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Welcome back into the B&O groove!

Location: Kent, UK

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Thanks to all Beoworlders for all the help and support I received in 2022 – you lot have helped me get my home further towards where I want it to be and I appreciate you all!

In 2022 I have: acquired and installed a BV7-40 mk 5 with that glorious refresh rate, swapped out BL6000 for BV3000 as the rear speakers (connected to a MCL2P) bringing a glorious even tone across the living room sound stage, cable-tidied the living room, acquired a fab pair of Beoplay H7s, acquired a BS2500 “chassis” and two BL2500s to complete my office sound system, married a BV6-22 to the BL6000s in the kitchen (wall-mounted and cable-tidied) and started a new power conservation style of using B&O products by actually switching off the mains when items are not in use (PIN codes removed from BVs).

But the real highlight of 2022 was taking a family holiday to Denmark in the summer and making my own pilgrimage to Struer to visit the B&O museum (the family went to Legoland). It was a significant chapter in my own lifelong appreciation of Bang & Olufsen to go to see some of the finest products (not just the electronics but also the furniture design) crafted for listening and viewing pleasure.
The staff at the museum were absolutely charming and made me feel so special! (They even prepared a lovely gift for me to take home with me after my 3 hour uninterrupted tour.) One of the things I came home with was a classic poster which I’ve had framed and shall install (as soon as we get a little further along with house renovations…) on the landing.
As Steve (Sounds Heavenly) has attested, the visit to Struer is not to be missed if you’re a keen B&O fan.

So happy new year to you all and here’s to more adventures in sound and vision throughout 2023.

Julian

 

Location: Kent, UK

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Merry Chrstmas everyone!

Fabulous prizes this year, congratulationals to all winners ?

Enjoy the holidays fellow Beofans ??

Location: Kent, UK

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Hi Akarts,

You may have answered your own question – are you putting too much power through the Pentas?

What are the Pentas connected to? What are you using to drive them?

Julian

Location: Kent, UK

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Great result!

Location: Kent, UK

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A very practical and sensible job. Well done.

Julian

 

Location: Kent, UK

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Hello,

I do have a pair of BV32 panel covers left and right. Do you still need them?

Julian

Location: Kent, UK

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Hi Wibb,

Indeed I have the complete 3500 Beosystem. It’s a classic understated B&O design and personally I favour this version to the shiny Beosystem 4500 which shares the same chassis and most functionality.

When I used to use the digital output of my old Beogram CD 3500 into a 5.1 receiver the sound would sometimes cut out part way through playing a cd. I hope yours doesn’t misbehave in the same way.

Julian

Location: Kent, UK

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Hi Hemiceni,

A rather crude way to try and suss out the problem would be to gently try to replicate the static/popping noise yourself. Very gently touch the tone arm, the platter, the cable connecting the deck to your amp, the connection points at both deck and amp ends, etc.
If you can recreate the interference in a controlled manner you’ll be closer to understanding what the problem might be, but you may also be able to rule out what is not.

Do check that the surface the deck is sat on is level and all the Beogram’s rubber feet are intact and protecting the deck from ‘flat surface to flat surface’ contact.

Julian

 

Location: Kent, UK

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SOLVED!

After your useful comments and suggestions I have solved the problem (for now).

I tried the old classic ‘plug in and unplug repeatedly’ a headphone connector in the little headphone socket.
And sure enough it all sprang into life!

I love this forum! Always helps get results when we work together!

Thank you all!

Location: Kent, UK

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matador wrote:

Hi, I’m not good at this but what comes to my mind: Do you have sound from the headphone socket? Did you deactivate the converter as mentioned above? Do the mute light light on or off accordingly, meaning could it be a stuck key on the keyboard? Could it be the headphone switch that is stuck?

Hi Matador,

Thanks for your reply.
Um no, I didn’t deactivate the converter. It was an MCL2P – I didn’t state that correctly in my original post sorry.
The mute button on the keyboard does activate the little green light as expected. Doesn’t appear to be stuck.

I’ve connected headphones and sound plays through them fine. I don’t hear a relay click when I plug them in though.
Perhaps a randomly failed headphone relay?

Julian

Location: Kent, UK

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Guy wrote:

When you say that you ‘had it connected to a BL converter and was playing through some Beovox’, do you mean that you were using an ML/MCL converter as a Passive (amplifier) using its PL input, and were you connecting it to the BC2500 using the same PL Mk3 cable that you are trying to use with the Beolabs?

Hi Guy,

Thanks for your reply. I was using a Powerlink cable I bought from Steve at Soundsheavenly from one of the Powerlink sockets on the BC to a MCL2P and then on to the Beovox.

I’ve since tested the BL2500s with my BV6 using both a Mk3 Powerlink cable (works fine) and the original 5-pin Powerlink cables which came with the BL2500s (works fine).

Julian

Location: Kent, UK

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Hi there,

Thank you for replying.
Activating and deactivating the mute as you kindly describe doesn’t have any effect on switching on the Beolabs sadly.
Any other ideas?

Location: Kent, UK

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I love my Pentas for their presentation and spatial elegance.
Coupled with a pair of Beovox 3000 (flat panel) in a 4 speaker pattern, a cd of Hail To The Thief, The Gloaming (track 8), is nothing short of magical.

I replaced a pair of Celestion Ditton 44’s with BL Penta – but those Dittons are still in my posession because those too are glorious.

BL 6000 are the biggest disappointment for me. So shallow.

The best, in my opinion, are Beovox 1702. So beautiful and clear. Obviously they’re small and won’t rumble thunder on a film score, but play Nina Simone and your heart will melt.

Location: Kent, UK

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guy wrote:

Great news – thanks for the update. And I’d be interested to know if the MCL2P ‘power down’ starts working as it should.

The conclusion: everything works perfectly!
I unplugged the whole system to do some work on cable tidying, etc.
When I put everything back together, slowly, over a whole Sunday recently I ended up with everything in harmony: Beovision activates MCL2P on startup and deactivates it at standby/switch off and the sound is superb (as mentioned before – but man it’s so good it’s worth mentioning again).

Location: Kent, UK

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Steve at Sounds Heavenly wrote:

Hi pepps, That is great to hear! I grew up with a 1970s Beocenter 3300 which I spent months repairing, I was amazed by the power of that system. Looking back, there are two systems that I wish I had been able to buy when they were released: one was the Century, which I later owned (lovely lighting as with the BS2500!) and more recently the Beosound 1. That was why I thought it could be interesting to feature in the video as it is often forgotten but it is a superb first system for anyone wanting to try out B&O on a budget. Kind regards, Steve.

Aha yes the wonderful Century….I’m gently trying to guage whether or not our 12y/o would enjoy a Beosystem. He currently has my old pair of Beovox 3702 proudly on his desk (they’re 1/3 of his desk space!) so a Century would certainly free up some space. He loves the movement of my other B&O items, don’t we all love the theatre of owning B&O pieces?
It’s a good comment Steve…*scratches chin in ponderment*

Location: Kent, UK

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My first B&O speakers were Beovox 1702s. The smallest of the range of aluminium-edged wooden pressure chamber speakers. They’re still in use today and were given to me by my Mum. They came from her Beogram 1500 which fell out of favour during the cd boom (my Dad bought a Beosystem 3500 when they were on offer for £1k back in the 90’s).

I took those 1702s with me to London when I left home and they have stayed with me ever since.
I was using them at a party once and someone knocked one off the sideboard to the floor – the tweeter fell out! (It was rattling around against the inside of the baffle.) Something had happened with the wood where the tweeter was screwed in – might have been at build stage, which is not expected. But nobody had had the grills off in our ownership, let alone the drivers out. Or maybe the shock from the fall was so great that the weight of the tweeter forced the thread in the wood to fail? Those little drivers are heavy.
Anyway, I carefully repaired them and they remained the mainstay in all sorts of non-B&O set-ups until I bought my first BM5000 (pizzabox) in 2009 where they worked as secondary speakers (speakers 2) in the dining room in a basic (non-Beolink) multi-room setup. (My main speakers at the time were Celestion Ditton 44s – they’re fabulous.)

When I changed the BM5000 for a BM6500 and a pair of Penta Mk2, the Beovox 1702s remained in full use but this time in the kitchen (room 3) in a MCL2A set-up.

And now they serve my other half and me well as our bedroom speakers, providing the sound from a BS2500 (via MCL2P) – which looks just stunning as a bedroom system. The lighting is glorious and the sliding glass so calming and graceful. The power from the MCL2P works really well with the little 1702s.

Oh dear I’ve been rambling on again………..

Location: Kent, UK

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Great news – thanks for the update. And I’d be interested to know if the MCL2P ‘power down’ starts working as it should.

Quick update: the MCL2P activates each time I turn on the BV. Which is odd because the BV is set to default to 1 speaker for ‘visual’ and 2 speakers for ‘audio’.

I’m curious if this is because I set the rears as BL4000.

More experimenting after work…

Location: Kent, UK

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Guy wrote:

Have you tried moving the MCL2P powerlink connection to one of the TV’s PL sockets where the Pentas are connected – just to see if they trigger on?

Hello Guy, a good idea.
However I think I was just rushing yesterday and didn’t go through everything carefully.

Everything is now working pretty much perfectly.

The PL cable I had used (originally plugged into the right hand Penta) was the problem. I tested it by plugging it into my BM3500 and it would not activate the MCL2P at all.

I swapped it for one I bought from Steve@SoundsHeavenly and it worked fine. So I switched everything off and plugged Steve’s PL lead into the BV and it activated the MCL2P without issue.

I may have been too hasty yesterday. And on reflection I didn’t power off the Beosystem 3500 which is linked to the BV via Masterlink converter.

But now I have everything in the right place and it all works a treat! Although I do have to power down the MCL2P myself, it doesn’t do so when I switch off the BV.
But I shall do another full power down and see if that resolves the issue.

You know what though? These Beovox 3000s sound almost perfectly matched to the Pentas during the white noise set-up test. The tone is very very similar. And my quick test just now of Rise of the Jedi, an early scene where Ben goes to meet Palpatine and The Emperor says, “My boyyyyy” with all that lovely low end rumble…..ohhh man that sounds so good in 4 speaker mode.
I think the switch over from BL6000 to these Beovox is a fluky but inspired choice! I have regained floor space and appear to have a vastly improved sound AND the Beovox compliment the Pentas so well visually. So subtle but very sexy!

Once I’ve chased in the speaker cables and finished the skirting conduit I’ll pop up so photos.

As always thank you all for your interest and support!

Julian

Location: Kent, UK

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Millemissen wrote:

Do you have any front speakers (L/R) connected?

MM

Yes, Penta Mk2 left and right and a BL7.4 centre.

Location: Kent, UK

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