Hello all,

I don't know a lot about B&O turntables, except the fact that they look nice. Are they as good as they look? What are the top five models and why? (I'm mostly interested in 'vintage' equipment, i.e. 1970s.)

Peter

The 4000 is the best by a good margin. It is massively over-engineered and is very simple to use. I have the simpler 4002 which again is very easy to use and is well built too. The 8000 series is very nice sounding. I have an 8002 and with an MMC2 this is a really sweet sounding deck. In my opinion pretty much everything else is not in the same league, though if you're into rarer decks then either of the Beogram 3000s that came with the 1960s Beolab 5000 system are very well thought of (but very rare and expensive!!).

In my opinion:

1. Beogram 3000 Thorens - simply the best sounding - extended bass and much better record support than any other more modern Beogram.

2. Beogram 4000 - an engineer's deck. However very very complex and will need servicing by an ever decreasing number of experts.

3. Beogram 4002/4004/6000 - simpler but not simple. The early ones have the AC motor - more complex but possibly better. The later ones are easier to fix. You takes your choice ...

4. Beogram 8000/8002 - very good but badly made! Rotten plastic around the hinge and too much double sided tape. Find a good one and they are excellent. Also has electrical woes due to capacitors and tacho discs.

5. Beogram 1700 - the thinking man's Beogram. Sounds fantastic with the right stylus and very very simple. Still well made and very cheap. Will outperform almost all those above most of the time as they will all have faults that will not have been fixed properly!Could do with better record support.