Hello everyone. As you probably know from my other thread, I have a Beogram 8000. Unlike all of the other Beograms I've owned, it has a female DIN connector in the back, rather than the usual hardwired cable. Whoever bought this, it being intended for a non-B&O setup, had it fitted with a male 5-pin DIN-to-RCA cable, with the standard US ground wire. I'm not sure who made this cable, since it has no visible markings (though the spade connector on the ground wire matches the other '80s B&O turntables I have, with the trademark too-narrow-for-anything opening). The RCA plugs on the cable are color-coded gray and black, rather than gray and white like the other '80s Beograms I have. Normally, I'd assume black is left channel and gray is right channel, but I know full well that B&O, for some reason, liked to play opposites with their RCA plugs on US-sold equipment (my Beogram RX 2's cable has an R on the gray plug, and an L on the white plug). Which school of thought might be the correct one? As usual, thanks in advance!

-Adam

Hello Adam,

If the cable is an original 1980's B&O one, there is a fair chance that the DIN plug has a plastic cover that can be slid back to show the wiring inside.  If you can get to see inside the plug, the left channel signal wire is on pin 3 (the second pin from one end of the ring of pins).  You can usually trace this back visually into one side of the cable and then on to one of the RCA plugs.

Another method is to play a record that has a distinct stereo image (I use Milli Vanilli's "Girl you know it's true" from 1987) to identify the left and right channels by listening.

The best method is to trace out the wires with a multi-meter, but the two approaches above will work without needing any major technical input.

Hope this helps!

Steve.

Steve at Sounds Heavenly:

Hello Adam,

If the cable is an original 1980's B&O one, there is a fair chance that the DIN plug has a plastic cover that can be slid back to show the wiring inside.  If you can get to see inside the plug, the left channel signal wire is on pin 3 (the second pin from one end of the ring of pins).  You can usually trace this back visually into one side of the cable and then on to one of the RCA plugs.

Another method is to play a record that has a distinct stereo image (I use Milli Vanilli's "Girl you know it's true" from 1987) to identify the left and right channels by listening.

The best method is to trace out the wires with a multi-meter, but the two approaches above will work without needing any major technical input.

Hope this helps!

Steve.

Thanks, Steve.

The cable does appear to be an '80s original, though I'm not sure if it's the one B&O sold (the DIN connector's cover says "Made in W. Germany"). The male DIN connector has only 5 pins, rather than the 7 of the 8000's internal connector; which pin would that mean, in this case? So far, I have yet to get the outer cover to slip off from over the connector sheath; Do I push the plastic tab on the side down, or pull it up? I'll try the stereo reference trick (the only other turntable I have connected to a stereo, a Dual 1219, is currently having headshell connection issues; another reason I like these B&Os...), but would like to get a definite answer by other means, if possible.

-Adam

A follow-up on this:

Being the day of the release of the Beatles remastered CDs, I decided to try comparing the stereo imaging using the old Beatles releases. The track I selected was "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" from the 'white album', due to the fact that the lead vocals are almost entirely in the right channel, as is a quick drumbeat at the very end. Had the Beogram 8000's RCA cable connected in the suspected fashion (Gray = L, Black = R). First tried with a later pressing of the LP on the orange Capitol label (actually first noticed this imaging using my earlier Apple label copy). The results were as above, lead vocals and closing drumbeat in the right channel. Tried an MP3 of the same song, made from the same LP (using a different turntable), and got the same results. Then, just to be absolutely sure, I tried the 1987-issue CD I have. Although the mix is slightly different on the CD, the results were the same! I guess that proves it. I can see why B&O tended to use DIN cables for just about everything; either that, or they didn't put a whole lot of thought into the RCA cables they used...

-Adam