General Forum

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

Alex — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:41:45 GMT

I actually think the panel speakers are something B&O could easily do a limited re-production run of. Other 'best of' products, such as the BeoSystem 7000, AV9000, BeoCenter 9000, and Penta are often talked about as being some of the best bits of B&O to come across, but never the panel speakers. It's almost like they've been 'forgotten'. Indeed, I've only ever seen three pairs in person, only one pair of them actually set up and running on location, and I think that's pretty good going considering I generally don't actively look for them! Shame really, they sounded and looked pretty fantastic.

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

dylan — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:45:43 GMT

Crossed and double crossed. Busy doing my insurance - anybody care to hazard a guess at the "as new" replacement cost of BL4500s, BG5500, BG4000 in Australia...[:'(]

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

beoaus — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 06:19:03 GMT

Dylan, You just have to take the risk don't you....

I'd cross a few other body parts as well..

Beoaus.

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

dylan — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 03:55:04 GMT

beoaus:
I have the 4500's which are great speakers and they made it from Europe to Australia. So they can be packaged and delivered safely. Though I do consider myself very very lucky.

My 4500s making the same journey next month - fingers crossed

Dylan

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

beoaus — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 17:38:07 GMT

A few additional comments.

The 4500's were continued to a much later date that the 5000's from memory. The 5000's are very large speakers, check the measurements. Even use a stencil on the wall. Check the amplifiers for both. If they fail you will end up with Beovox4500/5000 speakers.

Transport of the speakers can be a problem. So they best found locally.

I have the 4500's which are great speakers and they made it from Europe to Australia. So they can be packaged and delivered safely. Though I do consider myself very very lucky.

B&O, IMHO, should re-produce these panel speakers but with their new technology.

BTW remember to get the wall brackets...

Beoaus.

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

joeyboygolf — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:02:00 GMT

Shouldn't be too difficult but as I have said before, not to my taste. If it's not genuine, I don't want to know.

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

Frank Rizzo — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:50:41 GMT

Thanks Graham.....do you think that it could be a home project to recover with the speaker cloth??? since the frets are no longer available..??

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

joeyboygolf — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:33:12 GMT

Rubber

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

Frank Rizzo — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:52:17 GMT

Also Graham....are the woofers rubber or foam surround??

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

Frank Rizzo — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:50:11 GMT

So Graham.....Can i recover the cloth portion of the 5000's using colth from BnO??? Has that been done??

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

ipaul — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:22:41 GMT

What i'm wondering about with those is: with which system they were supposed to go with: imho they don't go with any because of the orange displays and stainless steel whereas most/all sets from that time were aluminium and red led indicators.

I was hoping (when i got my pair kind of by coincidence) they had a receiver for the beolink remote in them, so one could use them as link speakers, but no...(so now i have them combined with a no matching 3500 set, gonna change it soon to a lesser no matching 4500 set.

Another thing i don't understand is why they haven't put a proper double (2-way) amp in, one for high and one for low instead of just sticking an amp under a passive speakerbox (but i guess this is also the answer.....), after all even in tv sets with active speakers they did this..(MX7000, Avant...).

Otherwise they do sound fine for such a type of (flat) speaker.

Now maybe i'm missing something...who knows....? :)

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

joeyboygolf — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:04:20 GMT

Alas no, that's why mint examples fetch high prices.

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

Frank Rizzo — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 13:55:55 GMT

Thanks Graham....so are the parts for 5000's also available from the dealer??? Aluminum panels, fabric, frets, etc??

THanks, K

Re: Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

joeyboygolf — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 13:37:45 GMT

Active equalisation means that the spec says that the bass was slightly boosted in the 4500 to compensate for the smaller cabinet.

I tend not to believe a lot of the marketing hype which surrounds the writing of specifications. As far as sound goes, the 5000 is just a bigger sound all round. Brighter and more in your face than, say, Pentas. I prefer my 5000's to Pentas.

The performance seems influenced by the construction of the wall that you hang them on. My walls are timber frame (stick built as in US) and this seems to give more bass than solid construction.

If you are looking for 5000's then good pairs are as rare as hens teeth and command premium prices.

Beolab 5000's vs. 4500's

Frank Rizzo — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:12:45 GMT

Any imput out there of BO'ers that have owned or heard the two of these compared???

It seems that the 4500's had active equalization......did the 5000's also???

Thanks,