Hello to all,

I've just come across a never used, new-looking (yes, indeed) Beocord 2200. 

I know this is supposed to be one of the best among the best—will it be better than my excellent Beocord 6000?

Anything I should know and look for before plugging the beast?

Thanks,

Jacques

It's a wonderful deck.
I doubt that it will be better than a Beocord 6000 but
it was definitely one of the best at its time and a good one will
produce very nice results indeed.

The lubrication in the AC motor can sometimes be a little "harsh" if it stood unused for many years
so you could see if the capstan starts spinning before leaving it powered for hours.
There's really not much else that can go wrong. So plug it in, power it up, check it out
and let us know what you think of it.

Martin

Thanks Martin, I will !

It's nice to know there will (always?) be someone as knowledgeable as yourself to talk about these products!

Jacques, simple mortal.

Did you see the Hi-Fi World article on the 2200 in this month's edition?

Peter :

Did you see the Hi-Fi World article on the 2200 in this month's edition?

Oh yes, it's in my hands right now. Mr Jarman explains there's a mod to be done (caps and resistors) on the input preamp, but unfortunately he doesn't tell us more!

I told him that last night! Did you notice that this is a white 2200 - they never made one!

I am almost sure that I've seen a white one but it may have been a Beocord 1700.
Hmm.. I'm getting old...

But they made one with built-in power amplifier

Martin

Hi,

Tim kindly sent me an email, and the answer is here!

Thanks Tim!

Just a quick note... My BC2200 is my most used deck! I love it! 

Hello

Just a little picture of a rare recorder - the one with the builtin power amp.

Per H

Hi Per,

Exactly what I was referring to.

Martin

A superb deck - I restored mine, you can see the main PCB below.

The faults were as follows, when I decided to operate it in 2003, after having had it in storage for about 15 years:

1. All the rubber belts reeded replacement - from Martin Olsen - Dillen.

2. All the rubber washers had hardened - no replacements available, so I "skinned" the edges during rotation with a Japanese knife, to expose the soft rubber.

3. The blue PSU caps were high ESR - replaced.

4. The Autostop reed switch was faulty - replaced, and I have extra spares if you need.

5. The oxidized trimmer pots were replaced.

Oh yes, and I disassembled the motor completely, replaced the 3 bipolar phase-shift caps on the armature, oiled the shaft with sewing-machine oil, and reassembled the motor.

At this stage it was operating, but pretty poor sound, dark with no definition.

Then I decide to do a full restoration, replacing every electrolytic cap on all PCB's with Pansonic FC and FM. In the signal path, I replaced the ceramic caps with Wima MKS2's, and also resistors with Vishay-Dale metal film CFM-55's.

The sound is superb, and well worth restoring.

Menahem

Hello,

Thanks for the input and for the great picture!

I don't understand your 2). By washers do you mean rollers?

Jacques

Yes - Roller is a much better word!

Those rubber parts on Idler-wheels....

Here's my completely rebuilt auto-stop PCB - new everything!

Menahem

Nice work!

I've got reed relays in stock too... we use them to trigger magnetic alarms!

Nice picture... more please!

Jacques

Hello,

My Beocord 2200 has arrived. Very nice bit of kit indeed.

Everything, as far as I can see, looks new. To have in my hands a new cassette deck from 1974 is very impressive! The head has no sign of wear whatsoever. Amazingly, the belts are like new too, no sign of flutter or wow. Inside, everything is clean and shiny, no oxidization. It plays back very nicely indeed. It doesn't have the Beocord 9000 detail and treble/bass energy (bass is very dry), but I think that if everyone (including myself, but I was 10 in 1974!) had a deck like this back then, cassette would have been taken more seriously.

I can't record properly, because there is some kind of saturation to the sound. I tried the (unmodified) aux input too, and there is no saturation but treble is indeed muffled.

What can I do to record properly with my Beomaster 6000? It's a bit like the Beocord 9000 when one has forgotten to set the plug to "line", if you see what I mean. Edit: Tim Jarman tells me the BM 6000 REC OUT is not adapted to the Beocord AMP IN. I'll therefore make a special cable, because I will NOT modify the deck itself, because I wish to keep everything original. Normally, replace OR1 and OR2 with 470K (at AUX DIN socket, the one we use for recording), and 1C4 and 1C24 with 22p, on PCB. 

Very promising indeed, considering the playback quality.

I still have to change that power switch (ref. 7450020) though! (at present, I have bypassed it)

Jacques

A few pics.

Hello everyone,

I have now almost finished my Beocord 2200. I re-lubricated the motor because I could see it stop immediately when I switched the power off, instead of going on a bit. I just hope it will survive, but I'm confident because the innards were clean (no dust) and the brushes looked new. Anyway it became quieter in the process. The only stupid thing I did was positioning the magnet badly and the motor turned counter-clockwise!

Also is it normal that the VU needles jump to the end of scale when the unit is powered up? This is frightening!

I still need a power switch. Would anyone here have one please? Thanks in advance!

Jacques

Peter :

Did you notice that this is a white 2200 - they never made one!

Really? Then why is there one standing next to my Beocenter 1800? This one had one owner from new, I doubt that this was done afterwards.

chartz:

Also is it normal that the VU needles jump to the end of scale when the unit is powered up? This is frightening!

Mine does that too, so I think that is normal.

chartz:

I still need a power switch. Would anyone here have one please? Thanks in advance!

If you're interested you could have my 2200 for spares. I hardly ever use it and want to get rid of it anyway.

Playback is fine, but some weeks ago recording for the left channel suddenly failed. No idea what's wrong, but as I said I don't care too much anyway. But the switch assembly was completely re-lubricated and works flawlessly.

Thanks for the info about the Vu-meters.

You have a PM, Ablaumeise!

Jacques