[AdamS]

I have only ever heard one pair of loudspeakers that, to my ears, were better than Beolab 90s. However there are three main issues that prevent me from having them:

(1) They were £215,000 per pair around 14 years ago

(2) Each speaker consists of four towers of drive units, with the largest being around 2m tall.

(3) They were a proof of concept of what the company could do and so they only ever made one pair!!!! I suspect this single pair no longer exists either, which makes me very sad.

For anyone interested, they were the ADAM Audio OSS (Olympus Sound System). I heard them at the Munich High End show one year and just sat in front of them for over an hour, absolutely slack-jawed in amazement. They were truly incredible – I still cannot explain how speakers so huge could completely ‘disappear’ in sonic terms.

Some details here: https://www.soundandvision.com/content/adam-audio-olympus-sound-system

Amusingly, they used B&O ICEpower amplifiers!

[AdamS]

You’ve got the first component in a Beosystem 5500 – a logical next step would be to buy the rest of it!

[AdamS]

I’ve been inside my Beovox MS150.2s in the last day or two.

A few years back, one of the midrange domes started distorting and, on taking it apart, it turned out that the voice coil had become partially detached from the former and was rattling around in the gap. Odd, but a replacement driver from Beoparts fixed it.

Then, about six months ago, I realised the other speaker was making similar noises. I took it apart on Monday and, yes, you’ve guessed it:

Well, another replacement unit is on its way to me, but I was initially taking this personally and wondering what the universe has against my MS150.2s in particular! However, lying in bed last night I had a sudden realisation. When I took the speakers apart to replace the first failed midrange, I noticed that in the past, someone had obviously re-capped the speakers and done a pretty shoddy job of it. Consequently, when I was ordering a Beoparts capacitor kit for some other B&O speakers, I ordered a kit for these and fitted it last year.

During this process, I found that whoever had done the crap job had fitted a 33uF capacitor where there should have been a 3.3uF in the same place in both crossovers. Checking the circuit today, it turns out that this capacitor is in the high pass section of that very unit, so it would have dropped the crossover frequency drastically, and sent bass frequencies to the dome. No wonder the flippin’ coils keep cooking themselves and falling off!

Hopefully, it’s not a fix I’ll have to repeat again.

Meanwhile the next loudspeaker job awaits, but this isn’t a B&O one – sorry!

[AdamS]

And the picture they’ve used in their ‘Contact Us’ section is a picture of Heinz Klaus of German loudspeaker manufacturer HEDD Audio!

How on earth do they get away with this?

 

[AdamS]

Those are the standard mains suppression capacitors that have been fitted to most electronics since the 1970s. They can fail and, when they do there’s usually a bang and some smoke, but I would have though this TV was far too young for that.

I wonder if this is tied in with a visit we had a year or two back to change out a board on our Beovision Eclipse TV as a “preventative maintenance precaution” due to a potential failure issue that had been identified? As I’m in the UK, our lovely new forum owners, Multicare, contacted us directly and came and did the job for free, but I wasn’t home that day so didn’t find out exactly what it was they changed.

As the TV is fairly recent, I would say that your best port of call initially would be a B&O dealer if you have one nearby.

 

[AdamS]

Madskp wrote:

AdamS wrote:

Sorry to bring this one up again but how do we write text below quoted replies on the new Multicare Forum? I was familiar with the ‘Text’ tab on the previous forum but that doesn’t seem to be there now.

What I do when I have quoted something like here is to press enter, an then the Quote sign to left allign the text after the Quote. I think it also was that way it worked before.

Aha – got it. Thanks!!

[AdamS]

Sorry to bring this one up again but how do we write text below quoted replies on the new Multicare Forum?

I was familiar with the ‘Text’ tab on the previous forum but that doesn’t seem to be there now.

[AdamS]

Multicare wrote:

AdamS wrote:

Beocord 1200 Deluxe and Beocord 2400

Hi, I have added the information that we currently have. I hope it is useful.

It is indeed – many thanks!
It turns out I actually meant Beocord 2000 Deluxe and not 1200, but another member somehow knew this has sent me the necessary manuals!

[AdamS]

No worries – I’m relieved to know I’m not the only one!

[AdamS]

Thanks for the updates, everyone, and I can completely understand that transferring all the manuals over will be a herculean task – just wanted to make sure it wasn’t me being daft!

The manuals I was after are for the Beocord 1200 Deluxe and Beocord 2400 reel to reel machines but there’s really no panic. Given how long my ‘to-do’ list is I think I should get round to them in August 2025 or thereabouts…

[AdamS]

I will also need to see it in the flesh. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been a bit sniffy about a new B&O product’s picture, only to completely fall in love with it when I see the real thing!

[AdamS]

Surely the whole point of the Beolab 90s (and, I assume, 50s) is that you don’t need to worry about where you put them!

My 90s are plonked in the corners of my lounge, where they look nice, but where my old passive speakers would cause a noticeable room boom. I have run the EQ from my listening seat and they sound sublime.

[AdamS]

Good to be back up and running! Forum looks smart, too.

[AdamS]

The Line In/Line out connector is to separate the preamplifier and power amplifier sections of the unit and is not suitable for plugging anything external in. As you have found, if you remove the linking plug, you don’t get any sound from the speakers.

I can’t comment on where the 36mV figure in the service manual came from but it sounds like a misprint! the Tape 2 and AUX connections are normal line level inputs and so this is where you should be connecting your streamer.

[AdamS]

Yep, you got me too!!

[AdamS]

geoffmartin wrote:

Also, I’ve seen some people make the Room Compensation measurements, but never enable the filters in the Preset.

I would never dream of doing something that silly, however, after a software update a few years back (I can’t remember if it was in the BL90s themselves, or the B&O app) the setup reset itself to switch the Room Compensation filter off.

It was a good few days before I realised something didn’t sound quite right and investigated!

[AdamS]

Oh, yes indeed – it certainly can!

[AdamS]

That looks superb – excellent job!

Although I hate to break it to you but you’re not really listening to CX100s by the looks of it, as they appear to be far from original.

[AdamS]

chartz wrote:

Hi Steve, A cheap Beogram is always worth it. My best deal was a € 80 Beogram 4000 with a $ 70 SMMC20EN – brand new.

My best was a mint, boxed Beogram 4000 from a car boot sale for…………I hope you’re sitting down……….£4!

I repaired and serviced it and then foolishly sold it for the dizzying sum of £90. About 3 months later, Haden Boardman did an article on them in Hi-Fi World magazine in the UK and values shot up to about £500 overnight.

As we all know, those values never came back down. Selling that deck is the biggest audio regret of my life!

[AdamS]

Steve at Sounds Heavenly wrote:

Hi Adam, Good point, I will have another check inside the Beogram to see if there is an MMC4 lurking in there anywhere! Still on the lookout for a good pair of RL140 (and an MMC4!) By the way, will you be heading up to the Maverick hi-fi show again this year? Will be great to hear your B&O setup again! Kind regards, Steve.

No, not planning on doing the show this year – I haven’t joined the forum, either, but I may do at some point.

[Author]

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