And now I have a pair.  I pulled my beat up, but otherwise fully functional, Beomaster 2400 in from the garage to form the heart of a makeshift listening room in the dinette.  I put the radio on, and funny enough, Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker" was playing.

Generally when I fix a speaker, the first thing I do is give it a "Whole Lotta Love" test.

All drivers seem to be working.  The sound seems like music.  The wife is on her way home with some cheeseburgers so I'm going to go back into the dinette and give the M70s a proper "Whole Lotta Love" test over cheeseburgers.

Thanks to all who popped in to say hi.  Check back late Sunday or Monday and I'll probably have reported on more serious listening.

Beautiful work Chris, waiting for the comparation report.

I am sure they will sound very good and even better if you lift them off the floor.

I had a couple of little stools and pair of unfinished pine end tables from IKEA to serve as make-shift stands.  This was by no means going to be anything like a scientific test.  I just wanted to listen to the M70s against a pair of speakers I knew were at least quite decent.  At the same time, this would be the first time I've listened to my S45-2s through my Beomaster 2400.

Last night and this morning I played about 10 hours of rock music (off the amazing tuner of the BM2400) through the M70s.  Then when the wife and kids split, I moved the S45-2s into the little dinette from my desk top system, and the S40s in from the garage.

From left to right, we have the left M70 on a 17 cm (7 in) stool; S45-2 on a 40 cm (16 in) end table; S40 on a 51 cm (20 in) end table on its side; and the right M70.  I hooked my iPod Touch to the tape input of the BM2400 and played lossless CD rips of the following songs (mainly):

"Fire on High" - ELO

"Slip Stream" and "Locomotive Breath" - Jethro Tull

"Whole Lotta Love" and "Gallows Pole" - Led Zeppelin

"You Can Call Me Al" - Paul Simon

"Black Cow" - Steely Dan

"All Along the Watchtower" - Jimi Hendrix

"The Happiest Days of Our Lives" - Pink Floyd

"Where It's At" - Beck

I started with the M70s on the 17 cm stools.  I experimented a bit with the volume level, until I thought I found a sweet spot for both the receiver and the speakers.  I started playing through the list above, and almost immediately I knew I had to get them higher off the floor.

I put them on the 40 cm end tables, and then restarted the play list.  I also played bits of several other songs.  I liked the sound of the M70s.  I was hoping to be blown away by greatness, of course, but I was only pleased with the results.  Which, I know, is better than them not working or sounding awful.

The tweeters were just below ear level, and I did not try to tilt the speakers back a bit.  I was left with these thoughts:

• I'm hopeful more "burning in" will help the sound.
• This room may be too small, or I may have the speakers too far from the back wall.
• I may need more amplifier power (I tried not to think this, because as Peter is fond of saying, even at somewhat loud levels we're listening to less than 1 watt).

Next up were the S40s.  I put them on the 51 cm tall end-tables-on-their-side.

Without changing the volume of the BM2400 or the iPod, I started listening to the S40s with "Slip Stream" and "Locomotive Breath."  I was not prepared for what I heard.

Wow.  The S40s sounded better than the M70s.  But here's the kicker:  they were much louder with the exact same input!  Are the S40s a much more efficient speaker?  Was this an audio illusion? 

As I continued to listen at my fairly loud rock music through the S40s, I was blown away by this little two-way gem!

One of the more interesting things I heard with the S40s was an extremely wide sound stage.  At the end of Jethro Tull's "Slip Stream," there is some panning right and left of the fade out music.  At one point what I heard was the illusion of the sound source being 2 or 3 feet to the right of the right speaker!

And this coming from speakers whose woofers once looked like this:

I then replaced the S40s with S45-2s on the same "stands," again with no volume change.  Again a very pleasant experience.  Just a bit different sound than the S40s.  Just a bit less bright in the very high end maybe?  Maybe a little more laid back in the male voices?  Same decent bass response.  Very listenable.  I could listen to both the S40s and S45-2s all day long.

The wife called and warned me she and the kids were on the way home, so I had about an hour to wrap it up and make the dinette a dinette again.  Wanting very much to like the M70s as much as the other two pairs, I gave them another listen.  This time I put them on the same "stands" as the other two pairs, and I gave them a bit of a tilt with some rubber feet.

I wish I could report an amazing improvement, but I can't.  I know listening to music is about as subjective an activity as there is, so I'm thinking a couple of things are at play.  With the M70s, I was hoping for a 9 out of 10 and only got about a 7.  Then I listened to the the S40s, where I was expecting a 6 or 7 out of 10 and got an 8.  Subjectively I was left with very different feelings when in fact actual performance was probably not all that different.

Of course I'm not going to give up on the M70s.  I will play them 10 hours per day this week while at work, and then come next weekend I'll give then another listen.  I'll hook them up to several amps and receivers I've got, plus I'll listen to some vinyl.  I'll try varying heights and tilts and other adjustments to placement.

In the meantime, looks like I'm getting a $50 BM1900 locally that works along with "B&O bookshelf speakers with foam rot."

They need time to burn in, had the same with RL 140 and S45s some 30-50 hours and the sound is what it is suppused to be, still a very good looking and job very good done, lean back and enjoy get used to this sound.

The Beovox S40 (and similar Beovox S35-2) is widely recognized as a superb two-way speaker.
I've seen them mentioned as reference speakers for other two-way systems on other fora.

I would expect the Beovox M70 to provide a greater sound experience, though.
A little burn-in won't hurt but I'm not convinced that they will change that much.
I never experienced a burn-in to change capacitors sound much, it will losen up new
surrounds though and that may explaing most of what Søren experienced.

The M70 place fairly heavy loads on the amplifier, the S40 much less so and
a little more amplifier power may provide for a more convincing result.
The M70 were meant for use with at least a Beomaster 4000 (2x60W).
The S40 will still hang on a fairly long way, I'm sure.

At the end of the day, it's all a matter of taste.

Martin

I like the S40s so much I'm very tempted to buy the pair on Ebay for $50 that need a woofer refoam.  If I wasn't falling into a free pair of CX-50s that need a woofer refoam on Thursday, I probably would without hesitation.  But one project at a time I think.

So I moved the M70s to the back wall and toed them in just a bit.  I've played them another 20 hours or so without listening.  Today I put Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here on (iPod lossless CD rip) and was really quite pleased with what I heard.  One particularly interesting bit was the opening part of "Shine on You Crazy Diamond Parts VI - IX."  The keyboards and guitar seemed to be coming from a space 2 to 3 feet above the speakers!  Don't think I've had that tall of soundstage in my own home before.

The kids needed to get to bed so I didn't have a whole lot more time after that for listening.  But I did put on the following from my iPod:

• Rolling Stones' "Beast of Burden" - sounded great!  Always love a dueling guitar song - one guitar left, one right.
• CSN's "Suite:  Judy Blue Eyes" - sounded like crap.  But that has to be the recording now that I know the M70s are capable of sounding great.
• Alice in Chain's "Would" - sounded great, especially the opening bass!
• Derek and the Dominoes' "Bell Bottom Blues" - again, awful!  Has to be the recording.
• Nirvana's "All Apologies" - sounded very, very nice.  Probably the best I've heard that tune.

Well, I guess the most appropriate thing to say at this point is, "Thank god these things are capable of sounding wonderful."  Because now I've heard it!  I went out to the garage to fetch my most powerful receiver that's not currently hooked up to anything (an NAD 7175PE) only to discover that that sucker's buried in at least an hour-long box shuffle.  So I guess the M70s stay hooked up to the BM2400 until this weekend.

Now I have to start thinking of building some grill (fret) frames.  The other issue - fixing the finish - will wait.

Well, I went down to Radio Shack and asked their advice on improving the sound of the M70s.  They suggested this pair of external tweeters.

Just kidding.  Those are my new CX50s.  They are tiny.  I mean, I knew they were small, but I wasn't prepared for how small they were.  I guess I'm used to my S45-2s sitting on my desk now, and they don't seem so big any more.

A guy threw these in for nothing last night when I bought his Beomaster 1900.  They're in great shape.

Except for the foam rot.

And here's a shot of the Beomaster 1900.  The bass slider is noisy, and the front wood trim is splitting in two places, but other than that, it seems in decent cosmetic and electronic shape.  I think I like the touch panel and lights on the 1900 better than the 2400.  At least that's my initial thought.

I've got the 1900 on tuner driving the M70s right now while the wife and kids are out.  I've got another DIN to RCA adapter so I'll be hooking up my spare Beogram RX-2 to the 1900/M70s some time this weekend.

Finally got around to hooking up my spare RX-2 in the makeshift listening room that is our dinette.  This actually marked something of a milestone for me.  Playing the Rolling Stones' Some Girls LP on the spare RX-2 through the recently acquired Beomaster 1900 and restored Beovox M70s is the first time I've ever had an all B&O system with source, receiver and speakers.

Haven't done any LOUD listening yet because the wife and kids are in the living room watching Tangled.  Oooohhhh....I think it's over and it's bath time for the kids.  Might be able to sneak a bit of loud listening in.....

Rich:

the first time I've ever had an all B&O system with source, receiver and speakers.

Nothing absolutely nothing can beat that feeling, you have repaired, cleaned, polished and done things you never tried before, and OMG these wonderful pieces works, and then you give it a good beating with some good Rolling Stones and it still works like clock work, you will always remember this Rick. I'm Rolling Stones fan since 47 years, and vintage B&O fan since 1 year. The RS vinyl is hard to come by these days, I have here Around and Around, the London Years 4 Lp remastered, and some 3 or 4 45 vinyl .

CONGRATULATIONS

If I turn it sideways, I can just fit the latest acquisition into the Frankenbeosystem:  a Beocord 4500 courtesy of member bsantini.  Here's a picture of me recording an LP onto cassette for the first time in at least a decade.  (Found a 10 pack of NIB Fuji DR-I 90 cassettes for $6 US in the surplus electronics store the other day.)

The spare RX-2 in the Frankenbeosystem has always worked a bit funky - the tonearm is jerky at times.  Not as smooth an operation as the RX-2 I've owned since the 80s (and am listening to at my desk as I write).  I haven't played it a whole lot, and certainly haven't gone over it with a fine tooth comb yet. 

(Background:  I got it for $25 off Ebay for spare parts.  It had been advertised as not working for parts or repair, but the way the seller described it, I figured she just didn't know she had to lift the platter and loosen the shipping screws.  When I received it, I loosened the screws, put a spare cartridge on it, hooked it up and tried it.  Seemed to work OK.)

Well...tonight I noticed for the first time the tonearm's counterweight appears bent down at a slight angle.  Can you see the angle in this picture?  Looks like the spare RX-2 needs to get into the minor repair queue.

Today I took the little $15 IKEA pine end tables and turned them into semi-proper speaker stands.  First I added spikes (from Meniscus Audio, my source for damping material, Solen capacitors, resistors, Beovoxian Americanizing terminal cups, banana plugs, grill cloth, gasket material, etc., etc., etc.) on both the top and bottom.

Then I stained them the Minwax Red Mahagony I stained the M70s.  They're still out in the garage drying.  We'll see how they match the M70s tomorrow.

The FedEx man showed up during staining with a package from Parts Express.  I'm going to cut and bend this metal grill material into grill (fret) frames.  I've got several colors of grill (fret) cloth to choose from.  I may wait until school is over (April 17) to undertake this project.  I'm still not quite sure how to attack it.

Rich:

I think I like the touch panel and lights on the 1900 better than the 2400.  At least that's my initial thought.

I tend to agree with you - I've liked the 1900 since the first time I saw it. But when the 2400 came out, I liked that even better. So I bought a 2400 back then. Years later I traded it with a 3300 -and then a 4500.
Recently I've bought both a 1900 and a 2400. I can't decide which one is the best looking Well -every receiver in the 1900 series is beautiful -from the 1900 to the 4500

Before I took the stands out to the garage yesterday (they're still a bit sticky so still out there), I made a crude measurement of the frequency response of the M70s (and sort of the entire system).  I ripped the Stereophile Test CD 3 and transferred the 1/3 octave test tones onto my iPod, plus the 1,000 Hz Pink Noise Test Tone from original Stereophile Test CD.  I then played the pink noise from the iPod -> Monster iPod to Cassette Adapter (Eugene's tip) -> Beocord 4500 -> Beomaster 1900 -> Beovox M70s.  I adjusted the volume of the iPod to about 3/4 full scale, then the Beomaster 1900 so that a hand held sound pressure meter (A-weighting) read 80 dB.

I then played the test tones and recorded the meter's reading for each 1/3 octave test tone.  Below is the resulting frequency response curve.