Last week I bought a very special BEOLAB 5000.

Special – but why?

Because for the first time I have found on with all the documentation B&O supplied with the Beolab products and special because I have the full story of the products.

The story:

Name of the shop selling the Beolab 5000 & Beomaster 5000

The selling date:

Name of the costumer buying the Beolab 5000 & Beomaster 5000.

This person has owned both products until last week.

The Beomaster 5000 has been repaired one time in this period. I have the repair report.

The Beomaster and the Beolab are both working.

Other comments:

Cosmetically both are really in mint condition.

Why telling all this here?

Because I would like to make a thread with the information of the B&O documentation supplied with the Beolab / Beomaster.

A thread which will reveal the specification of a 42 years old product which have not been touch ‘inside’ until today, and what you can gain by doing the full restoration of such a product.

So I will be back with more information soon.

/Frede

Sounds exciting !
We don't have too many vintage threads here. 

Martin

Congratulation Frede!

Sounds interesting... Pictures are always welcome. ;-)

Best regards

Dario

I am sure this will be a superb thread - I look forward to the next episode.

Really looking forward to this!

Craig

The Beolab 5000 story.

·          1967 produced by B&O in the factory in Struer.

·          1968 in January - sold by a shop in Copenhagen -  KT Radio (owned by K. Thomsen) – Price 2390.- DKK

·          The new owner a Danish postman living in Ballerup

·          1975 in April the Beolab has been repaired at B&O Specialisten J. Hammeken in Copenhagen – price 472.95 DKK

·          2010 The Danish postman is now living in Randers (Jutland) and he have decided to sell his Beolab / Beomaster 5000.

·          I am the lucky new owner of this “Very special Beolab 5000”.

I have now a couple of pictures.

As you can see the Beolab is in very fine shape, a 42 year old product. The wooden top needs a careful renovation (of course), the front panels must be cleaned very careful and the side-panels and back-front panel is a problem. I will be back with more pictures later and the solution.

On the alu fornt panel you can perhaps see one of the lines a little shorter than others at the volume control, this is of course a panel failure.

The next picture showing the input / output sockets.  It is very important to see even the RCA sockets are not corroded – most are.

The documentation.

Bang & Olufsen prepared a very fine documentation for the Beolab 5000 products. Very often we will be told 'a Beolab 5000 with all documents' ect.

Here you can see what the full documentation for a Beolab 5000 is. Inside the white Beolab book you will also find the circuit diagram, which is an important part of the documentation.

Whats next.

I will be doing a full test of the Beolab.

Because here we have the possibility to compare the specification of the Beolab 5000 measured at B&O 42 years ago with exactly the same measurement done to day before any restorations at all.

I will try to comment and explain also where I see problems and what to do to solve these problems.

More to come in a few days.

/Frede

A little comment, inspired by the warning sticker. We've discussed how they should be stacked here, but B&O itself is crystal clear. One should place the amplifier on top, in order to secure the best possible ventilation through the slats. It's what's described in the manual, and it's what's stated on the warning sticker.

Still one sees them stacked very often with the tuner on top, even in Tim Jarman's book, in illustrations at BeoCentral and at the product page here.

Please don't do that. Here's what B&O write in the manual:

VENTILATION: A high-performance amplifier, such as the BEOLAB 5000, develops a considerable amount of heat. It must therefore never be placed in an enclosed cabinet, immediately under a shelf or with another component on top of it, such as an FM-tuner.
The amplifier must be given the best conditions for releasing heat to the environment. Also, never place books, magazines or other items on top of the amplifier.

To all members lucky enough to own a Beolab/Beomaster 5000 combo I would strongly recommend that you follow B&O's recommendation, in order to increase the functional longevity of your heirlom vintage B&O.

At least 15cm free space above your Beolab 5000 amplifier, from the horse's mouth.

Very nice!!!

I like the Graphic Design of the full documentation. The colors Gold, White, Black and the font Bodoni Condensend... Very stylish.

superdario:

Very nice!!!

I like the Graphic Design of the full documentation. The colors Gold, White, Black and the font Bodoni Condensend... Very stylish.

Hi Dario,

Thanks for the long chased information regarding the font, I have not been able to find the real correct one, but now I know, and I just have to find it somewhere on Google ;)

/Frede

classic:

superdario:

Very nice!!!

I like the Graphic Design of the full documentation. The colors Gold, White, Black and the font Bodoni Condensend... Very stylish.

 

Hi Dario,

Thanks for the long chased information regarding the font, I have not been able to find the real correct one, but now I know, and I just have to find it somewhere on Google ;)

/Frede

I'm not 100% sure, but the Font looks simular on the picture... For a better diagnose i need a better scan. You can send a PDF by E-Mail...

Here a very useful link, if you're searching Fonts. It's also available as a iPhone app. (but it is not 100% correct):

http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

Best regards

Dario

superdario:

classic:

superdario:

Very nice!!!

I like the Graphic Design of the full documentation. The colors Gold, White, Black and the font Bodoni Condensend... Very stylish.

 

Hi Dario,

Thanks for the long chased information regarding the font, I have not been able to find the real correct one, but now I know, and I just have to find it somewhere on Google ;)

/Frede

 

I'm not 100% sure, but the Font looks simular on the picture... For a better diagnose i need a better scan. You can send a PDF by E-Mail...

Here a very useful link, if you're searching Fonts. It's also available as a iPhone app. (but it is not 100% correct):

http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

 

Best regards

Dario

I will send you a good scan - you will have it in a few minutes

/Frede

Here the first results:

http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/results?ch%5B0%5D=B&ch%5B1%5D=E&ch%5B2%5D=O&ch%5B3%5D=&ch%5B4%5D=5&ch%5B5%5D=0&ch%5B6%5D=0&ch%5B7%5D=0&wtfserver=node4.ric.mf&id=00015c294c9b7f21000e6e3200006100&glyphcount=8&imageid=0

It looks like the Industrial 736

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/bitstream/industrial-736/industrial-736/

My amp is on the top, and always has been. Glad I made the right decision.
Nice thread Frede It will be interesting to see the changes 43 years have caused!

Andy T.

Jandy - even Frede breaks the B&O stacking recommendation in his avatar.  

It does generate a lot of heat. I left an LP cover on top of it the other evening, covering about half the slats, on the left. I was surprised to find how hot the cover became when I removed if after listening to the record, it was too warm for me to drop the record inside it, for fear of warping.

I have mine side by side - the rubber feet leave marks on the rosewood. When my dealer borrowed my system they stacked it and it took quite a bit of polishing to remove the evidence!

Doctor:

I have mine side by side - the rubber feet leave marks on the rosewood. When my dealer borrowed my system they stacked it and it took quite a bit of polishing to remove the evidence!

A good solution is a small felt washer under each rubber foot. I supply allways four of these to customers.

/Frede

I have now measurements ready and later to I will prepare the 'surprising' results.

/Frede

For citizens of the land of glory and freedom, Homedepot has them

classic:

Doctor:

I have mine side by side - the rubber feet leave marks on the rosewood. When my dealer borrowed my system they stacked it and it took quite a bit of polishing to remove the evidence!

A good solution is a small felt washer under each rubber foot. I supply allways four of these to customers.

/Frede

In the big B&O book - cant remember the name - it shows some of the displays at shows that B&O had in the 60's with all thier products and in some of those the tuner is on top. I guess that even then people were not sure which way to stack it. It looks better with  the tuner on top though.

classic:

The Beolab 5000 story.

·          1967 produced by B&O in the factory in Struer.

·          1968 in January - sold by a shop in Copenhagen -  KT Radio (owned by K. Thomsen) – Price 2390.- DKK

·          The new owner a Danish postman living in Ballerup

·          1975 in April the Beolab has been repaired at B&O Specialisten J. Hammeken in Copenhagen – price 472.95 DKK

·          2010 The Danish postman is now living in Randers (Jutland) and he have decided to sell his Beolab / Beomaster 5000.

·          I am the lucky new owner of this “Very special Beolab 5000”.

 

I have now a couple of pictures.

As you can see the Beolab is in very fine shape, a 42 year old product. The wooden top needs a careful renovation (of course), the front panels must be cleaned very careful and the side-panels and back-front panel is a problem. I will be back with more pictures later and the solution.

On the alu fornt panel you can perhaps see one of the lines a little shorter than others at the volume control, this is of course a panel failure.

 

Lovely picture 

I first saw one in '67

Fell in love with the slide rule look :)

Always wanted one ............... *sniff* ................... you are very lucky 

As is the 5000 :) so nice that it has found a wonderful second owner !!!

Now I will reveal the result of the testing of the 43 year old amplifier.

For this very special Beolab 5000 we know the specifications at the time of delivery from B&O because we have a certificate with the result.

You can see the original certificate here made by B&O in 1967:

BEOLAB 5000 – serie 03 - sn.: 14543

I have here all the results for comparison for you, and I have the following remarks for these results.

#1. It is really impressive, for this 43 year old Beolab 5000 the frequency response is still very – very good.

#2. BUT distortion, this is really much too high, although the Beolab 5000 has a pleasant sound and really don’t seems to distort more than 1%. This is one of the “hidden problems “ where you could be very happy to use your Beolab 5000, but not knowing – the sound could be really improved by a full restoration.

#3.The channel separation is much too low and the comment is like #2. (You can’t actually hear the problem before the problem is removed, then you can hear the result)

#4. The noise level is not impressive; again the comment is like above.

Extra. I also tested the damping factor. The 43 year old amplifiers have a damping factor of 6. This is the ability to control the speaker movement and therefore the sound is very much depending on this factor to be as high as possible. After a full restoration I can achieve about 25.

A full restoration of the Beolab 5000 means I will replace about 100 electronic components, calibrate the amplifier and test it for more than 500 hours before delivery. Of course the cosmetic restoration is must and I restore the Beolab 5000 to a “near mint” level.

And I am of course supplying a certificate after the full restoration.

You can see the certificate here with the result of the NON-Restored Beolab 5000