Hi all,

I have fallen down the long slippery slope into B&O oblivion.  For the last few years my wife and I have been restoring and remodeling a 1907 Masonic Temple building in the near ghost town of Kerby, OR, on the Redwood Highway near the California border.  The first floor houses my studio and gallery where I design and hand craft fine furniture and the second floor is our living quarters.  You can see the kind of work I do on my web site, http://jerrywork.com.  While there you can also download for free a number of the manuals and tutorials I write for high end tool companies like Festool and material suppliers (no commercial intended, just introducing myself).

My first step down the B&O slippery slope was a 5500 system to drive four ceiling mounted 10" JBL plate in-wall speakers installed as part of remodeling the Mason's meeting room at the front of the second floor.  That room is now our living room - dining room - kitchen "great room".  It is 1500 sq. feet with 14' high ceilings, large plaster coving at the top, arched windows with stained glass inserts and clear fir floors.  Very nice and the 5500 sounds fantastic driving those fine speakers in all that space volume.  Next was the purchase of a pristine 3300 system for a newly remodeled library and guest suite.  It drives a pair of M120-2s.  I liked the sound so well that I found what looks to be a first rate 4500 system which will be wall mounted in that room.  If it all works out I will sell the 3300 system.

Now to my question....... I recently purchased an 8000 system that appears to all work properly without overheating.  It includes the receiver, turntable, tape unit and MS-150 speakers.  It will be in a room about 600 sq. ft. with 10' high ceilings.  I want to add both a CD player and a link to my iTunes library.  I found a B&O four in one out DIN switch box that I can hook to the second tape DIN port on the 8000.  So, my question is which B&O CD unit should I look for to play through the 8000?  Both the 5500 and the 3300 CD units offer far better CD sound than any of my previous CD units so I need your collective help in determining which of B&O's CD units would have the best sound quality through the 8000.  Should I keep the CD3300 for this purpose or look for some other model?  I appreciate your help!

Jerry

Hi Jerry,

              the CD3300 will be fine but a lot depends on personal taste. My preferrance would be a CDX as it offers a much less sterile tone to later CD players - almost akin to a perfect analogue sound and is the preferred choice of many people who own a 8000 system. They are almost bullet proof but would certainly benefit from having a capacitor replacement and resoldering of dry joints which is a common problem these days. Lovely speaker the MC120.2s, possibly the best balance speakers in the B&O passive range. I have a pair in white which I refoamed the surrounds of the bass drivers and were much brighter following replaceing the capacitors in the crossovers. If you haven't done this I would highly recommend doing so, capacitor kits with instructions are available from member Dillen (Martin).

Regarding wall mounting your system 4500, the glass touch plates have a habit of falling off of these due to the deteriation of the foam tape which holds them on. Many people have come unstuck wall mounting these systems in recent years and found themselves waking up to a pile of broken glass under their systems. Parts are no longer available so it would be very wise to remove the glass plates, clean the old foam tape off and refix them with epoxy resin before wall mounting. You need to be very careful doing this as the glass is quite thin and coated with a condictive paint which mustn't be compromised.

Chris.

Members of Beoworld all ways recommends the CDX for the Beomaster 8000.

When I bought my Beomaster 8000 there was CDX included. Got both fixed and they sound great together.

You don't get Datalink anyway from the 8000 so it can't be controlled by remote.