80's version -yes...

the bc display was bad -cracked and chunked out -all powdered up...

definitely glass!

As far as I can see the panels are plastic on my 5000, there was no reason to make them from glass.

BenSA:

As far as I can see the panels are plastic on my 5000, there was no reason to make them from glass.

i wonder if mine were unique -in that they may have been an early production run???

i still have the master, but replaced the beocord... actually another member here got it -damage and all!

i will see what i can find out this evening...

 

++++edit++++

was able to check, everything does indeed appear to be plastic, including the replacement beocord...

however, i will swear the original beocord was glass -as it had shattered! i suppose acrylic/plastic will also "shatter" but, it sure looked/felt like glass to me...  

 

how easy is it to get replacement plastic / acrylic fronts for the BS 5000 family ??

I have one unit I would like to replace, it is 42cm wide and 2cm high, I guess the colour matching is the critical thing  :-)

 

ducha:

Hmmm...

Has anyone else tried the "Tim Jarman Fix" on their BM 5500/6500/7000? Is it a worthwhile improvement -- how exactly does the sound quality change?

Aaron

you should definately do it, I have heard all the Beomasters in the BeoSystem 5000 family, and the extra 4 x 220nF capacitors C215, C216, C415 and C416 on the Beomaster 5500 / 6500 and 7000 do not help when used with passive loudspeakers.

 

Tim has a BS5500 that I have listened to, I used to have a BS5000 and could not work out when I replaced it with a BeoMaster 5500 why it sounded duller than my Beomaster 5000, now we know why -  thank goodness !

 

 

Beomaster 5500, 6500 and 7000  Article written  on 6th January 2009 by Tim Jarman

If you have owned a lot of B&O equipment then you will have probably noticed that thesse models give a slightly disappointing sound when used with passive loudspeakers when compared to some of the earlier designs. This is surprising as the power amplifier circuit is very similar to that of the Beomaster 2200, Beomaster 5000 and the Beocenter 7700 (amongst many others), all of which give very satisfactory performance.

The Beomaster 5500, 6500 and 7000 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 reasonably well. Therefore the power amplifier circuit was investigated 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. With the capacitors in circuit the sound from one Beomaster 5500 was lifeless, bland and uninteresting, without them it was more similar to a 5000, engaging and lively with a full, rich tone.

It is not clear what the purpose of these capacitors is 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. [Beomaster 5500, Beomaster 6500, Beomaster 7000]

Tim Jarman

j0hnbarker:

BenSA:

What about RL140's?

Fine - as long as you sit up close.

 

 

interesting, I would disagree, Tim Jarman has BM5500 with RL140's and I was listening to them about 20 feet away on his sofa, they sounded all right to me, we played various types of music on his Beogram CD 5500, the sound was good to very good IMHO

I have a BM5500 with the Beogram CD 50, and I have had RL 60.2 speakers and Beovox S80.2 's hooked up to it,  they both deliver pretty good analogue representation of what is being played, to be fair the best speakers I have heard on a 5500 are the

Beovox MS 150.2

 

ouverture:

I have a BM5500 with the Beogram CD 50, and I have had RL 60.2 speakers and Beovox S80.2 's hooked up to it,  they both deliver pretty good analogue representation of what is being played, to be fair the best speakers I have heard on a 5500 are the

Beovox MS 150.2

Each to their own. I suppose speakers are very much like font sizes.

I have a Beomaster 5000 (supposedly the better model - i.e. without those pesky caps) and a CD 50 too. I also have some Beovox Pentas, some MC120.2s and some CX50s that I use with a Cona. Currently the 5000 is used with the CX50s, but for a laugh I once hooked it up to the Pentas and the MC120.2s to see what it could do. Frankly it was poo with the Pentas, very good with the MC120.2s and good with the CX50 and the Cona. I concluded that it wasn't man enough to handle the Pentas. Why? Because I also own a Beomaster 8000 and a 6000, and both these amps were/are better at handling the Pentas. Tim clearly knows his B&O, so I guess that in his opinion the RL140s are a good match. Every ear hears things differently, and you can only speak as you find....

I agree with you, pretty much all the revised Uniphase range of Beovox speakers sound good with the BS 5000 family  :-)