My love of B&O started back in the 70s when
my father arrived home with a Beovision 3400SJ. We had previously has a
rather unglamorous colour set - some sort of Pye if i remember
correctly - but this one was streets ahead. Much improved colour and
the sound was fantastic. It had a wonderful sliding door, which covered
the screen when not in use. I did notice that it also heated the room
quite nicely and do remember it actually catching fire one time! The
excellent Windows of the Arcade came and fixed it promptly and we had
it for many years.
I was not heavily into hi-fi whilst at school
and had a particularly awful Japanese cassette player with built in
amplifier and separate speakers. A friend of mine however took me home
one time and his father had a Beogram playing through a Quad system. I
loved the sound and the look of the record player with its arm that
looked like a pencil. My father at that time had a Philips cassette
player with a built in amplifier and a Garrard SP25 record player.
Pretty sure it had a ceramic cartridge!!
I was listening to more
music by this time - Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd as well as Santana
were high on my play lists - so decided to get a better system once I
finished school. By this time I was regularly wandering past the
Windows showroom and as this was the 70s, saw the transition to low
flat aluminium receivers take place before my eyes.
I am afraid
to admit it, but I was extremely well off as a student - I drank little
and didn't smoke - and dutifully went off to Windows with a wad of five
pound notes and bought my first B&O system - a Beomaster 2400,
Beogram 1902 and some Beovox P30 speakers. This looked fabulous but
unfortunately the Beomaster developed an intermittent fault where it
would suddenly turn up to full volume. Windows rapidly replaced this
with a brand new 2400-2 and I replaced the somewhat frazzled P30s with
S75s. I have to confess that this was my favourite system and was only
improved when I changed my Beogram to a 4004 after an excellent demo by
Dennis Carr. I still have the 4004, which is sitting next to my
computer as I type!
For many years, this system did everything I
wanted - and it remains the best looking system made by B&O in my
opinion. However I hankered after a fully programmable system and when
the 5000 system was released, I had to have it! I kept the S75s and
donated the other bits to members of my family! I expanded the system
with a link room and had a pair of B&W DM12s - which again I still
have and use. This system toured the country with me as I moved from
hospital post to hospital post and was supplemented with a white MX2000.
I
moved into my first house - a flat overlooking the sea and mouth of the
Tyne and got married. Around the same time B&O released the Beolink
7000 – I knew I had to have one of these when I first saw it. I didn’t
like the Beomaster 6500, which it was designed for, but, realising it
wouldn’t work with my 5000 system, bought a Beocenter 9500, which was
superb. This system moved with me to my new house and an LX6000 joined
us as the MX2000 finally died after a circuit board cracked.
I
extended the system into our bedroom and bathroom and I dare say would
still be using this system today but unfortunately we were burgled and
the Beocenter, Beovision and my lovely S75s were all taken.
Windows
came to my rescue and lent me a Beosystem 5500 along with some RL60.2
speakers. This system however did not really work with my system –
seemed to have some compatibility problems with the MCL2 network
despite having a Beolink sticker on the back. They agreed to help find
a 7000 system for me (two way had just been discontinued) and if they
did, I would buy some speakers from them. The 7000 system arrived and
shortly after I bought some Pentas!
Unfortunately during the
period when I was effectively B&Oless, I had bought a Panasonic TV
as a stopgap. This was horrid and so I went looking for a new LX. At
this point I discovered the joys of eBay!! Some 100 B&O products
later, I decided that I no longer needed to collect and indeed have
given away the vast bulk of my collection. I will always keep a few
little gems and have a modern system mainly to listen to my digital
music collection.
I still love the 70s equipment – and I am
having one of the best restored at present – more of which you will
learn when it is finished!
However a large part of my love of
B&O was engendered by my dealer – Windows of the Arcade.
Unfortunately they gave up their franchise and although the manager of
the new dealer was friendly, the knowledge and love of the product
never seemed the same. When he left, the dealership seemed to change
and after a number of unfortunate events, I decided to no longer
frequent this shop.
King Street in Manchester now are my
registered dealer but this unfortunately does not allow for much in the
way of dropping in!! Luckily I have a fair amount at home and I imagine
this will do for the moment! As will this tale!