[ajames]

Beocenter 4600 – it is in great condition, cassette, radio and record deck work and it came with a half decent MMC20S – when powered up no sound and lights were dead. Fuse had blown on the amp/power supply board, I replaced the fuse and the lights lit up and i got sound from one channel, but smoke came from a resistor. Replaced it and another but the same effect – looks as if it is the transistors on the heatsink as i tested a couple, so I am replacing them all. I should point out that this is a very steep learning curve and I am learning as I go along and no doubt I will need some advice.

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

matador wrote:

nterested that ajames’ favourite piece is the 9300 – my favourite design is the 9500 – which sits in what we call the playroom – actually have two of these but have the other on long term (permanent!) loan with a friend. The ability to use it with a Beolink 7000 is the advantage amongst other things. Slightly noisy transformer on mine but managing with use of squash balls!

Yes, I love the 9300 design, although I don’t actually own one at the moment – but maybe one day I’ll get another. I had a 9500 too at one point but I found it slightly muffled – I think that was my machine rather than indicative of anything. These days I just play vinyl and stream but I am coming round to wanting a CD player since Apple won’t let me play some of the albums I purchased on iTunes – If you have the CD you can play it forever more or less!

I also had a Beolit 700 and worst than spraying them Blue, which would look good, I sprayed them Pink – as a present for my sister I hasten to add – I thought it looked terrible but better than the mess the panels were in – she loved it!

 

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

I hope not as I have just returned and signed up for Silver Membership. I had a brief spell of non B&O products but couldn’t live with them.

I did look at other forums but in my opinion this one is best – the others are either trying to sell stuff, complain or bragging about what they have. My interest is in classic and modern B&O, but I can only afford the classic! so this place is perfect as both are supported and discussed.

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

Jus to echo what Guy has mentioned – I have an old BV8 in my bedroom and I went into the apple menu and taught it the commands from one of the STBs (Homechoice I think works well) The Apple TV option in the STB menu just repeated each command 3 times which was unusable.

I hear what you’re saying about B&O now, I am also completely lost with it. It seems to have lost it’s magic, particularly if you are reliant on a smart phone to stream everything.

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

Hi – thanks that’s exactly what I needed to know. Thanks again.

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

So nice to see Peter back on this forum – I’ve not been on here for a while either as I’ve not really had a chance to play with my B&O stuff.

John – interested to hear how you get on with the 33/303 as I have the same hooked into BV M100-2 and they sound awesome but I move between them a BM2200 and a Beolink Passive (hooked into my main system)

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

Great, thanks Mark, very much appreciated and puts my mind at rest.

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

When I had mine I used it together with a lintronic code converter. In this way I could have three sources instead of a Beomaster. I think at the side there is an IR sensor, or you plug one in and programme the source that way. In my case I had Radio, CD and A.Tape but you could have any Audio Source or for that matter Video Source.

The external IR eye is used when you have it connected to a standalone system such as a Beosound with an Aux port, or you only require control of those additional sources in the room you are in. Which as you are using it with analogue sources is fine as you probably start them off in the room with the beomaster in.

I seem to recall I wired it into the lintronic converter which in its turn was wired into a Beolink Converter and became a fake Beomaster.

It worked really well but I replaced it with a Media Streamer controlled by the lintronic box, the media streamer has an analogue input so I use that for my turntable.

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

I have the same interests and I love getting old technology to work with new.

Some time ago I have a Boscom source switcher that allowed an extra 3 inputs and was controlled by a Beo4 .

I found this link to it, but cant paste it for some reason – google search Boscom AAUX Expander – not sure if you can buy it as an individual or if you have to be a supplier or how much it is

 

 

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

Thanks Guy, yes that answers the question – I needed a switched 5V supply.

I suppose I could use a Beolink Active with a powerlink to the Active and a splitter but that wouldn’t save me reducing the number of units in standby.

 

Thanks again.

 

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

I was surprised at how difficult or odd he found it, but I’ve been used to Beolink 1000 and then Beo4 for what must be over 30 years so I find other brands difficult to use. For example, the writing on a lot of remotes is too small to read and there are too many buttons. With the exception of DVD1 I have never had any problems using Beo4 or understanding B&O’s language.

I think he summed it up though as he loves the buttons and metres and to know that a HiFi is a HiFi. There are a great many people out there who think like that and thank goodness or it would be a very boring world.

I’ll bet now his interest has been awakened he will go onto buy more!

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

Just spotted that the rubber is detached from the surround so looks like they need refoaming

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

I mounted a pair to the wall by using the holes on the back as a template – there should be two sort of triangly things in the middle and you want to drill holes in the wall in accordance with the distance between the middle of the two – form memory you can adjust them to make the speaker level. I don’t recall any specific mounting bracket – but someone else might have more information

 

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

I don’t think it’s a problem confined to B&O. Whilst I am nowhere near a NHWI, I have noticed that just about everything seems to have bugs, you buy one thing it doesn’t do what it’s meant to do, or there is some fundamental flaw, or technology has changed and it’s outdated.

Take for example Internet Radio, you invest and the BBC expects you to move to their iPlayer app and removes their stations, Dab is replaced with DAB+, DVDs with streaming services. Mobile Phones go out of date too quickly, expensive computers, laptops, tablets etc. etc. etc. It just goes on and on.

It sounds as if the current strategy of moving to NHMWI is inline with car industry, where most are looking at producing less cars but higher value cars.

On the upside I suppose NHWI are immune to a certain extent to the downturn in economies and will continue to buy.

Thank heavens for the ordinary person there is a huge choice of decent vintage gear out there – that works.

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

I lost BBC stations from two of my Internet Radios, however, I can still hear Radio 4 on LW through a Dansette radio from the 1960’s and even older valve radios.

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

I bought the kit from Martin a couple of years ago and they transformed my M100-2’s – he boards when I had finished looked similar to the ones in the photo here and I had to double up some capacitors. I managed it with Martins instructions.

Congratulations on your speakers – I love mine, they are superb.

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

I meant to add that yes, the all vintage setup works great – I’m using mine with Beovox M100-2 and refurbished Quad 33/FM3/303.

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

Wow – your experience is very similar to  mine. I listen to a lot of Jazz and 1960’s/70’s easy listening and some 80’s/90’s pop. I have a Linn LP12 and that was fitted with a Rega Exact, but the sound was never quite to my liking it sounded somehow dull. It became obvious when I acquired a Beogram 3000 with an SP14 for my workroom – suddenly the sound was full on, great stereo separation, lovely bass and good treble. That particular turntable needs some work but compared to the Linn the sound was just so much more to my taste. I have a BG4002 that I’ve had for a number of years and dug that out – the cartridge that came with it is a 20en but the suspension has failed and the tip I think is worn. I managed to get an mmc20s sometime ago and tried that in it and I found that compared to the Linn setup the soundstage is much much more open with better separation. So I tried swapping out the cartridge in the Linn with a Shure M55 – the problem was that the rega cartridge literally fell apart when I took it off the head shell – the back plate detached from the body. Anyway, The Shure sounded so much better but the BG4002 sounded much clearer but didn’t have the bass of the 20en.

So my dilemma was do I spend more money on getting a better cartridge for the Linn – bearing in mind that the exact cartridge wasn’t cheap and was line contact but I was disappointed. Or do I go back to what I know and love – I decided Beograms are so much easier and the choice was between the EN and the CL – so I will go with the EN now and I know I’ll be happy with it. I’m going to sell the Linn as too much choice is confusing and setting it up and aligning cartridges is so complicated compared to a Beogram. Also it would have been a cheaper exercise for me to just get a refurbished MMC cartridge in the first place than buying all these other ones and still not getting the sound I missed from a Beogram!

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

Thanks Tjorven. Yes, if the 20EN was fitted as standard originally then that’s what I should go for – I hadn’t even thought of the alignment issue, which makes total sense.

Thanks again really useful and that’s set my mind at rest.

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[ajames]

I don’t suppose it’s because there is no picture. I seem to remember something about no sound if there is no picture but I am probably completely wrong!

Location: United Kingdom
Favourite Product: Beocentre 9300

[Author]

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