Hi Steve,
Thanks very much for the speedy response – very useful and interesting. And yes, I meant Beocenter 9500, not Beosystem. Late night posting!
So a speakerlink input converts the high-level signal to a low-level signal within the Beolab, then re-amplifies it? That is some sort of madness but I guess allows the Beolab amplifiers to optimise the signal for their own drivers. I will try the 3000s with the line-in connection when your attenuated converter arrived and see if my insensitive ears can tell a difference.
My new old Beolab 4000s are Mk 1 with the RCA port so no problem there, I have lots of RCA cables around to experiment with at least.
I did not know that the Beocenter 9000 has pre-out sockets, that’s interesting to know. That makes it an option too, though I guess I would still need 4-pin speakerlink cables from that to make the displays on the Beolab 3000s work. It’s not critical but might be nice.
Am I right in thinking that the Beocenter 9500/8500 is the only ‘wedge’ amp/receiver/center that has both Powerlink sockets and an RIAA phono pre-amp? I would not really use the CD player and certainly not the tape deck at this point so was also looking at Beomaster 4500/3500 receivers, but as far as I can see these would need an external pre-amp to work with my Beogram 1902.
Thanks again!