What is the opinion of the 9500 turntable??    

Secondly, what is the best turntable BnO ever made?

Thanks,

The Beogram 9500 is very nice but no different to any of the other tangental tracking turntables of the same era :- ie the last of the Beograms as they all shared the same basic chassis. The only differences between them all were the cosmetic apperances and the inclusion/omittance of an inbuilt RIAA.

The best Beograms in many peoples opinion were the 400* series as they were extremely well engineered (overly so IMO) and beautiful - which I cannot disagree with. My personal favourite is the beogram 8002 as it used the MMC1 - 5 series cartridge which I prefer to the MMC20** as fitted to the 400*'s but again many would disagree with this.

Build wise the 400* are incomparable but this is reflected in the maintenance costs (measured in time and effort).

Chris.

The best turntable provided by B&O was the Beogram 3000 Type 5210 - mainly because it was a Thorens TD124 Mk2. The bass on these decks is better than anything any other Beogram can provide.

After that, the 4000 series, as Chris mentions, are beautifully made and have a lovely sound. A little bass light but excellent isolation and the cartridges are good. The 8000 range are possibly better but less reliable and nothing like as well made with a fair amount of brittle plastics employed.

Don't forget the radial tracking decks either . The 1700 and decks like the 2200 are very cheap and I think sound just as good as the later tangential decks if not better.