Hello,

I'm a new member here and unfortunately I must to say that I probably wont be hugely active. However, I have had Beomaster 900 radio from very early 90's with B&O speakers which exact model I haven't recognised yet. They just have the B&O sign in front (looks overall very nice and wood matches with the radio itself), but neither of them has model number or any metal model plate behind them... I can send photos, if someone wants to see them.

Anyway, couple of years ago I picked up one more Beomaster 900 radio from local flea and thought using it as a spare parts if needed as it's missing one knob (bass/treble). Similar radio to the one I had before, but a bit darker wood and in a bit worse condition. Then, two days ago I found suddenly a pair of Beovox 2200 speakers from local refurbishing center! Even matching colour with this "spare part" radio. Then I digged this radio up from storage and tried it out with my "new" pair of Beovox speakers and noted that it works very well except there is no lights on the dial-panel (need to open it and check bulbs some day). Astounding quality for a 40 year old products, I need to say... And now I just can't trash this device anymore just for getting parts

But, about the subject, I have already tried Ebay and some googling for finding a source for spare parts. No very good results so far, just some complete radios (working/non-working) found. And what I need is just one knob. Can anyone give a hint where to ask for one?

Greetings from Finland, Saku Taipale

Welcome to Beoworld Saku.

Although I don't have any spares, I have a 900k (like yours but with built in speakers).

One of our members Dillen (Martin) may have a spare knob, and I'm sure will reply soon.

Andy T.

Welcome from me as well, nice to have more Finnish members! I got started with a flea market 900 as well, and now have three of them Unfortunately no extra knobs...

By all means post some photos of your mystery speakers, I'm sure we can find out the model. Congratulations on the 2200's as well, they are very nice little speakers and a great match for the 900.

The dial bulbs are 6.3V / 300 mA E10 socket (you will need two) and rather easy to replace, just ask if you need help with that. They have their own fuse, which was corroded in its holder in one of mine, the bulbs themselves were OK. The stereo indicator bulb is 19V / 100 mA in case that is out as well.

There are a couple of fuse holders at the side of the chassis, near the transformer, that are usually OK.
The problem one is the one mounted on the main board and it seems to be a common fault.
Fit 7V dial lamps and they will last much longer.

The knobs are not just knobs... There are many different types used on Beomaster 900.
- Some are smooth (treble/bass), others have fingergrip (volume/tuning).
- Some have a tiny pointer dot (volume/treble/bass), others don't (tuning).
- Some are in shiny chromed brass, others are in slightly dull polished aluminum. Either all are brass or all aluminum.
- Some have 6mm spindle hole, others 4mm. Both can be found on the same Beomaster.
Radiogram versions (with no easy access to the balance control screw at the rear of the chassis) have a split volume knob to allow
for setting the channels volumes individually.
If a knob was missing, a previous owner may have substituted it with another one from the same Beomaster of lesser
importance to the owner so the remaining knobs may not be in correct positions.
Let me know exactly what type you need and I'll look for it.
I have lamps too.

And I agree - we like photos !

Martin

Thanks a lot for all comments so far, I'm still in a middle of work day here, so here are some short notes:

I'll take a look on the fuses, thanks for the tips

I have a lot of bulbs (6,3V) as left-overs from my pinball repairing, maybe they'll fit

Will take fotos from the speakers, may take few days in worst case though

Also, I'll send exact details from the knob I need - from what I recall it's smooth and may have tiny pointer dot. I'll measure the weight, so that's at least sure way to say whether it's brass or aluminium (but even without taking it off I would say chromed brass)

- Saku

You mystery speakers could be Beovox 1000's from you description.

Craig

Craig: negative, they are not the Beovox 1000.

I took a look more on the speaker models listed on this site and found finally similar:

http://www.beoworld.org/prod_details.asp?pid=873

Sorry, as they are now recognised, I will not hurry so much with pics. Will take pics from both of my 900s some day later...

Dillen:

The knob then:

- All knobs in device are same material, brass, chromed. about 14,2grams each, including the screw

- Knob axle diameter 6mm

- Needed knob is smooth (bass), with tiny pointer dot

Good thing - I took a googled many fotos of Beomaster 900 and picked them which had similarly located similar knobs. It looks that the knobs (in the later 900 I got) are correctly placed and only one missing - probably it has just fallen off due to loose screw... However, the 900 I got a long time ago has knobs located wrong, but fortunately it has correct knobs as well. Need to take a screwdriver and put them where they belong...

One thing more, this is not actually B&O related, but is related to old audio stuff anyway. I'm currently fixing old Sharp VZ-2500H hi-end ghettoblaster with LP-player. I bought this from a collector in a partly broken, as-is condition. It was used already for parts by someone earlier... Now it's nearly working again, but I'm still missing one knob (all these thingies seem to drop their knobs around ) and several screws. I have searched for the screws few weeks now and have found nothing suitable so far. The main problem is that the screws are type for connecting plastic, not metal nor wood, so their dimensions are not similar. For example any enough long screw for wood is way too thick - plastic "screw-towers" would be just torn with them... Also, as this is quite huge device the longer screws are not found from most smaller ghettoblasters. Instead, they might have been used in other audio equipment, tvs, vcrs, printers, whatever.

Here is a foto from screws:

http://www.damage.fi/stt/Sharp_screws.JPG

For the longer one I would need 1-9 pieces

For the shorter one I need 1-3 pieces

The screw head is for Philips-2 screwdriver (originally).

No foto from knob yet, but is similar to bass/treble/mic volume, if someone knows this device already (Sharp VZ-2500) and has parts...

Sorry about cross-posting this Sharp-thingie, but you never know what people might have in their storages...

- Saku Taipale

I have a knob. Smooth chromed brass for 6mm axle and with pointer dot.
Most pinball lamps are wedge or bajonet sockets, you need E10.

Martin

Ah, Edison Miniature type socket, I might have these as well. Were used in some old game cabinets...

Anyway, the knob, I'm interested in it. I would like to buy it, but how to proceed, can you send me E-mail (you can find my E-mail address under the Contact-button) for example?

- Saku Taipale

Ok, some time has passed since my last post. Anyway, I wanted to let you all know that I got both bulbs and exactly correct knob from Dillen! A very nice guy to deal with

I have now opened my Beomaster, cleaned it, washed both front panels and polished the clear plastic, cleaned bulb sockets, installed bulbs (for some reason dial bulbs were totally missing!) and put all back together.

Now it works just as it should. There are still some marks of usage in the radio and speakers, but I'm not going to do 110% restoration, some small dents and black spots (god knows from where?) belongs to over 40 years old device. And I still have the other which looks even better

- Saku

We like photos

Martin

Hi everyone!

I'm new to Beoworld and I'll write my first message here since I've just got a nice sounding Beomaster 900K. Nice sounding but... Missing the bass and treble knobs. I'm not really sure if the other knobs are brass or aluminium... For sure they are not "shiny" and are a bit rough polished, so maybe aluminium? It would be great if someone could help me getting the missing ones. The bass and treble potentiometers are blocked, so I will try putting some sewing machine oil on them as suggested in another thread. I'll let you know about the results.

Thank you so much for your help (and congratulations for such an informative and useful forum!),

Marco

Marco,
Welcome to Beoworld !

I may be able to hlp you but there are so many knobs used on these lovely machines.
First; Are you sure that the volume and tuning knobs are correct ?
It's not unusual to find that the volume and/or tuning knobs are actually the tonecontrol knobs
that were moved to these more important positions when the others got lost.
If you could upload a photo of the remaining knobs, we may be able to help you better
and we also need to know the shaft diameter.

Martin

Hi Martin,

thanks for your message! Here are two pictures of the volume and tuning knobs. They look right to my eyes:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18028488@N03/5728095568/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18028488@N03/5728095556/

The shaft diameter of the missing knobs is 6 mm.

Even if my Beomaster was probably left unused for a long time and has some problems with the contacts and with the potis (everything works fine... after a little bit of exercise wich must be repeated every now and then), I'm amazed at the sound quality. It's no high fidelity sound, but it offers such an extremely musical and natural reproduction! It's somehow a very attractive sound and makes most musical details (at least with voice or chamber music) absolutely evident and ejoyable, something many newer digital devices miss completely... Wow!

Thanks for your help,

Marco