Pardon the rather non-technical description of "acting wonky," but I simply don't know exactly how to summarize what my new-to-me Beomaster 8000 is doing.

Bought it today on CL, along with a Beocord 8000 and four (!) BeoVox RL-140's, from a seller who said that the BM8000 is not working properly. Beocord works alright (though rewinding is slow) and I think at least two of the RL-140's will need refoaming.

Anyway, sure enough, when I plugged the BM8000 in, it doesn't work properly. Well, truth in advertising =) ... but he'd said that he thought a channel was out, and while it sometimes acts like that, I think the situation is actually more complicated.

Plugging in the unit and turning it on reveals a properly functioning volume display (and controls), part of an FM preset display, and part (mainly the last digit) of the FM frequency display. Balance display doesn't come on at all.

At very low volumes, it seems that it's mainly the left speaker; go up a little and it's the right one. Come up to exactly 2.9 and the left will come back on! Now the right speaker sounds static-y and if I come up a little more on the volume, it's still not all that loud (though not as quiet as I'd expect if a stage of amplification were gone...I think?) but the Clipping light starts to come on, and I back off.

I've seen the advice about replacing capacitors, and plan on following it, but I was wondering if there's anything in particular I should be lookingout for based on the speakers' behavior changing significantly when the volume crosses this magical 2.9 threshold.

One other question - any tips on how to open the RL-140's? The front cover doesn't seem to come off in the way I would have expected from working on other speakers.

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to Beoworld !

What a nice system.

BM8000; Capacitors, yes. A kit is available.
Check also for cracked solder joints at the edge connectors between the processor and display boards.
Intermittent faults here can cause the strangest faults and there are essential signals running through here,
not only to the displays.

RL140; You will dismount the rear cover, not the front.
Remove the straps if present (one screw in each plastic wedge at the rear) and then a lot of screws holding the rear cover.
The cover will bind a little but place the speaker face down on a carpet, work gently and lift the cover off.
Note that there are leads to the speaker wire clips at the center that needs to be disconnected before
lifting off completely. Note their colors and positions.
A capacitor kit is also available for the RL140's and highly recommended.
Refoaming RL140's are not the easiest thing, tolerances are pretty tight so not good for practicing skills.
I have done many, and depending on your location, I can offer to do yours too.

Martin

Hi Martin,

Thanks so much for the reply! This system is actually my first introduction to B&O after some previous electronic projects. The whole lot was only $125 on Craigslist so I can't complain about its condition too much =)

Thanks for the tips on what to look for inside the BM8000 and also the RL140's. I usually take plenty of pictures while disassembling things, so I'll try to do the same this time as well.

Where do I find the capacitor kit? I looked on Google and found several mentions of it, but didn't find the kit itself. As for refoaming the speakers, I wonder what shipping would cost? I live in Pittsburgh, in the northeast USA - and from your profile it sounds like B&O is not an import brand for you! =)

Thanks again for the help - will keep you posted once I have the system apart.

Charles

Welcome to BeoWorld Charles!

BTW, I am an old yinzer!

The cap kits, etc... are available from Dillen... I am sure he'll be back soon!

125USD for all that... great deal on a great system. Quite the introduction to B&o! Enjoy!

Is yinz goin' dahn Jynt Iggle n'at? How 'bout dem Stillers!

For those of you who aren't from the US, Pittsburgh has a very distinct regional dialect... good to find someone else from my town here, and thanks for the welcome!

Will look forward to hearing more about the cap kits. I should probably open the speakers up and make sure the drivers aren't completely trashed before I order kits for those, too. Interestingly, the white bands that go around the speakers were missing from two of them and the fabric on the grilles is looking kinda punk as well on those two. Is it possible to replace the fabric? And do the bands serve any purpose apart from completing the 'look' of the speakers?

norwood27:

Is yinz goin' dahn Jynt Iggle n'at? How 'bout dem Stillers!

Only if I didn't jeet jet! Goin' dawn for sum jumbo after I red up my cubbard, en at! Go Stillers!

BTW, what part?

Anyhow... Below are a few links... try the site's search function for some more.

Here is a thread about RL straps (60's not 140's) but... same difference.

and

Here is a thread about fabric with some RL content.

Welcome from me as well

Missing bands/straps on the RL speakers is very common. They are I guess made of mylar or polypropylene and get fragile with age. And when they snap, they get of course removed and thrown away as there's really no way to fix them... They are purely for looks, but IMHO do an important job at that - be careful with the remaining two!

It is possible to replace the fabric, but it is a lot of work. They are actually glued on at the front so that the "Bang & Olufsen" script shows through. Google might find you a pictorial on that job (I remember seeing one way back, but it wasn't on Beoworld).

Way back I made this thread about cleaning a pair of RL6000 - it might help you with the disassembly, all of the RL series are very similar.

Charles,

As long as the woofers are still playing, they can usually be refoam'ed with good results.
They are welcome here and you can ship only the woofers. I have done many from the
US but I'm sure that there must be a good refoam'er over there to save on the shipping
though I'm afraid I cannot guide you to one. Maybe someone else can.

You have a PM regarding capacitor kits for the Beomaster 8000 and Beovox RL140.
Check your inbox in the top right corner of this page.

Martin

Thanks for the PM, Martin. Check your inbox too

Mika and Jaff, thanks for the info on the bands and covers! Guess I should have headed back to the search window... but you know, they DO look like shipping bands and the guy who sold them to me was wondering if that's what they were. Two of the four speakers have the bands. The one thread had a long debate about what type of fabric to use on RL's - has anyone answered this definitively or should I just go to the fabric shop and pick out some speaker cloth in an appropriate color?

The difficult part is to get cloth that is flexible enough to both do the sharp corners
and the embossed lettering and still be strong enough to work with.

Martin