Hello all. Can you give an indication what my BeoGram 8000 is still worth given the condition it is in? I will tell something about the product now.

State of the product:
- Quality of the stylus unknown. I still have to test this. Btw anyone know how i can test this proper and see if the stylus is in good condition or not. Maybe an odd question on the BeoGram section but i'm more of MP3 and so ;). I don't even own any records i believe.
- Dust Cover mechanism is broken. The black plastic cover that is in that place is missing. 
- 45 adapter is missing and the same applies for the stylus cover.  

Appearence:
- After a quick inspection I only saw some scratches on the dust cover (not big but they are there).
- Wooden finish is white.
- Aluminium looks good.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Agree with above question - if not working properly (and most don't!), I wouldn't give you more than £50. As yours has a broken hinge mechanism (again common as the plastic used is horrid), I would give even less. If it works (stable speed and tonearm tracking properly, then it is worth more as it can be fixed using a donor machine. With a good cartridge (working MMC20CL) a good 8000 must be worth £250 to anyone. Much, much better than a 7000 etc!

But the 8000 has many problems - lots of complicated electronics all of which seem temperamental, the cheap plastic surrounding the hinge mechanism as mentioned, the cellulose tacho disc in the early versions, the rot of the double sided tape, scratched lids etc! It would be interesting to know how many were sold and how many survive!

Agree with Peter,

                            I sold a fully electronically & mechanically refurbished mint one with top of the range perfect MMC20CL cartridge a couple of years ago for around £250. There are a lot of man hours involved in getting these up to "as new" spec's and if had paid myself for the work involved I would have made a big loss on it and herein lies the problem with these decks. Basically if you cannot do the work yourself then they are very expensive to get put right which narrows your buyers very much in the collectors market - and we don't like to pay too much as a result of the hours of work involved.

Chris.

Thanks for the replies ;).

Yes it does work, but if it works proper is a different question ;). The display works, the buttons work and the arm with tracker and stylus is moving and working. I don't know how I can see if the tonearm is tracking properly as you say it?

I just hooked the Beogram up to the Beomaster 901 :) and it functions, i get music :). But there is a serious problem with that, the platter isn't moving at a stable speed. Once every so many seconds it drops its speed and then the music sounds false (if you know what i mean).

Another thing the aluminum around the platter is no longer attached to the underlaying surface. Glue can fix that i guess. edit: is that the problem you mentioned about the 'double sided tape rot'?

Do you guys have some tips and tricks how i can establish the state of my stylus?
 

edit2: I will try to post some pics tommorow.  

edit3: Posting pics isnt working :(.

edit4: Posted the pics now as links but Admin has to approve message so we have to wait for the pics get posted :).

edit5: http://www.imagebam.com/image/9ac0d040442897 and then click next to see the other pics.

The surround around the platter is due to the tape - take it off, clean the black goo off it and use two pack epoxy to stick it down - watch out for the small spring! The aluminium lid over the tone arm is usually about to come off as well!

The speed disturbance is probably the tacho disc - yours will be celluloid - Martin can supply you with a metal everlasting one!

Getting music is a good sign! To see if the stylus is OK you need a test record really - to see if the stylus is worn, use a microscope - I attach a picture of a decent MMC20CL stylus!

edit: double pics are shown above.

The tacho disc looks like metal to me. Or am i looking at the wrong part? What do you think if you look at the pictures.

And an other question how can i take the stylus off the arm?

A white Beogram 8000 is quite rare, wonderful piece !
The fact that it's white (presuming it's original, it looks to be) could increase its value.

The tachodisc sits around the platter spindle, about halfway down the height of it.
Just not visible in the photo, the black subplatter covers what would have been the lit side of it,
the rest is in the flash shadow.
The tachodisc travels through an opto sensor (seen as two tiny square plastic
blocks, one above the tachodisc and one below) with wires attached.

It's safe to say that all photographic tachodiscs are dead by now.
The printed pattern falls off or dislocates, causing audible wow and/or a humming sound from the
deck for every revolution of the platter as the electronics struggle to get the speed right.
In severe cases, the display will flash some of its digits, indicating that the readout cannot be trusted or
the Beogram refuses to function altogether.
The tolerances of this disc is ridiculously tight.
No xerox machine, copier, scanner or printer will get it right (all has been tried), it's just not exact enough.
Replacing with a metal disc is the only solution (available from me as a repro part).

Note that the black subplatter grips the spindle by three prongs that fit into
three similar cutouts in the spindle.

The stylus comes off by pulling straight off.
Two fingers on one hand grab the cartridge while holding the tonearm with
two fingers on the other hand to take up the force of the pull and then separate them.

Martin

That doesn't look too bad - I think I can see the edge of a celluloid tacho disc so that will be one fairly easy fix. The surround to the platter is easy - doubled sided tape or epoxy. I take it that the missing bit is the plastic below where the arm sits - I am sure a donor unit can be found though.

Thnx for the great additions Dillen and Peter.

Yes i finnaly know what the tachodisc is i guess :). I have added a drawing from the 8000/8002/6000 service manual i found. BTW when is spin the turntable you hear not only the spinning of that but everytime a sort of sound the mechanism hits something. Tommorow im gonna try and see what the state of the stylus is, that's the first thing i have to do before i continue with this project.

Yes, that's the tachodisc.

Sadly, it is quite common to see the black subplatter (0013) scraping on the thick
main chassis plate. This happens when the sharp and pointy spindle end
breaks and penetrates the main nylon bearing insert, found at the bottom of
the center bearing. The reason is very often, that the Beogram was shipped with
its heavy platter mounted or just moved and/or put down hard.
I a repro part for curing this problem in the form of a new, CNC machined
nylon insert. By inserting a thin tool through the tiny hole in the bottom of
the brass bearing housing, you can push up the nylon insert and pull it out
using needle-nose pliers.

Martin

Here is a picture of one of mine!

Hi Peter,

Thanks for this nice photo. More photos, please!

Especially, I'd like to see the details of your arm assembly to compare to mine.

Oke a little update :):

I went to the B&O dealer located near to my own location. The owner of the shop told me the stylus was in good condition and you can use it as long as you want because it can't go to pieces. He checked the stylus under a magnifying glass before he told me that :). Also he cleaned the stylus a bit for me. He also told me it would be a shame if i got rid of the Beogram. That's also a thought that I have.

But I was not satisfied because in this thread and also an article i read about turntables stated that a styles has to be put under a microscope will you be able to see the condition of the stylus. So I went to another shop specialized in all sorts of more high-end audio. The technician, who was familiar with B&O turntables and stylusses, told me he could see it was worn. The stylus had been used quite a lot, but the wear and tear is similar on both sides. He could not say how long I could use the stylus in the future.

At this stage i'm not satisfied. Appearance is not in a great shape, missing parts, parts that need replacement 1. mechanical and 2. non-mechanical and the needle that is oke but not great. And off course the number of records I own (i believe it is zero). I think it will not be lucrative nor worthwhile to invest time, effort and money into this, for me atleast. So if you are interested in completing your white finish components, let me know. Because as stated before by Dillen a white Beogram 8000 is quite rare. And I guess even rarer for sale.