I have come a long way since the early '90s when the few visits to any B&O store would be in, and out when looking at the cost.
I don't have date on it but when growing up both set of grand parents had B&O. I can recall playing with the wheels on a BM2000 from the '70s and being fond of a pair of Beovox S45-2 in oak which I ended up getting much later.
I was not that into audio equipment it was always about getting a good TV for the Sony msx or Amiga 600 computer. Somehow I always had a stereo but some cheap nasty stuff not worth anything in the long run. Thereby I always had a feel the B&O was strong build but I did not go hunting for it.
My parents had a Beogram 1202 which I had spend countless hours with and I actually got it one day when my parents decied to change the stereo due to a bad reciver.
I used for a while with a JVC 3 cd changer stereo (my first decent stereo) and one day I saw a Beogram 2000 '80s in for sale in the other end of town. I went and a look, bought it and went home. The next thing was finding a cheap stereo for my parents as they were not happy with the stereo they found. I found a taperecorder in a secondhandstore and thought about a cleaning tape might be in order so I went by a radio store to get one. The salesman took one look at the taperecorder and said: hold on and then he went to the back to get something. A Beocord 9000 in palisander!
As I left the store I made my mind up to get it. It was to expensive anyway so I answered another ad with a Beocenter 2000 for sale rather cheap. Now here is the interesting part: How does it look? Flat and silvery? I got it but it does not work was the answer.
In the end we arranged that he would bring it all by me in a few hours. The on thing I did forgot to ask was what the Beosystem 2000 consisted of. Another Beogram 2000? It turned out to be the BM2000 and BC2000 in nice but non working condition + the working Beocenter 2000.
I bought it all. Gave the Beocenter 2000 for my parents and handed the other 2000 parts in for repair. After that I went hunting for speakers and something to put the 3 units on. I got the Beovox X35 from Ebay. They mint but they have the worst sound as soon found out but the system was complete. Somehow I found a B&O Atycca II stand not far from where I lived which I got.
By 2003 it was complete in a few weeks with Beocord 9000 too. I did change the speakers to some homebuild from a secondhand store which sounded way better and I kept the Beosystem 2000 for the next 3 years. As I allready had the BC9000 what was next? The Beolab 8000 system of course! That is a very long story and then I got into Beovisions too so 2003 was the year it all steped up into Beovirus with no return.
The Beosystem 2000 came rather by chance than anything and I went with it. At the same time I discovered Beoworld and found out it was a system not just the Beogram 2000 for instance.