Vintage Products

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

Peter — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:45:18 GMT

I suggest the S60s would be the speakers that will suit your system the best - They are of almost the correct era and are very stylish. When they come up, I will tell you. Remember that they may need some work on the cross over though that should be pretty simple. The drivers should be fine. They are teak. If your room is small, consider the P45s which wall mount and are very elegant.

The S120s are rather more modern and will be for collection only as I simply don't have the wrapping materials or time to do this. I promise to keep you posted!

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

zodiac — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:20:00 GMT

Peter,

honestly, if you are planning on giving all this equipment away at cost price, send me a mail or something. Vintage B&O equipment is really rather rare here in Germany, so finding decent speakers will be an expensive undertaking. That way, shipping those speakers will totally be worth it for me. You dont have a nice 901 stored right now, have you? Just kidding.

I would take the S120s immediately (or whatever else you have got there that works nicely with the 901). I dont give a thing about that scratch at this price.

Have a good night,

Martin

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

Peter — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:04:15 GMT

I don't sell anything - I would give them to you. However I am actually splitting up my collection in Bellac at present and will be disposing of all my bits. Steve will be selling them for a price of about £25 to cover his costs and the price of packaging and posting. There are a number of items coming up which may be of interest. Condition may not be as good as it could be as they have been stored in not ideal circumstances for a few years. They include S60s on trumpet stands and P45s , both of which are really rather good sounding. The S60s are actually the ones pictured on site.

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

zodiac — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:25:34 GMT

I ll pay for the shipping. Dont worry. Those speakers would cost me at least a 100 GBP over here.

So what would be your offer? Theoretically.

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

Peter — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:20:38 GMT

Not keen on shipping! I sent a pair of small cubes to Denmark and it cost me £50! It will definitely cheaper to find some over there. Mine are not perfect as they have a scratch on one and the grilles are a little loose.

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

zodiac — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:36:04 GMT

Peter, you must have got something wrong there. I was talking about the original price.

Do you know, how much shipping of the S120s actually cost to Germany? Dillen told me, I should watch out for sensitivity in concern for volume efficiency. And the S120 seem to have quite a good value there. And those one do not seem to come around on German ebay too often. So I might be interested. Even when shipping is expensive.

Well, to be honest, I am deciding between a B&O set containing the 901 and a pair of speakers or a set of Braun (top notch German audio manufacturer from the early 50ies to early 90ies and a electronics manufacturer in general, today they are known for their shavers) amp and speakers.

Both options would cost about the same, while the Braun stuff is a bit bland looking, so B&O wins the design part. But the Braun most likely will be the better amp, most likely (also considering the price of about 500 GBP in 1970, its just a different class). But the B&O speakers just look so good and the 901 would be easier to integrate into my interior design.

But nevermind. I got time to decide.

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

Peter — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:58:12 GMT

zodiac:
Alright, I should have probably stated in advance, that I really cannot get warm with the "controls-on-top" design of B&O.
That way, I only have the choice between

Beomaster 901
Beomaster 1100 (where I dont like the extra dials slightly left of the middle on the upper row, and the fact, that they dropped the oldschool B&O Logo)
Beolab 5000 (rare & expensive, as far as I now)
and the Beomaster range 5000 to 7000 (but those are actually a tad boring again, but doing a good job in being really super minimal).

I just wonder, if somebody could tell me something about the sound quality of the 901. Especially in relation to high end models of the time, considering the rather cheap price of ~ 120 Pounds.

£120! Is it gold plated! Think £20 for a 901! If you have £120, get a Beolab 5000 which should be within budget and get a piece of history. Also consider the 1500 which has a pretty similar electronic design to the 4400 and will blow the 901 away.

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

tournedos — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:57:00 GMT

zodiac:
I just wonder, if somebody could tell me something about the sound quality of the 901. Especially in relation to high end models of the time, considering the rather cheap price of ~ 120 Pounds.

It's OK, but there's no helping that it has power amplifiers with a single-sided supply and therefore AC coupled outputs to the speakers. It wasn't quite high end quality then, and certainly isn't now. But if you like the design, go get one! I'm sure you won't be disappointed, if you just don't expect too much. It's still over 30 years old.

Probably you need to get two sets of B&O equipment, one for the looks and another for the sound. :-)

As to the 5000-7000 Beomasters, I think they went a bit too far with the minimalism. With the exception of 5000, you can't really use them at all without a remote control...

If you plan on listening to radio, you should note that many of the 70s receivers for some reason won't go over 104 MHz on FM.

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

zodiac — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:31:57 GMT

Alright, I should have probably stated in advance, that I really cannot get warm with the "controls-on-top" design of B&O.

That way, I only have the choice between

Beomaster 901

Beomaster 1100 (where I dont like the extra dials slightly left of the middle on the upper row, and the fact, that they dropped the oldschool B&O Logo)

Beolab 5000 (rare & expensive, as far as I now)

and the Beomaster range 5000 to 7000 (but those are actually a tad boring again, but doing a good job in being really super minimal).

I just wonder, if somebody could tell me something about the sound quality of the 901. Especially in relation to high end models of the time, considering the rather cheap price of ~ 120 Pounds.

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

j0hnbarker — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 04:51:12 GMT

If you're after minimalist, you would do far worse than consider a Beomaster 6000 Qaud. It looks the business, will have no probs driving any of the speakers you have been discussing as it has much more grunt than the 901, and it also has the bonus of being one of only two Quad systems B&O produced. It's second-top of my wanted list after the Beomaster 5000/Beolab 5000 set up (which, incidentally, is also very minimalist and was in many ways the pioneer of B&O's useage of slide rule controls in the 1970s) which seems to be gathering a real follwing here on the site!

I also consider the Beomaster 8000 to be the finest receiver ever made by B&O. It is also very minimalist, with few controls visible to the user. The only drawback I suppose is the rosewood trim, which is a bit of an impediment to the design, but if you get lucky you might find one with white trim (more likely in Scandanavia, apparently). In terms of power, there's no B&O speaker this won't drive with 150w p/c, though you'll need a big space to house one. I have mine on a 1970s sideboard that I had brought over from Denmark, and it looks the business....though the sideboard is over 2m long!

Good luck with whatever you decide!

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

wirralsimon — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:53:39 GMT

The Beomaster 1900 is a great buy at the moment, and is a fabulous looking piece of kit. Prices in the £20-50 range for a good one.

A work of warning on the speakers, some of the more powerful vintage speakers are pretty big which may interfere with your concept of a minimalist look. The S45-2s may be lacking in bass relative to the S75s but I wouldn't describe them as lacking in bass.

Don't be too disheartened by the prices on Beovox speakers. Prices vary wildly, often for no apparent reason, just be patient and jump in when you see a pair at the right price. There are loads of bargains to be had if you are prepared to wait for them to come along.

Simon

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

Peter — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:45:51 GMT

S120s are still easy to drive - prone to foam rot though - mine have new Peerless drivers in them. I am not keen on shipping them though - cost will be more than they are worth!

The first receiver I had was the Beomaster 2400-2 - now that is minimalist - no visible buttons at all! The 2200 sounds better and is cheaper though. This era of receiver was from when B&O under quoted power output. The 2200 officially is 40W per channel - it sounds like a lot more! If it were sold today, they would claim at least 75W a channel! The 2200 is one of the undiscovered gems of the B&O range. Practically hand made and has FM and AM bands. The 2400 only has FM.

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

tournedos — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:26:45 GMT

zodiac:
I am actually up to asking you to give me some more tips on other B&O receiver/amplifiers. What others are there, that are minimalistic but still good looking? Doesnt have to be slider style.

Beomaster 2000 (the older one from the mid-70s). Still waiting for mine to arrive

It ought to sound good, as the amplifier output stage doesn't have the AC coupling caps anymore. Plenty of power, too.

The size isn't minimalistic, though. It's huge! And it's also from the era when the FM scale for some unfathomable reason ended at 104 MHz.

-mika

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

zodiac — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:11:22 GMT

Ok, I dont wanna start the power rating thing again. But would 120s not be really be a bit over the top?

Shipping. It depends. It doesnt have to be too pricey. Or are you bothered about the handling?

I do not really get this. While all the B&O system components over here are really quite affordable, B&O speakers are priced really over the top. I could probably get my hands on a decent deal with a pair of S45s. But you said, they were lacking bass in comparison to the S75s, right?

I am actually up to asking you to give me some more tips on other B&O receiver/amplifiers. What others are there, that are minimalistic but still good looking? Doesnt have to be slider style.

Re: General questions concerning the BeoMaster 901

Peter — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:02:46 GMT

Shame - I have some S120s looking for a good home - overseas postage from the UK is not good though!

There are plenty of speakers around - don't pay over the odds! You could get M100s for less than £200!