 GMT
#2247783

Thanks Graham!

I upgraded the membership and have downloaded the service manual for both the 1400 and 4600. Opened up the 1400 and noticed that it has strings and pulleys for the volume and radio also. Cleaned it and put it together and its working fine now.

But I think the 4600 will be a weekend project. If the string is broken I can imagine that it will take some patience to get it working as it should 🙂

TO
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tournedos
Bronze
Posted February 26, 2014 at 08:24 GMT
#2247784

I once had a BC2800 (the other 2-way combination - record deck & receiver) and it was indeed quite a bit of work to get behind the front panel (and back out!). I believe the 4600 has one more string & pulley, the recording level slider!

I suspect you'll find that the string is intact, but it has become loose from the actual slider. I seem to recall they had the usual 3-pin fork that grabs the string, and once one of them breaks, it won't hold. Probably fixable with hot glue.

Good luck and thanks for joining as silver 🙂

E(
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erikrobert (archived2)
Bronze
Posted March 1, 2014 at 17:05 GMT
#2247785

Have repaired some old fergusons way back, but have bad experiences of them

If agenda was to repair one thing, once I got in I damaged things in th procedure, ending up have to repair many things before finished.

The ferguson speakers sold in Sweden were most likely manufactored in Sweden, and some of them were fantastic. they used a lot of wonderful Goodman drivers. 

A(
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Airman49 (archived2)
Bronze
Posted March 1, 2014 at 18:03 GMT
#2247786

Model 3982 it says on the back. I have checked it and it works but I have no need for it and it is probably worth next to nothing so I will probably take to a second hand shop and try to trade it against something 🙂

But the Becenter 4600 is working perfectly now so I have been in the attic and found my records from the seventies. Haven't played them in 25 years and I'm enjoying myself while having a beer 😁

E(
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erikrobert (archived2)
Bronze
Posted March 1, 2014 at 18:11 GMT
#2247787

Welcome, same thing happened to me.
Vinyl came back to life with B&O aswell with me, often together with some wine 🙂

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