Beogram 7000 – poor service

[Michael]

Hi Beoworld’ers,

I am hoping to get a little advice on my Beogram 7000. I’ve had it for years and it stopped dropping the needle onto records correctly. It was time for a service.

I discovered a local hi-end stereo repair shop that I sent it to. I had radio silence for a month, I chased (parts and people off sick) fastward and they had it four months without an update, only excuses.

I sent them an email to collect it with a timeline and suddenly, it’s being worked and work was completed on my Beogram CD abd Beocord and the belts for the Beogram due the next day. This was all before a quote and way beyond their limit of £100 per a unit.

I took the hit to get it all back. Upon collection, they mentioned replacing some plastic parts with metal ones in the arm of my Beogram. I honestly didn’t think too much about it as I was on lunch and I just wanted out of there.

The next day I had time to unpack it and test it all. The Beocord seems fine but the Beogram CD is catching as the tray closes and won’t close. It won’t even get close with a CD in it. However, the Beogram return with strange behaviour which concerns me the most.

it sounds awful, so much static. And the arm did a whole record skating across a record in about 30 seconds. Regardless of have the platter installed or a record, as soon as you press play, it’s like the torque of the motor jerks the platter and the arm for a second (the arm bounces slight for a second).

I asked about them calibrating the arm and for this response:

“The part replaced a was part of the plastic moulding on the stylus heading tracking. The part we fitted was a plastic nut and bolt in the exact same position.

we adjusted the set down point to hit records on the run in. As per the B&O guide.

The stylus tracking weight for these 1gram (cartridge is 1.6g) it would have been adjusted to this. But should be checked after moving and transportation even with the transit screws fitted.”

My issue is I have a MMC4 and it should be set to 1.2g. When I got it home, it was set to 1.8g. I’ve got terrible audio, I almost can’t hear it, or the static is crazily bad, plus a skating issue.

I am not an expert, but I am not suspecting they have ruined my Beogram and the radio silence and excuses was because they broke it.

Could anybody confirm if replacing a plastic part in the stylus head with metal would cause issues? Also what would cause the arm to sway/bounce during spin up?

See the video but ignore the audio as that was my kid watching YouTube.

it honestly hurts as I love this stereo and I have been so angry this weekend, I could not reply to their messages.

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Location: UK

Favourite Product: Beosystem 7000

[TK]

That is a shame! Try this: remove the MMC cartridge and set it carefully aside, then remove the black cover to the platter drive wheel- it should just lift off.  Leave the belt in place, so it turns the bottom platter pully. Place your finger to put a bit of pressure on the central disc to hold it down, and hit “play”.  After the system starts spinning, you can remove your finger off the disc.  All the while, point the camera at the exposed gearset.  Try moving the arm left and right.  Then hit stop, and post that video next.

There is a bit of good news with respect to spare parts.  Most of the 7000 internals are shared with the TX-2, including all of the mechanical parts (AFAIK), so with the current cost of a BG7000 in the stratosphere, you should easily be able to find a complete donor parts machine for 50 pounds or less, which a skilled technician can use to carefully transfer over the needed parts into the 7000 case with relative ease.

[Michael]

Hi TK,

Thats good to know about the TX-2 and it may be a good idea in the long run.

Here is the video. I hope it is what you requested. Any input is appreciated

https://youtube.com/shorts/d2LlKl9eqJU

Location: UK

Favourite Product: Beosystem 7000

[TK]

 

The carriage string and the tension spring are installed onto the carriage in a way I’ve not seen before.  It looks like they’ve stretched the spring to the point where its less spring-like   I’d venture to say they snapped off the original string and tension spring mount on the carriage, and fashioned a new mount out of a screw.  That in and of itself is not a problem if done properly.  The installation of the string itself might need a bit of checking, but it does appear to roughly work as-is. I have not checked too closely, but at first glance, the gears all appear to be working properly.  I do wonder if the jitter you see on startup is caused by a belt issue, perhaps by one that is not fitting quite right.  Did they mention if they replaced it?

Also to add, in reviewing the movie you posted 2 days ago, I’d ask you to affirm that your cartridge is fully seated in the arm.  It might just be the angle, but there appears to be a gap between the rear of the cartridge and the mount.

If the cartridge is affirmed to be fully seated (no gap), then the arm skating across the record is another matter, and is potentially an adjustment needed to the arm balance.  You mentioned they remade something in the stylus head – by that do you mean the location where the arm attaches to the carriage, or do they mean the same fix of the broken string mount on the carriage?  If there is damage to the arm that they attempted to repair, then this is where finding a used-but-working  TX-2 can help you fix both issues – AFAIK the entire carriage assembly is a direct swap, and it will most likely come with an unbroken mount on the carriage as well.

 

 

[Dillen]

Yes, that won’t work.

Martin

[Michael]

@TK – it had a full belt service which I did not request but was probably needed.

Do you happen to have an image of how it should look?

re the gap: I think that was me testing set up and I had it on and off as I was worried about damaging it.

@Dillen – what are you seeing as an issue?

Location: UK

Favourite Product: Beosystem 7000

[TK]

Sorry, I have nothing but problems adding inline images to this site from work (seems to work better at home) , so I’ve included a photo as an attachment instead of an inline photo.   The retention tab was broken on your machine, and replaced with a metal pin of some sort.  There’s no reason I can think of that retrofitting a new pin wouldn’t work, provided it’s in roughly the same place.  But it appears that they’ve over tensioned and ruined the spring, which raises more questions about what else happened with the unit under their care.

Have you tried re-seating the cartridge to see if it sounds better?

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[Michael]

The cartiridge was in correctly before the video and it sounded terrible and still does with it fully installed.

thank you for the image, I’ll sleep on this before doing anything. Either way, I’ll be getting it fixed.

Location: UK

Favourite Product: Beosystem 7000

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