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ARCHIVED FORUM -- April 2007 to March 2012
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This is the first Archived Forum which was active between 17th April 2007 and 1st March February 2012

 

Latest post 02-26-2009 7:53 PM by The_Beonic_Man. 13 replies.
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  • 02-22-2009 6:12 PM

    • Henri
    • Not Ranked
    • Joined on 02-15-2009
    • Posts 66
    • Gold Member

    "Beophilia"...

    This is my very first post here, so it might be appropriate to introduce myself.

     

    Frankly, I've never thought much of B&O equipment. Until recently, that is. I've had lots of B&O speakers over the years, a couple of music systems and accessories like telephones - I've never even given that much thought to them and a few years ago I had an "everything must go" -phase. Sold all my Redline speakers, systems, I even gave away two vintage top-of-the-line B&O televisions, one of them a perfectly mint mid-70's BV6000 with the brick remote. Fortunately the people who bought or got them, could really appreciate them.

    Fast forward to last month. I've acquired a bunch of 80's-90's B&O speakers, tried to justify buying a BS3200, even spent a couple of hours listening to Beolab 5:s and considering trading in one of my (top of the line, "real" high-end brand) speaker systems for a pair.

    Damn.

    How did all of this start this time? I brought home a pair of Beovox Pentas, fully expecting my wife to tell me NOT to bring home any more audio gear. She liked them. And, as a die-hard sinister-black-box-that-weighs-a-ton -audiophile, that was really refreshing. She even asked if some of the black boxes around the house could be replaced with something nice-looking and now I have a bunch of C75/CX100:s, a pair of Beovox 5000 panels and few other semi-vintage items waiting for installation.

    This just might be genetic. My father insisted that every single piece of AV equipment in the house was B&O. I grew up in a fully B&O-saturated environment and all I can remember is that I could use everything at a very young age. Come to think of it, effortlessness, pleasing aesthetics and a very decent sound quality is probably the magic combination. As an engineer, he wanted everything to work as easily and effortlessly as possible when he got home from work and that's exactly what B&O gear of the day did. And still does.

    I can't say that I'm a 100% B&O enthusiast quite yet, but I've just re-learned to appreciate what this equipment is all about. And, as a really enthusiastic DIY'er, vintage audio really fascinates me - mostly restoring it, but there's always room for improvement and a couple of articles about how to improve Pentas have really caught my attention.

  • 02-22-2009 6:21 PM In reply to

    • Xseries
    • Top 150 Contributor
    • Joined on 04-16-2007
    • Hampshire
    • Posts 433
    • Bronze Member

    Re: "Beophilia"...

    Congratulations!

    I do not think you will be disappointed!  I think the Pentas are excellent speakers (though I would like a pair of BL5sSmile MoneySad!).  The Beovox 5000 panels look really good and the C75 CX100 are well suited to providing extra sounds in other rooms or smaller spaces.  I would be interested as to your preference between the C75 and CX100 (if there is one!)

    Enjoy Beoworld

    Brian  

  • 02-22-2009 6:36 PM In reply to

    Re: "Beophilia"...

    An excellent read, welcome back! I think you're father and I would have had a really good chat over a cup of tea as I too insist on having only B&O throughout the home. I don't think you ever look back. It is a love affair, which I have said before. Of course only for those who love it to begin with. The 500s are wonderful speakers, such an iconic design statement like many of B&O's products.

    Simon.

  • 02-24-2009 9:38 PM In reply to

    • Henri
    • Not Ranked
    • Joined on 02-15-2009
    • Posts 66
    • Gold Member

    Re: "Beophilia"...

    Thanks.

    I also did "the right thing", upgraded to gold membership right away. Supporting this site is the least I can do, information about older B&O systems is very difficult to find elsewhere and a few threads here have already prevented me from trying to re-invent the wheel in form of DIY repairs.

    This is getting fairly serious quickly, I just spent a couple of hours digging through the cellar and found, among other things, a very serviceable Beocenter 1800, a spare cartridge for its turntable and a pair of matching P30 speakers, user's manuals for various B&O items and some brochures, mainly from 60's and 70's. I have to do a full inventory soon, there should still be a Beolit (707?) and another early 70's Beogram somewhere. Most of my father's gear is still stored somewhere, I haven't had the heart to sell it.

    Not to mention the Ouverture and a pair of RL1000:s I just "accidentally" bought on eBay since my last post. Huh?

    As far as preference between C75 and CX100 is concerned, the difference isn't huge but still noticeable. From what I've observed, the imaging is better on C75, and the bass goes slightly lower. The sound of CX seems to improve more with a good amp, I've tried them with a few different units and total overkill with Adcom 555 really brought them alive. The spl level was kept reasonable, there's always a risk of frying the drivers when fed power levels are potentially multiples of what speakers are designed to withstand. I have yet to test a fully restored pair of CX100:s, though - that'll be possible sometime next week, depending on when capacitors and replacement drivers and arrive + a few days of running them in.

    It'll probably be better to cover that subject in another thread.

  • 02-25-2009 4:09 AM In reply to

    Re: "Beophilia"...

    Welcome to BeoWorld!

    Round these parts the name for your condition is the BeoVirus and you see to have a particularly bad case!

    Compared to hardcore audiophilia B&O gear is surprisingly reasonably priced with the added bouses that B&O gear is much more 'wife friendly'  and  you can also sidestep the discussions on power smooting and  $10,000 interconnects!

    Simon

  • 02-25-2009 4:50 AM In reply to

    • Luke
    • Top 200 Contributor
    • Joined on 02-03-2009
    • Switzerland
    • Posts 286
    • Bronze Member

    Re: "Beophilia"...

    You just inspired me to upgrade to Gold....

     

     

  • 02-25-2009 8:01 AM In reply to

    Re: "Beophilia"...

    Just having access to all the old users guides and service manuals made the upgrade worth every penny.

    I have a 24 year old BM 3000 with a CD-X paired with a set of original RL-60's complete with wasted ABR's.

    I have it sitting on top of entertainment center right a bove a brand spanking new Samsung HT-Z510 digital 5.1 home theatre setup.

    The sound quality and smoothness of the BM 3000 is unmistakable. While the Samsung produces decent quality music in stereo mode I contantly have to adjust the DSP sound fields depending on what I am playing.

    With the BM 3000 I have everthing set in the middle and I never have to mess with it other than the volume.

    Simply an amazing sounding piece of equipment considering its age.

  • 02-25-2009 12:35 PM In reply to

    • Craig
    • Top 10 Contributor
      Male
    • Joined on 03-29-2007
    • Costa Del St Evenage
    • Posts 4,855
    • Founder

    Re: "Beophilia"...

    The_Beonic_Man:

    I too insist on having only B&O throughout the home. I don't think you ever look back.

    Have to agree with you there Simon, I too will only buy B&O now. Well I did my eldest a Samsung LCD for his 21st, well I wasn't going to get him a B&O LCD if I havn't got one yet.LaughingLaughing

     

    CraigSmile

    For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen..

  • 02-25-2009 2:48 PM In reply to

    Re: "Beophilia"...

    The Beolit 7007 is definitely one to pull out - wonderful rich sound. The speakers can give problems and are not easy to source - however Tim Jarman has taught himself how to fix these if you have problems!

    It is amazing just how similar the C75 and CX100 sound considering just how different they are.

    Always interested in brochures from the early 60s and 70s - I have scanned a good collection already - look at http://www.beoworld.org/manuals_view.asp?pid=1244. The 1979 US one is a gem.

  • 02-26-2009 4:17 AM In reply to

    Re: "Beophilia"...

    Henri,

    After I did careful listening to the Beolab 5's I also sold my "real high-end system". It's one of the best decisions I've ever made. The Beolab 5's are better than my old system, comprising of bits more expensive than my current Beo system.

     

    -Andreas

     

    BLab5, BLab5000, BLab8000, BV10, BS9000, BS3, Beo5, Beo4, BLink1000, BLink5000, BLink7000, A2, A8, Form2

     

     

     

  • 02-26-2009 2:52 PM In reply to

    • Henri
    • Not Ranked
    • Joined on 02-15-2009
    • Posts 66
    • Gold Member

    Re: "Beophilia"...

    The problem with Beolab 5 is that it's very good but not quite outstanding in terms of absolute sound quality. I may have spoilt myself rotten, with various, carefully selected heavy hitters of the high-end world, in rooms built or modified in terms of acoustics. Some of my systems have even required structural modifications to normal 8'4" ceiling height in order to even fit in. Impractical to the extreme.

    However, a huge advantage of BL5:s is that they adjust themselves admirably and require far less acoustic damping than traditional speakers. Their real appeal is in the fact I mentioned earlier - effortlessness. They are probably the only true high-end speakers I could fit in my living room and make actually work. So far I haven't bothered because it would've been a total waste, I definitely don't want to screw up the very clean contemporary look of the living room with heavy acoustic modifications. BL5 can actually change that, in a "real" unmodified room they probably sound better than anything, regardless of price range.

    In any case, I still haven't found the Beolit but a couple of Beocom 1000:s just surfaced as a result of an archeological expedition to the mountain of cardoard boxes I call cellar. Fortunately I still have a POTS landline, even though nobody has called me on that in years, it may be the time to change that. Smile

    I also opened up the Pentas. Minimal foam rot on one midrange but all of them feel sticky, which isn't really a surprise considering the mfg sticker on the bottom read 1986. Cleaning up the connectors on crossover and drivers brought two mute drivers back to life but in addition to replacing all the midrange drivers, recap is way overdue.

    Interesting. Pentas aren't that bad speakers, commonly very underrated for their sound, and I just wonder how much better they'll be after full restoration and some tweaks to the crossovers.

  • 02-26-2009 4:10 PM In reply to

    • Alex
    • Top 25 Contributor
    • Joined on 04-16-2007
    • Bath & Cardiff, UK
    • Posts 2,990
    • Bronze Member

    Re: "Beophilia"...

    I see your point about the BeoLab 5 not standing out from the 'hyperspeakers' of the market (which usually cost several times that of the BeoLab 5s, and that's without amplifiers) but my experience is that the BeoLab 5 is the only speaker which I've found represents the recording, and not itself or the room's acoustics.

    Certainly if you're looking for a speaker with drama and down outright musicality, you can do better. I would choose the BeoLab 5 over anything simply because of it's faithfulness, which is unrivaled IMO.

     Weekly top artists:                   

  • 02-26-2009 5:23 PM In reply to

    • Henri
    • Not Ranked
    • Joined on 02-15-2009
    • Posts 66
    • Gold Member

    Re: "Beophilia"...

    I've heard the claim of highly natural sound a few times, and I agree, but there still are speakers that can do it better - the catch is, they usually need a right kind of room for that. Some speakers like JMlab Grande Utopia have a fairly narrow sweet spot where the sound reproduction is optimal, and my-God-it's-out-of-this-world when you're sitting directly in the "beam". That's always a trade-off, even with BL5.

    But, there's a distinct difference between high-end purism for the sake of music itself and everyday situations where actively listening the music isn't all there is. The best test I've found so far is having someone speaking/singing to a studio quality mic, standing between the speakers, and adjusting volume doesn't make a slightest difference to sound characteristics, only the volume. That's an incredibly challenging acid test to any audio setup and so far only a handful of creme de creme high-end setups have been able to pull it off. An extreme challenge how faithful to original peroformance the sound actually is.

    Don't get me wrong, Beolab 5 has been a real eye-opener to me so far, especially considering the size and price of these speakers, but all this must be put into a perspective. I'll still keep my listening room setup, thankyouverymuch, but I'm pretty excited about how BL5:s have given audio enthusiasts a chance to bring high quality sound to rooms where it hasn't been feasible or even possible until now. Devil

    And THAT's when things are getting interesting.

  • 02-26-2009 7:53 PM In reply to

    Re: "Beophilia"...

    Craig:

    The_Beonic_Man:

    I too insist on having only B&O throughout the home. I don't think you ever look back.

    Have to agree with you there Simon, I too will only buy B&O now. Well I did my eldest a Samsung LCD for his 21st, well I wasn't going to get him a B&O LCD if I havn't got one yet.LaughingLaughing

     

    CraigSmile

    The thing about B&O, for me anyway, is that all the products compliment each other so well. You know that when B&O make a product, whatever it is, its going to match and work perfectly with any other B&O product, old or new - with only the odd exception here and there. It has that attraction of wanting to keep adding to it. I love that, although I won't go too overboard as I like to keep it minimilist too, so only a few big products like TV and stereo, the rest of the 'overall look' is achieved by the smaller items (but very visible in the home) such as link speakers, phones, remotes, portable players (and at one time an MP3 player but no longer!) There is so much thought behind a B&O product and I buy as much into that as I do the look of it and all the other things that attract me to the brand. Its just great kit and I find it hard to knock it but believe me, if I did want to knock it I would! I can be just as opinionated whether I favour a product or really don't.

    Simon.

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