I receintly purchased a Beomaster 4500 and just read in another thread that the capacitors are at the end of their lifespan. Gave me pause to think.

I also have a superb Beomaster 2400 that happily powers up three sets of inefficient speakers with glorious sound at an amazingly high volume with no distortion. Not wanting to over-tax this 60-watt receiver I acquired a nice pair of S-75 speakers with a delightful result.

Note, I only have used this Beomaster 2400 as a backup to my McIntosh 2255 which has been experiencing problems…. now headed back to McIntosh Laboratories for inspection and repair.

When I hooked up the Beomaster 4500 to the S-75’s the difference in performance was noticeable, highly favouring the Beomaster 4500.

However, now that the McIntosh 2255 amp is going to be out of the picture for at least a month, I hooked up the Beomaster 4500 to a single set of Linn Isobaric speakers but the receiver “readjusts” the volume down as if it were being over-taxed.

I set the volume to 70 and the Beomaster 4500 readjusts the volume to 62-66 depending on the bass level.

Is this to be considered normal, or do I have a brewing capacitor issue here?

What confuses me is the sheer ability of the Beomaster 2400 to power Linn Isobaric, McIntosh ML-2, and Fisher XP66 speakers (at the same time) in what I estimate is 70% of the volume of the McIntosh 2255 and its 500 watts. I hasten to mention that I do not play my stereo at this volume for any great length of time, however I was interested to know what the 60-watt Beomaster could do.

I was surprised to see that the Beomaster 4500 was unable to come close to the volume the Beomaster 2400 achieves and this with only one set of speakers.

My good friend and B&O guru tells me that the Beomaster 2400 must be in fantastic condition to be able to power those three sets of speakers and it was he who gifted me with the S-75’s to spare the Beomaster 2400 having such demands made upon it.

I fear the same may not be said of about the condition of this Beomaster 4500.

Any thoughts on this issue?

Probably does need servicing but I believe the 4500 has a protection circuit in it to avoid damage. The 2400 does not. I actually tested a whole range of Beomasters a number of years ago using B&O's watt meter. The older Beomasters all exceeded their published output into the 4 ohm load. The Beomaster 7000 I tested did much as your 4500 did and simply turned the volume down.

The model that in fact performed outstandingly well was the Beomaster 2200 which seemed to have lots of reserve and exceeded the output by the most. The Beomaster 8000 went off the scale - I think it read to 100W - and then a light wisp of smoke came out the back, so I switched it off!! My 2400 matched its published figures but did not exceed them. Remember that sound pressure does not rise in a linear fashion with power output. To get twice the volume, you need ten times the power assuming other variables are constant.