Over the years I have collected and used daily some very nice, super audio equipment although dated - I like the old gear but as time goes on, it stops functioning properly and this is one such piece of equipment.
I AM ONLY LISTING THIS COMPLETE UNIT FOR A FEW DAYS AND IF THERE IS NO GENUINE INTEREST, THE BEOCENTER 9000 WILL BE PARTED OUT AND SOLD OFF IN PIECES INTERNATIONALLY VIA MY OWN WEBSITE.
Once I have started dismantling, its too late to grab this unit.
This B & O equipment is just fantastic! Very space age, super modern in its day and it still never fails to impress although it needs a bit of attention now.
I am a very experienced technician but I don't have time to undertake the required repairs so this complete equipment is being offered on an as-is basis, my description should help someone who is interested determining if they wish to "tackle it"
Lets start with the company, Bang & Olufsen
Extremely well known Danish company which specialises in the field of high end luxury audio equipment for the consumer, usually with a price tag to match!
They have been in operation since 1925 and still going today
Extremely well engineered and easy to use equipment
Now to the specifics of this equipment ...
Bang & Olufsen
Beocenter 9000 Type 2505
https://www.beoworld.org/prod_details.asp?pid=410
Manufactured in Denmark
Manufacture year 1986-1987
Touch and IR control (NO remote supplied)
Also controllable by the B&O Beolink data system
Complete lounge/dining room domestic sound system
AM/FM Stereo/Dolby B,C cassette/compact disc music centre with 2x30W RMS and Multiroom functionality
Dimensions: 760mm wide x 350mm front to back x 130mm height
Weight: 15Kg
Inbuilt capabilites
CD Player
Cassette Tape Play/Record with full reverse functions
AM-FM Stereo Radio Receiver
External inputs available for:
Phono - turntable
Tape - another tape machine such as a nice reel to reel
Aux - other analog sound sources such as DVD players, Television etc
In the true B&O style, this isn't just a great piece of audio kit but very stylish/sleek and designed to blend in with any home decor.
But there's more...
Super space age look and control system, there are NO buttons or knobs on the unit. Everything is touch control with all displays hidden under darkened glass until they become "active"
Control displays are very sensible and organised, only showing the controls relevant to the function you are performing.
This is a great sounding system, great looking system and the NAME Bang & Olufsen sitting in the loungeroom - very impressive!
So what is the score with this Beocenter 9000? I hear you ask ...
We have used this system for many years, we bought it new in the early 1990's but now it is just nice old (but very contemporary looking) equipment that never failed to impress but about a year ago I put it in our storage units because I found even better gear to play our music on! and this B&O needed some attention - we all do when getting old!
So today, I powered it back up...
All of the photographs are of THIS EQUIPMENT in operation, or not as in the case of the CD player!
We purchased the Beocenter 9000 here in Australia, it has always been and is currently set for Australian power requirements but can easily be changed to others such as 220/110/130V
CLOCK displays, Standby light is on - all normal
Touched the RADIO area of the panel and it sprung to life - a long row of preselect stations (STILL remembered them! so the memory battery is still good)
I selected various AM and FM preselected stations - all received fine, sound is great
I then did a manual search, also worked fine
FM stereo panel indicator lights when sufficiently strong signal is received.
NOTE: The AM loop antenna IS included - it uses a special plug so it is important to have this antenna for AM reception.
The radio section is A1 - working fine
Touched the TAPE area of the panel, inserted a cassette tape and the Eurythmics blasted out, no problems at all. Fast Forward and Rewind functioning fine. I did not try out the search functions - I just wanted to play a cassette and hear what it sounded like. Audio quality is fine, no issues with that and the speed is constant and "sounds" like the correct pitch. Touched the reverse button and played the other side of the tape without removing it - nice.
The cassette tape section is A.5 - working fine but only given a half because we have never used the record functions and did not test it today either
I then fed my Rega turntable into the PHONO input, again everything sounds fine although I had to custom wire things a bit because I didn't have any of the special 7 pin DIN plugs that B&O use.
Bang & Olufsen use these 7 pin DIN sockets for ALL inputs
Now we come to the CD player - loaded a CD, touched the CD area of the display but it will not play a CD. It is very likely that the optical system needs replacing. The CD rotates, lens goes up and down trying to read the CD but it cannot get a good read. It tries this three times and then returns the system into Standby. So it is very likely a replacement CD optical assembly is required (part number 8005190). Nice optical servo swing type mechanism! Yes, I did clean the lens (extremely carefully) but this made no difference, it still could not read the CD.
NOTE: Both sides of the sliding access doors DO NOT WORK! To undertake these tests I had to move the access doors/panels manually - this is a very common problem and can easily be fixed with a rubber belt replacement kit (I see people online sell these)
As there hasn't been a lot of interest in this, today I opened it up - see one of the photographs. Panel door motors/belt drive system is very easy to access. I have kept a section of the old disintegrated belt to assist in finding a replacement - it is nothing special.
You can also see the very nice optical drive mechanism.
I also checked the audio controls which are common to all peripheral audio devices, volume, bass, treble, balance, mute etc
It may also interest someone that the pre-amplifier outputs are available at the rear - excellent if you prefer to feed the low level output of the Beocenter 9000 to a bigger power audio system.
These audio control functions ALL work correctly - just as with everything else, all audio controls are touch based - super cool!
NOTE: There are two sets of speaker outputs which can be used with other Bang & Olufsen equipment or with plain old passive speakers. My testing was with passive speakers - nothing special.
The sockets take you a bit by surprise, one set of speakers uses a 4 pin DIN for each channel and the other uses a 3 pin DIN for each channel. I used Speaker output 2 for testing, top pin and centre pin - the "extra" pins are used for those special B&O features and can be ignored for passive speaker use.
I have included an extract from the User Manual to show anyone who is interested what this DIN sockets look like.
In summary, the technical issues that will require attention to have this 9000 fully operational are:
2x rubber belts for the sliding door panels
1x CD optical lens replacement unit
COSMETIC CONDITION:
The Beocenter 9000 is pretty clean externally, without case scratching BUT the central brushed aluminium panel has little "dimples" in it! When it was placed in our storage, someone placed an item on top of this equipment which marked the front panel central area. The two sliding doors are fine though.
The glass display areas are clean and without scratching
Rear panel is clean as is the remainder of the case.
Technical Information:
Nothing terribly specialised about the active devices used in the design, BC series transistors, 4000 logic, 27128 EPROM etc and the output amplifier is a STK4151II hybrid (30W + 30W)
All boards are single sided, components are discrete and NOT SMD.
Well laid out multi-board system, easy access to any part of the equipment.
I can/will supply the following manuals if requested:
User Manual
Service Manual (a bit "rough" because the scans were done as two scans for each page but at least it is clear and readable)
From my testing today, it is unlikely that any board level repairs are required, see my description of the current condition.
So, to get this Bang & Olufsen Beocenter 9000 back up to scratch would cost around A$200 in parts plus a bit of time (based on the prices I see these parts are being advertised for internationally)
The complete, fully functioning Beocenter 9000 is worth at least A$1000 in today's market so it is a very worthwhile project (for someone, just not me) and this is a bargain, originally this Beocenter 9000 set us back around A$4500 from memory, and that was in the early 90's!
If there is no genuine interest in this complete Beocenter 9000 equipment, I will "part it out" via my website - I have already had contact made with people in Germany and they are keen for some spare parts from this equipment but I will wait a little while and see if anyone locally wishes to take on this B&O gear.
