System 3500 issues

[alfa]

Hi,

I recently bought a complete 3500 system;

• Beomaster 3500
• Beocord 3500
• Beogram CD 3500
• Beogram 3500

all working well for about 3 month now.

However, today the record deck started to do strange things. To begin with it would not start playing – it lowered the stylus to the record, but then immedeately raised it again, after which it would only react to the shut down command. I tried with a single instead, which it did start playing, but then after awhile it got stuck as if there was a scratch on the record – using the shut down command caused it to drag the stylus arm across the record back to the stand-by position without raising the arm….after some time(I guess automatic stand-by timing) it suddenly decided to raise the arm and go into stand-by mode.

Other minor issues;

Beogram CD 3500: works perfectly, but there is noise from the powersupply(I think), that I can best describe as a distinct humming sound…..worn-down power supply?

Beocord 3500: there are a number of double dashed level bars displayed at playback – the first ones are green followed by to red ones – the first of the red ones stays on at all times and only goes out at stand-by. Opening the lid with the “load” conmand, the red bars come on for a long as the lid is moving(?).

If anyone has any ideas about the causes/fixibility of these issues, I would appreciate the feedback.

Thanks in advance.

 

[pepps]

Hi Alfa,

The 3500 is a great system, looks fantastic!

I have a similar issue with my BeogramCD too. If I gently press down on the rear top right hand corner as a cd is playing (on the grill not the lid) the hum stops. So I am inclined to believe perhaps the mounting of the power supply is old and needs replacing. I shall take a look inside soon enough.
It could also be due to a tired capacitor or two. These players are quite old now.
A cap replacement kit is available from the Beoparts store online.
I’m afraid I don’t know what might be causing your other issues with the Beocord and Beogram, other than to check the Beocord is correctly earthed.
The Beogram? I have no experience with the inner workings of these.

Service manuals are available to Gold Beoworld members. Always a worthwhile consideration.

Good luck with the repairs!

Julian

[alfa]

Hi Julian,

Thanks for the reply.

Yes its an awesome system!. I’ve got two other B&O systems(complete 8000 and a Beocenter 9300)  – I got the 3500 system cheap and really just for the record player, but now its has become my favourite one. Like you said its beautiful and I love that I can play both my CDs and records on the same system.

I tried pushing down on the grille of the CD player like you said, but it made no difference, so I don’t know.

Regarding the beocord; when I got it, it only played back on the right channel – it turned out that a couple of wires had come loose in the DIN connector of the link cable, so I solded those back on and then that problem was solved …..I wonder if that strange issue with the level bar display could be with that crappy connector too?.

But at least the CD and tape recorder both still work, so the biggest problem is with the record player. It looks like the arm assembly doesn’t move while the record is playing – i.e. the stylus arm follows the groove of the record with a growing angle to the sensor arm and when it cannot move independantly of this anymore, it just stays at this position on the record.

Anyway, I have no skills in this department, so I don’t think having a service manual would help me much – I will probably need to seek professional help.

Jens

[Author]

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