Hi, I'm considering purchasing a TX2, but I'm not sure if it will function with my Beomaster 5500 and MCP.  Will it?

 Also, is this purchase advised, or would it be best to wait until I find a proper Beogram 5500 for sale (which seems to be very, very rare lately)?

 Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks. 

The TX2 does not have Datalink so will not work via remote control. I would suggest looking for one of the following:

Beogram 3000, 5005, 3300, 9500or 9000. Also consider a 8002! They will all work the way you want.  

The TX2 has no datalink so cannot be controlled with the remote. It also has RCA leads rather than DIN so will need an adapter.

In my opinion you would be better to look for almost any of the same range of tangential decks such as 3000, 3300, 5005 or 5500 which should all work "out of the box"

Edit Too quick for me Peter! And I forgot the 9000 and 9500!!!!

Must confess to not seeing many TX2s around. Tim reckons that they have a 5 pin DIN plug unlike the TX which had RCA plugs. It may have differed depending on markets I suppose.

I also would not forget the Beogram 5000 radial deck which is beautifully made and sounds in my opinion just as good if not better than the 5005 etc. 

Peter:

I also would not forget the Beogram 5000 radial deck which is beautifully made and sounds in my opinion just as good if not better than the 5005 etc. 

......... and IMO looks much more elegant whn the lid is open

Thanks for all the advice!  I swear, you all are a wealth of information on all things B&O.

I looked at pictures of the 5000, and it really is beautiful, I must admit.  But do you lose any quality or accuracy on a radial arm instead of tangential?  

Or am I just being snobby thinking that I somehow "NEED" a tangential player?  Ha.   

anampersand:

I looked at pictures of the 5000, and it really is beautiful, I must admit.  But do you lose any quality or accuracy on a radial arm instead of tangential?  

Theoretically, there's only one correct angle for the pickup needle, and that's the angle used during recording. The mastering machines all had tangential arms. The more you divert from that angle, the more distortion you get. I'm certainly not one to judge if the difference is audible or not. For what it's worth, almost everyone except B&O either never introduced a tangential player at all, or eventually returned to radials. This might be due to additional costs of implementing a properly working tangential, or something completely else...

I for one want a tangential B&O because I've never had one!

There are some engineering "issues" with tangential decks that don't exist in a typical radial arm design. Firstly the tangential arm has to be driven by servo motor along a linear bearing to move across the record surface which means there needs to be a fairly complicated electronic circuit which "works out" where the arm is meant to be and then continually corrects/maintains that position. On a poorly set up or maintained system it can lead to treacking problems. On a radial deck none of this complexity exists - the stylus just follows the groove in the record! (with the disadvantage mentioned previously the the atitude of the stylus to the groove changes as the record is played).

That said, the majority of top class turntables of the day were radial designs - I think ulitmately their shortfalls are easier to design around than tangential decks.

The big advantage of a tangential deck was invariably "pose" value in that you could remotely control the arm position (not as good as it seems because, unless you are standing over it at the time anyway you won't be able to see where to lower it in the correct postion)

As mentioned elsewhere, the 5000 was thought to sound at least as good as (some thought better than) the 5005 etc.