This is my favorite Bang and Olufsen item ever made. I had mine break after a power outage approximately two years ago but I wish they woud continue making it. Does anyone know the reason why they discontinued it? If I ever see a new one again, I will be the first one in line.

Probably for the same reasons other manufacturers discontinue products. They will have decided this product/design had run its course and they superceded it with the beosound 9000 which is a fair enough repacement IMO. B&O designs do tend to run much longer than other manufacturers but I agree with your comment regarding it being a favourite. Another reason could well be the departure of Jacob Jensen who designed it I suppose but how much this had a bearing on the decision I don't know.

Chris.

 

A.Tape was obsolete...

Yes, I do not remember the last time listening to a tape. The Beosound 9000 was an excellent replacement but I think the Beocenter 9500 is far superior to some of B&O's mot recent models.

You didn't get rid of yours after it broke did you?  It was likely repairable.

I do use cassette tapes from time to time - not that I have recorded anything in 15 years or so, but I have my old tape collection and I got back to it after getting a Beosystem 6500. That deck is simply amazing! And of course, to get back to the subject I just got me a BC8000, which apparently has the same cassette section and sounded equally good.

BC9300 lacked Dolby C, though, and I can't see why I would want to use the tape section on that. But I don't think that would've had a major influence on the decision to cancel the line, though, since the same mechanism was used in the Beosounds that followed.

It was a long line of products, though, and I suppose one of the major reasons to stop producing them was that the power amplifier became obsolete if you kept getting your speakers from B&O. 

camshaft:

You didn't get rid of yours after it broke did you?  It was likely repairable.

We have been going through storage this week and trashed it on Saturday. If I can ever get a new one, I really want it.
 

tournedos:

BC9300 lacked Dolby C, though, and I can't see why I would want to use the tape section on that. But I don't think that would've had a major influence on the decision to cancel the line, though, since the same mechanism was used in the Beosounds that followed.

Do you use Dolby C? The major disadvantage of the deck is not that, but the inability to set the recording level oneself. Although the B&O automatic record level was not as bad as some, it was still not great! The 9500 does at least have an over ride even if the VU metering is pretty basic. 

Peter :

Do you use Dolby C? The major disadvantage of the deck is not that, but the inability to set the recording level oneself. Although the B&O automatic record level was not as bad as some, it was still not great! The 9500 does at least have an over ride even if the VU metering is pretty basic. 

Yes, I do - or actually used from 1983 on, when I got a JVC deck with Dolby C. All my tapes have been recorded on that, and would sound absolutely s*ite on Dolby B. So, I've never made a real recording on the B&O decks, and didn't think of the level adjustment. I agree it's a serious flaw, even the Beocord 6500 is hard to use manually.

The surprising thing, knowing that Dolby C is rather critical on adjustments, was that my old recordings done with the JVC sounded so great on these B&O machines! 

Interestingly, I've got most of my tapes recorded on a Denon deck (with Dolby B or C and manual level control) and they sound best on my Ouverture with Dolby NR completely deactivated. Another observation is that the TDK metal tapes sound best.

I confess to using no Dolby at all - I don't mind tape hiss but I am very sensitive to the pumping effect which I find worse on Dolby C. I always use good tape - SA is my favourite though I do have some MA-XG kept just in case! You clearly are in need, if you don't have one already, of a Beocord 9000! The new type 5000 is also extremely good.

I just watched Angelina Jolie controlling a BeoCenter 9500, with BeoLab 8000s, using a Beo4. In which movie? (And isn't this geeky?)

If tapes recorded with Dolby on sound better played back without the NR off, I would clean the heads. The Ouverture design does not protect the heads very well. Playing Dolby C encoded tapes without the decoder switched on would normally sound extremely odd. One reason I don't use C as it won't play on most decks. You can get away without have Dolby B as the increased treble is normally disguised by the falling response of most tapes and tape decks!

I have just purchased a BC 9300, mint condition. And now I am on the lookout for speakers to match it. I would like to keep the speakers in the same time period as the BC so I am thinking CX 100 and Cona to match. What do you think.?

 

 

 

 

 BC 1, BM 8000, Beocord 9000, Beogram 6006, Beovox M75, BC 9300.

Good combination but also consider the Redline range which are a better speaker. CXs are wonderful considering how small they are but the Cona has to work quite well up the frequency spectrum and is hence a bit more directional than is ideal. Looks good though!

I have had the RL's some time ago...actually my first B&O purchase....and I think they sound very good at all volumes. But IMO they take up too much space as my livingroom isn't the biggest. So thats why i'm concidering the alternative.

Peter :

Do you use Dolby C? The major disadvantage of the deck is not that, but the inability to set the recording level oneself. Although the B&O automatic record level was not as bad as some, it was still not great! The 9500 does at least have an over ride even if the VU metering is pretty basic. 

Recording level IS manually adjustable on the BC9500!  I used to use it all the time.  Another trick I'd do is start my source material and let it play a bit until I felt it encountered enough level peaks, then I'd lock that recording level and start the actual recording.  I still have my 9500 but haven't made a tape recording in probably 10 years with it.

If you want more into on how to set recording levels, let me know and put the instructions in this thread.

 I used Dolby C almost exclusively.  With either B or C, this was the only deck I used where Dolby actually worked as advertised.  The highs weren't squashed at all on playback, where with other decks, recording then playing back in Dolby would just kill the highs.  Of course, if I was making tapes for my factory car deck, I wouldn't use C.

-- Paul 

xkd220:

This is my favorite Bang and Olufsen item ever made. I had mine break after a power outage approximately two years ago but I wish they woud continue making it. Does anyone know the reason why they discontinued it? If I ever see a new one again, I will be the first one in line.

It's my favorite too (I have 9300). The 9000 is nice but I always thought it should have had the touch panels which have a pretty good wow factor and look nice. Mine is 14 years old and works just fine. They could have updated it and maybe put the SD card slot where the tape was if they wanted; the package is pretty flexible conceptually. In the Articles section of this site it talks about Jensen:

In 1962 he set up his own drawing office on a hillside sloping down to the Limfjord in North Jutland. It is from here he derives inspiration for his severe, horizontal, minimalist idiom, in which the characteristic qualities of Danish neo-classicism can be discerned in shape and colour. This applies especially to his many works for the electronics firm of Bang & Olufsen, the success of which is to a great extent dependent on the design types developed by Jacob Jensen in the 1960s. 

I like that style and the new products don't have it. I grew up on a town overlooking a large lake, so maybe there is a connection there. I think the products that have an aspect ratio greater than say 2:1 will always look interesting from across a room simply because of their shape. Systems after the 9000 are boxes, nice boxes, but still boxes.

They are fairly common on eBay and generally easy to repair. I have owned two over the years (still have the second one as an office stereo). I too love the form factor, but admittedly it would be a bit silly in this day and age to produce a unit with a cassette deck. 

I've been looking into recessing an iPod dock into the cassette space on a BeoCenter 9500. The person I spoke to concerning this said it was eminently doable, but the BC9500 I had as a candidate for the mod was so mint that I just couldn't get myself to gut its heart.

(The Jolie movie was "Life, or something like it" from 2002). 

beopaul:

Peter :

Do you use Dolby C? The major disadvantage of the deck is not that, but the inability to set the recording level oneself. Although the B&O automatic record level was not as bad as some, it was still not great! The 9500 does at least have an over ride even if the VU metering is pretty basic. 

Recording level IS manually adjustable on the BC9500!  I used to use it all the time.  Another trick I'd do is start my source material and let it play a bit until I felt it encountered enough level peaks, then I'd lock that recording level and start the actual recording.  I still have my 9500 but haven't made a tape recording in probably 10 years with it.

If you want more into on how to set recording levels, let me know and put the instructions in this thread.

 I used Dolby C almost exclusively.  With either B or C, this was the only deck I used where Dolby actually worked as advertised.  The highs weren't squashed at all on playback, where with other decks, recording then playing back in Dolby would just kill the highs.  Of course, if I was making tapes for my factory car deck, I wouldn't use C.

-- Paul 

I know recoding levels are adjustable on the 9500 - that is what I have said  - it is not adjustable on the 9300. I also agree that the Dolby circuit isn't bad at all - but you can tell it is being used - Dolby C particularly.  However that is just a matter of taste - it certainly removes tape hiss brilliantly.

i love jacob jensen's designs , miles more sexy than lewis' stuff imo

I am not a regular tape user any more, but I always found that recording with Dolby B on and playing back with it off worked best for me.

 

Simon