I have recently replaced the mid-speakers in my passive B&O penta's. I still have the feeling that there can be achieved more to let the penta become/stay a high end speaker. I have the feeling that there is now a cloud over the sound. With higher volume the sounds seem to melt together. As an amplifier I have the beocenter 9500. I'm thinking of replacing it by a tube amplifier or upgrade it as well.

Options I'm now thinking of are:

1. replacing the inside eletronics of the speaker (cross-over switch bord)

2. purchase new tweeters as well (perhaps from a different not B&O brand)

3 ????

I very much like the design of the speaker. So what can I do to further upgrade it? I'm open for suggestions what to do (which tweeters to buy, were to buy a new switchbord, what are the costs)

With regards

Osinga

Netherlands

I suggest you make them "active" with a pair of 200 underneath the voxes; the difference is huge between the vox and the lab version.

I've owned a pair of voxes a few years back and replaced them with a pair of labs; never regretted this and you can even upgrade the labs [there is a thread of this by an expert from germany, who's done this for and by himself in his labs]

The sound quality from your pentas is being constrained by the relatively mediocre amplifier in the BC9500.

Either get a pair of Lab 200's to put under your voxes or use the powerlink output with a special lead to a more powerful stand alone amplifier. There are many on the market but I have achieved good results with a QUAD405

You can do the mod yourselve, it's really not difficult. The mod is for active and passive Pentas.

 http://forum.beoworld.org/forums/thread/42932.aspx

Martin

You definitely don't want to drive them with tube amps. Massively efficient and sensitive, simple speakers are suited to tube amps which have a very low power output, and the Pentas are the complete opposite! You need a pretty beefy amp to get the pentas sounding good. The one in your 9500 won't cut it, and something like a BeoMaster 6500/7000 or a 6000/8000 would do the job much better. The BeoLab 150/200 are good amps, but apparently have deteriorated over time and as a result need a bit of work in order to get them sounding as good as they used to (not that I'm speaking from experience with these, I've only ever seen/heard one pair and they were not in good condition).