Well, I've moved halfway across Canada, but the system is finally up and (mostly) working, although I've been wavering about whether to get that belt repaired or not.  I'll probably end up doing it, but right now it's pretty much a non-issue; where would I even be able to get tape cassettes at anyway?!  😁

 I do have a couple questions about the system.  Like I said, everything seems to be working fine, except with one exception:  the Beomaster 5000 has a few buttons that don't seem to work!  I never noticed it this summer because I mostly used the MCP, to be honest.  First off, the outside Mute and Play buttons don't seem to work – they don't have that satisfying "click" feeling that the Play button on the CD50 does, either.  So, in order to turn off the amp, I usually press and hold the Play button on the CD player, which turns off both, or I let the CD player run its course and shut down, and eventually the amp goes to "sleep."

The other buttons that don't work are on the inside panel, and they're the right-side row of buttons running from "FM Mono" to "Advance."  Oddly enough, the single button at the end, "Store," does seem to work – at least when I push it, it gives me the P sign.  The others just have no response.

 Anyone got an opinion?  I'm not terribly concerned because I just use the MCP most of those functions anyway.  Still, I wouldn't mind knowing if it's symptomatic of a larger concern!

 
Finally, the speakers I ended up picking up were Energy's Pro Series 4.5.  They're about 7 years old, but from what I understand were made when Energy still had that small-company quality, and as far as I can tell they sound simply fantastic.  The question I had was about how much I should be careful about driving them with this amp.  They're not "big" speakers – 15-150 W RMS – but that's probably still a little bigger than what this amp was meant for!  Thus, I'm curious as to whether anyone has some recommendations on how loud I should be setting my amp.  I did some testing, and things sound pretty gorgeous and very clear up to the 3.4 (out of 6 of course) range.  But, I stuck some Tool in for some dense, heavy sound, and slowly cranked it a couple notches to see what would happen.  At 3.8, I suddenly got some small crackling, so I turned it back down pretty quick!  Since then I've been a little paranoid – I'm not sure if it was a product of the speaker, amp, or the shitty speaker wire I'm currently running them on (although it is very short, about 5 feet or so, so that shouldn't be an issue.)

Any of that sound suspicious to anyone? 

greg
 

The front panel ribbon cable is bad, it's very common.

Martin

Is there an "easy fix?"

greg 

Easy - no, not really but not impossible, I've done several.
You need to dismount the display and flip-down front panel to gain access to the cable.
The cable will have to be removed and is no longer available from B&O but I have had success with mounting discrete thin flexible wires instead of the ribbon.
Feeling the difference in flexibility over the original cable I actually find the discrete wires the better solution.
Make sure they don't get into a squeeze against the lower front frame chassis when closing the panel and take a note of the position
and exact path of the string for the front panel dampener before taking it apart.

Martin

Medogsfat:

The speaker connection plugs are 2 pin Din (male) which simply plug into the speaker sockets of the beomaster. There are 2 types available at most electronics suppliers, soldered & screw types, and cost pennies. Use any decent speaker wire and makes sure the positive side of the cable is connected to the small round post and the negative to the flat spade post.

Well I went to Radio Shack today and they don't carry 2-pin DIN at all.  I downloaded the Beomaster manual and it says that it uses Phono plugs or Bang & Olufsen 7-pin plugs.  Hmmmmmmm.  Is this information incorrect?  I just need regular Phono plugs?!

Well I hauled the amp out of its moorings today and took a look at the back, and it definitely is a 2-pin DIN as I was told.  None of the big electronics stores that I can find online here in Canada carry 2-pin DIN; there's every other number of DIN up to 9, but no 2!  I'm thinking that maybe I'm going to have to find this online somewhere, or else see if there's a boutique audio store around Halifax that might have some....

The existing speaker wire is connected via 2-pin DIN sockets, but they came with the system and are probably 15 years old at least...not to mention the speaker wires are only 5 feet long.  Sigh.  None of this is easy, is it....;)  

 EDIT:  I've been trying to take an existing 2-pin DIN socket apart and attaching it to the new speaker wire, but don't seem to be able to separate the cover the from internals.  I'm just gonna end up beating it up too much, dammit....

greg