General Forum

Re: Living a dream ????

beobeo — Sat, 10 May 2008 06:48:43 GMT

Nick12345:

Buy what you like the look of (and always check German ebay - there's a better selection and better prices than ebay UK - and an abundance of Dutch professional sellers who I've bought stuff from and have always been delighted)

Live your dream and have fun shopping.

Nice thread. I'm ready to pay a premium if the gear is in perfect condition. Can somebody tell whose Dutch eBay shoppers are offering good stuff.

I'm looking for a mint beogram from the 70's but the sad stories read in the forum are keeping me from doing it (yet).

Re: Living a dream ????

sajpratty — Sat, 10 May 2008 05:48:29 GMT

You're concerned? Oh dear, am I ever in trouble!

I understand perfectly where you're coming from, I'm the same except I like the late 60's and early 70's stuff. My concession to "modern" B&O is my BC8500 and BG3300.

To my ears, the old stuff performs - and then some. Sure the speaker cabinets can be intrusive with their size, and the pre-dome tweeters are somewhat directional, but these factors are outweighed for me by the looks and the "ear-friendly" sound. I auditioned a BS4 and BL9 and although it sounded great it didn't exactly beat my existing kit hollow.

Reliability hasn't been much of an issue. One BM1000 had to be serviced by Tim Jarman and it has been perfect in almost daily use ever since. A BM1001 is used daily - no probs. Only issue in a small collection of vintage kit in constant use is a BG1202 motor, giving me enough grief to make me consider swapping in proper ball bearings for the old sintered ones. Otherwise everything just keep on going, looking good and sounding better. My Dad still happily uses his 60's B&O too - no probs.

My CD duties are handled by Sony Discman's, recording duties by Sony minidiscs (I use the microphone input for DIN level signals) because they are small enough not to intrude.

80's and early 90's? If that's what you really like then go for it, and enjoy. Some stuff is built to last, some stuff is built to be serviced rather than scrapped, I think B&O is both.

Cheers, Steve

Re: Living a dream ????

Friedmett — Sat, 10 May 2008 04:37:05 GMT

When the B&O item has 20 odd years on them the best advice is to know a very good way to get repairs done before buying anything as they will come at some point because of age and use.

It might be working fine but it's slowly getting getting down with trouble free units that has 20 odd years on them.

When the stuff works that's when you can relax and enjoy.

Re: Living a dream ????

Peter — Sat, 10 May 2008 04:15:34 GMT

The performance is usually excellent and if you buy models with Powerlink connections, you can use the modern range of speakers. The only fly in the ointment is the CD mechanism which will have a definite lifespan and are very difficult to get replacements for. Almost all the other electronics can be repaired at component level.

Re: Living a dream ????

Nick12345 — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:53:59 GMT

I like the 80s and 90s stuff best as well. I sold my Beomaster 8000 and Beocord 8004 (both from the 80s) a couple of years ago to a friend who uses them daily - they have never had a repair in over 20 years of use and are still a topic of conversation when people see them for the 1st time. The lack of dedicated inputs can be a bit of a problem but with a couple of little add ons (hidden behind) no real big deal. I have a collection of friends all using B&O over 10 years old and they are all happy with reliability etc.

Buy what you like the look of (and always check German ebay - there's a better selection and better prices than ebay UK - and an abundance of Dutch professional sellers who I've bought stuff from and have always been delighted)

Live your dream and have fun shopping.

Living a dream ????

nikeyboy1212 — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:12:07 GMT

From a purely personal point of view I hold in high regard, late 80's/early 90's B&O audio music centres/seperates.

I've already posted a couple of threads on similar themes, but I'm trying to find out if it's really worth spending hard earned cash on early B&O kit.

When all's said and done the gear I look for is over 20years old.

So am I living the dream?

Can early stuff still stand up - by that I mean, justify second hand value and more importantly still remain reliable?

I'm really close to securing a complete Beosystem 4500 system without speakers for £600 - without doubt my favourite system - but is it worth the money, will it perform or am I living the dream???????????

Should I move on and buy newer models, despite not really liking their looks?