Hi,

I am new to the world of B&O so please bear with my ignorance with what follows! :-)

I have recently (as in yesterday) had the pleasure of receiving a no longer needed (hence free! :-) ) Beocenter 2800 with a pair of matching Beovox S 35s, in mostly working order.
 
At the moment I have a CD player connected up via the tape inputs (and it sounds loverly it really does) and have a few questions to ask:

1. what is going to be the best way to clean it? It is not ingrained with dirt or anything like that, but it does need a bit of a buff up - I suspect that a soft cloth and some soapy water will do the trick, can someone confirm this?

2. the turntable drive belt is on the slack side so I have not been able to test the turntable, can someone reccomend a vendor of turntable belts and tell me what I need to ask for?

3. the sliding volume, bass, treble and balance controls whilst working are a bit crackly when being moved, will carefully squirted electrical contact cleaner do the job or is something else going to be more suitable?

4. some of the push buttons are on the sticky side as in won't release once pressed in, I have found that gentle leverage with a thin blade does the job, Is there an easy way to extract the buttons so I can clean any muck out and re lubricate? Will silicon lubricant be suitable?

5. I suspect that the stylus on the cartridge may have taken a knock in transit - lets just say that when I received it, it had been not so happily floating around against the turntable, looking on the internet it appears that an entire B&O replacement cartridge may be difficult to locate and potentially expensive. Is there any third party (I know I know) replacement that I could use just for testing the turntable (once I have a drive belt sorted) so I can the decide to acquire a real B&O one at a later date?

Many thanks for your time and patience.

Regards

Paul






 

Hi Paul, and welcome to Beoworld !

Wonderful machine and not one of the most commonly seen.

A soft cloth with a few drops of soapy water will be fine.
The perspex lid can be polished using NOVUS products (#2 and #1 in that order).

The scratchy controls is also a common problem but in most cases
it will settle with daily use (who uses these daily anyways ?)
Contact cleaner is good for losening oxidation and dirt but
it won't remove it, only shift it around.
Best would be to take the controls apart and clean them but that would
involve quite an amount of work.

Replacing of capacitors is also an essential step in any serious restoration.
A kit is available for this but I wouldn't rush to replace the lot
if all functions are still fine.

I can supply a new turntable belt if you can't find one locally.
It's a bit of an odd size if I remember correctly.

Cartridges are expensive like everything else B&O.
I can recommend Soundsmith's cartridges. They are superb quality and there's really no alternatives for new cartridges.
Used ones and NOS ones do come up from time to time but it's a
matter of personal opinion what to buy and how much to pay.

This thread will probably help you with the sticky pushbuttons:
http://forum.beoworld.org/forums/thread/36777.aspx

Martin