Hi all, great forum! 

I recently purchased a Beogram 1800 (1980s version) for a meagre sum off eBay and have been trying to get it up and running.  It came with a broken MMC4, so first of all I bought a used MMC5 which seems to be very lightly used (I have no microscope, but the tip looks pretty sharp under a magnifying glass...).  The main problem at the moment is that the treble performance can sound a bit distorted, especially with female vocals.  Two questions, really: 

1) What should I do to set up my Beogram for optimum performance?  I have set the tracking force to what is recommended, and listened while adjusting a few tenths of a gram either way (I can't really notice a significant difference!).  I have also set the playing speed by adjusting one of the potentiometers inside the deck, and lubricated the main bearing.  Can the arm bearings be lubricated also (and how)? 

2) What does the second potentiometer do (I have no service manual)?  I was wondering that perhaps the preamp may be saturating the input to my amp, hence the distortion, so could I back off the preamp gain to rectify the postulated saturation?

 Any tips greatly appreciated.

 Daniel.

Welcome to Beoworld !

A few inconsistencies, I'm afraid:
- Beogram 1200 is not from the 80's.
- Normally, the Beogram 1200 does not support the MMC1-5 range of cartridges.
- The Beogram 1200 has no potentiometers inside for speed adjustment.
In models with electronic speed control (not Beogram 1200) the
two potentiometers are for 33 1/3 RPM and 45 RPM respectively.
The circuit board with the two potentiometers does not hold a preamp and
there are no adjustments on the preamp board of any B&O deck.

Are you sure that your deck is in fact a Beogram 1200  and not a Beogram 1800 or 2000 which would fit the rest of your description better ?

Martin

yep, you're right, it's an 1800, edited now, cheers for pointing out my ineptitude!

I had a similar problem with a cartridge I had retrieved from a defunct Beocenter. After examining it carefully under a microscope it turned out to need nothing more than a good clean.

 

You can buy a pocket microscope with a battery-powered light via Ebay for around a fiver and it's an almost essential investment if you have older Beogram(s).

 

Simon

 

There is no RIAA in the 1800. I would suggest that the cartridge is your problem. Quite likely to be 20 years old now and the suspension could be duff. As a small test, try warming it up with a hair dryer (I know it sounds batty!!) and see if it gets any better. Helps with my older CLs. If not, the stylus could be worn. Also increase the tracking weight a little - no more than 2 g though.

Cheers for the replies guys! 

Right, I have cleaned the tip a little (I'm using acetone, but wasn't sure of the suitability re adhesives(?), so didn't get too carried away!)  I found a little crappy microscope at home, and there seems to be a few deposits on the tip, especially on the trailing edge, as expected.

Sound is not a lot different, although when comparing some different vinyl, it's more obvious on one side of my Kate Bush Hounds of Love, so I'm starting to suspect a particularly duff LP rather than the Beogram, although the sibilants are still a bit more -sh than -ss if you concentrate hard enough :-(

The suspension on the cartridge itself is more "drooping" than I would expect (almost resting on the bottom edge of the cantilever orifice)  I presume this shouldn't be so low?  For this reason I am running the tracking force at ~2g.