Got my pair of BL 5000s, from a guy who had bought them used but never tested them or seen them working - he didn't have any other B&O gear to test them with. Here's the situation: I hook them up to power, and to my BM 3500 via Powerlink. This is exactly the same hookup that works perfectly with my Penta 2s. When power is applied, the red LEDs light up in both 5000s. I move the switches from Standby to Audio. Still red LED. I play a CD on the 3500 system; the 3500 powers up. The BL 5000s power up, both of them. But all that happens is that the red standby LED goes out, there's a faint 'click' from the relay inside, and the data display lights up very faintly, as if with a backlight. That's it. Nothing. Nada. No sound, no data on the data display. Playing with the A/L/R mode switch doesn't help (shouldn't make any difference with Powerlink anyway). Tried different cable positions, tried one speaker at a time, even tried with a 5000 on one Powerlink, a Penta on the other. Nothing changes - always the above response. Always, the Penta(s) work perfectly.

The Beomaster and cables drive the Pentas perfectly so I don't see there being any problem there. The fact that both speakers behave exactly the same suggests to me that, somehow, somewhere, I'm doing something stupid; it's unlikely they're both dead with the same fault. (unless maybe it's a power supply fault - perhaps in a previous life they both got zapped by a power surge or something?)

 Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 Mike
 

Hi Mike,

The switches on the back of the speakers should be set to either L or R and the switches on the side of the speakers should be set to Audio.

Power off the whole system. Connect the wires and set the switches. Power on the 3500 and then the speakers. Select a source,say, CD on the 3500.

They should now work as designed. If not, you have a problem.

5000's do seem to be a bit temperamental if they are not fired up in the correct sequence especially if you try to connect up with the power on!

Tried the above, with exactly the same results. I'm going to assume, tentatively, that I have some kind of fault in both speakers. They do get as far as going into standby when powered-on, then out of standby when fed with a signal, so at least part of the logic in both speakers is working. But the lack of both sound and data display suggests it's something fairly fundamental.

I'm still wondering about what could be in common between the speakers and I'm wondering... power supply? That's where I'd start on any troubleshooting job, checking output voltages, and although they're labeled for 120V 50/60Hz input I just wonder if they have possibly been restrapped for a different voltage at some point, or something along those lines... that would explain identical problems with both speakers.

 Has anyone else ever seen a Beolab 5000/4500/3000 do this? Turns on, but no sound and just the backlight on the data display?

Any further ideas or sanity checks welcome, I'll let you know how it goes.

Mike
 

It's a new one on me. I would usually suspect the leads but if they work with Penta II then they must be OK.

Your start point for the diagnosis seems logical. The transformer in the two versions is the same according to the service manual. Only some jumpers are changed.

Keep us informed.