General Forum

Re: Beomaster 5500

ouverture — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:06:41 GMT

Hi Nick, any chance that you can post a "How To" for all us 5500 owners

cheers

Peter

Re: Beomaster 5500

ouverture — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:23:07 GMT

this is brilliant news Nick, I can't wait to mod my 5500, well done Sir

Re: Beomaster 5500

solderon29 — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:07:03 GMT

Got it sorted,but can't get decent photo!

Also discovered that it's quite easy to mod the pcb so that the existing line out sockets are at line level,rather than speaker.Doing this means the other connections can be made using readily available adaptor cables.

Regards,

Nick

Re: Beomaster 5500

solderon29 — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:18:08 GMT

In the UK and on the case sir!I've found another way to do this too,which uses existing sockets,but just needs a little mod to the pcb.Sends data out for Beolabs with display's also!Just need to test it,but need to scrounge some speakers!

Regards,

Nick

Re: Beomaster 5500

ouverture — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 11:47:24 GMT

solderon29:

I don't have the modded BM5500 anymore,but I do have another set.I'll have a look at modding that one,and sort some photo's

You can certainly get all the bits at Maplin. Regards, Nick

Hi Nick, are you in the UK ?? Do you have a time frame in mind for when you might mod your BM ?

best reagrds Peter

Re: Beomaster 5500

tournedos — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:18:29 GMT

Yeah, I just re-read that myself... No, I haven't even opened the Beomaster since that, and frankly I didn't remember this whole cap thing anymore when I have had at least a 5500 and a 7000 with their guts open on the desk since then (the one I talked about originally was my current 6500).

Seems like I claimed that there was an audible difference after all, so I guess there was - had forgotten about that already as well. Same brains winter and summer, as we say in Finland

Re: Beomaster 5500

ouverture — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:10:58 GMT

Hi Mika, yes I do remember that

you were going to to improve the preamp stages on your 5500 according to something Martin mentioned ( aka Die_Bogener )

http://forum.beoworld.org/forums/t/2085.aspx

did you do it in the end ??

and when you removed the caps did you put them back but use smaller values,
not 220nF like the orignals, but possibly 100nF or 150nF ??

Re: Beomaster 5500

tournedos — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:32:35 GMT

We had an ugly fight over that mod before last summer I think... perhaps someone will dare to poke that beehive and search for the topic

FWIW, I did that mod on my BM6500 and I'm not sure if it did anything good (perhaps my Penta recap around the same time masked any effect) but it didn't do anything bad either. However, if I had any kind of funky load after the power amps - like another pair of speakers or a link room - I would put those caps back. Electronics designers don't usually put in additional components just to look good...

Re: Beomaster 5500

ouverture — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:23:44 GMT

oh yes please do Nick, that would be a great mod to put up on the forum, thank you

on a side note, did you also mod your 5500 based on Tim Jarman's advice about a year ago - and I quote .............

if you have owned a lot of B&O equipment then you will have probably noticed that the models that came after the BM5000 give a slightly disappointing sound when used with passive loudspeakers, this is most surprising as the power amplifier circuit is very similar to that of the BM2200, BM 5000 and the Beocenter 7700 (amongst many others), all of which give very satisfactory performance.

The BM 5500, 6500 and 7000 all have a rather basic pre-amplifier circuit compared to that used in the original 5000 model but this is not the cause of the problems, the same arrangement is used in the Beocenter 9000 where it seems to work well. Therefore the power amplifier circuit was investigated further to see what could be causing the trouble.

The only substantial difference between the Beomaster 5000 circuit and that used in the later models is the addition of four 220nF capacitors C215, C216, C415 and C416. They are not shown on all the Beomaster 5500 circuit diagrams but many sets have them. As these do not appear in any other versions of the circuit it seemed safe to remove them and see if the performance improved. Once removed the sound was more like the 5000, engaging and lively with a full, rich tone.

It is not clear what purpose these capacitors serve, but performance definitely improves if they are disconnected. Before doing this make sure that the muting relay 3RL1 is in good condition (contact resistance less than 0.5R at rest) and that the output bias current for each channel is correctly set

Re: Beomaster 5500

solderon29 — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:10:09 GMT

I don't have the modded BM5500 anymore,but I do have another set.I'll have a look at modding that one,and sort some photo's

You can certainly get all the bits at Maplin.

Regards,

Nick

Re: Beomaster 5500

ouverture — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 07:04:26 GMT

that is sweet, I'm off to Maplins later today to buy the components, do you remember by any chance the list of components you used, so I have a shopping list to take with me

I have opened up the 5500, and I am pretty happy soldering the 8 pin din cable to the pcb, but also wondered if you could take a picture of exactly what you wired where ?

this would be of enormous benefit I would think to other 5500 owners, especially if they can still also use a pair of Beovox passives in another room

Re: Beomaster 5500

solderon29 — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 06:34:59 GMT

I used a spare 8 pin din cable that had a socket on one end.I cut the cable and hardwired the other end directly to the relative points of the pcb.There are a couple of components to fit also,but it's all fairly straight forward,if you can solder.The trailing socket tucks inside the connection access,or can simply hang out for connection to the powerlink cable.

Regards,

Nick

Re: Beomaster 5500

ouverture — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:57:31 GMT

Hi Mick, that sounds nice, can you expand a bit please !

where did you solder a powerlink socket onto the 5500 ??

I guess Powerlink sockets were added to the 6500 so that Penta 2's could be used with it :-)

Peter

Re: Beomaster 5500

solderon29 — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:29:10 GMT

I did this with a BM5500 to drive a pair of Beolab8000's,it worked well.

Essentially,I just fitted the '5500 with a single powerlink socket,connected as it is in the '6500,which is very similar,then daisy chained the two speakers using the standard powerlink cable.Auto on/off,mute etc all function normally.

The power amp in the '5500 then drives link room speakers.

Regards,

Nick

Re: Beomaster 5500

ouverture — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:40:11 GMT

that's why I want the best of both worlds, modify the 5500 so that the pre-amp works properly and I can just connect Beolab's to it without using the internal amp of the 5500

has anyone modded a 5500 to work like a 5000 ??