Dear all,
This is my first post.

I bought a Beogram 4000 on an auction two days ago, and today I finally tried plugging it in the wall socket.
However there seems to be a problem. The arm does not lower, and it looks like the lamp on the arm next to the tone arm is not lighting up. Could that be the problem? How do I fix that?
Also it seems there is no light in the stroboscope window.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Filip, Copenhagen

Ps. How do I remove severe scratches on the dust cover?

If the detector arm lamp fails then you are correct in thinking that the arm will not lower. Martin member Dillen can help you here with a replacement, assuming it is the bulb at fault. Can you test with a meter? The black bit pulls out, use the lens below to carefully grip and just pull forward!

The strobe I would suggest is the reed relay on the supply board. You can check this by temporarily bypassing the reed switch.

There was a great thread on here about removing scratches primarily using an orbital polisher and various agents. Try a search.

Thanks for the advice though I have not been able to pull off the black piece yet. I just opened the record deck and it reveals a loose mirror. I wonder where that is supposed to sit. Is there a service manual for the Beogram 4000 somewhere? I haven't been able to find one on the net.

Got the black piece off. It is definitely a blown lamp. Thanks for the advice. I still need to figure out where the mirror goes though.

The mirror is for the strobo.
IIRC it sits below the platter.

Martin

There is already one sitting below the platter. But there is an extra mirror. I suppose it should go somewhere under the window above the 45 sign.

Here is the mirror below the platter:

You're right, it's glued at an angle to the underside of the panel.
Right below the square window, visible in your last photo.

Martin

Thanks Martin, your help is greatly appreciated. Trouble is I don't know how to remove the aluminum plate above it. It seems rather difficult to glue the mirror on at that angle without first removing the top plate. Any suggestions?

Edit: I found out that only one screw was mounting the control board to the bottom of the chassis. So all I need now is actually that bulb. I'll ask Martin for a price.

filip_kbh:

I just opened the record deck and it reveals a loose mirror.

That will possibly explain the lack of strobe then

Yes, I have now glued it on where is supposed to be :-)

Is it even possible to source the strobe bulb anymore?

I am very interrested if it is!

I very much doubt that Soren! Not even sure if these were off-the-shelf or custom made for B&O (somehow I would not be surprised!)

If it failed on mine I would be very tempted to replace with a couple of orange LED's tbh. I doubt you would notice the difference!

I think that the light source has to be driven by outlet AC to get the strobe effect, unfortunately

Yes, it would. Otherwise it would not be able to dectect the 50 / 60 Hz.

And why would that stop you using led's?

Notice I said led(s) as you would need two or a multiple of!

You have to have the 50 Hertz AC to run the light source to see the strobe effect

LED's can only be used with DC as they are diodes.

Søren Hammer:

You have to have the 50 Hertz AC to run the light source to see the strobe effect

LED's can only be used with DC as they are diodes.

If diodes didn't work with AC, they would have no use at all.

LED's will work fine, I'm sure.
They light up when current flows through them.
Being diodes, they will rectify their own current.
However, as Olly suggests, since they will only light up when current goes one way (and block the
other way), you will have to use two (or more pairs) LED's in anti-parallel to get light in both current directions.
That would give the 100 Hz flicker that the original lamp produces (2 flickers for each period).
The voltage will have to be checked though.
If a schmitt-trigger circuit is introduced at the same time, the readout would be very sharp.

Martin

This SP15 cartridge came along with the Beogram 4000 (even though it was advertised as 'without cartridge'), however the small seethrough tip is missing. Is it possible to get it repaired? I have no idea whether the stylus actually works but I'm thinking of having it re-tipped at a later stage at http://www.classic-audio.dk/content/portal.html - can anyone recommend him?

I also wonder if it is possible to 'straighten out' the 'metallic' sticker that runs from one side of the lid to the other. Mine seems to have a few places where it is raised from the dust cover.

Yes, Frede from Classic Audio can definitely be recommended.
If the coils inside the cartridge are OK (producing sound in both channels, however distorted etc.), the cartridge
can be repaired.

Martin

I didn't know Frede was doing cartridges - but based on the other work he does, I would say he is likely to be at the leading edge.

He is apparantly sending them to Axel in Germany which is a good thing, I guess

Sometimes - well always, now - the arm doesn't travel to the start of the record before it lowers the pick up? Any ideas why. I looked in the service manual but didn't get any cleverer.

Do you have all the covers installed ?

Martin

If you mean the two metal plates, then yes.

Anyway, I switched to my other Beogram 4000 which works fine. But of course I would like to know what is wrong with the first one.