Tír Na HiFi

I'm curious - has anyone here used much B&O gear? New or vintage, what was your impressions etc?

Over the past while I've received two pieces of B&O gear, a turntable and amp. The amp was basically working fine, but needed a bit of TLC. The turntable I have yet to sort out, but I sourced the parts needed, hopefully they fix it. The amp is a beolab 1700 (1974-1977), and the turntable is a beogram 1202 (1972-1975).

My own impression is that they are very stylish looking, you really have to give them credit for the design part. The insides are not bad either, they have used printed circuit boards etc when many others were still wiring point to point. Whether this was a chicken and egg thing - use of boards allowed them to get more creative, or the design made them take a new approach.... I don't think anyone knows.

It might be amusing, but I haven't actually listened to either of these yet - I've only listened as part of testing to the amp so far.

Pic credit to beocentral website.

I've always had a lot of respect for B&O turntables and, outside if hifi, their televisions. As "lifestyle" electronics go they were lightyears ahead of BOSE etc.

It's a long time since I heard the B&O turntable a mates dad had but it impressed at the time - this was not the wall mounted vertical TT which struck me as a gimmick even then. Their amps I don't know but I imagine they're OK. Probably not up to standards we'd expect here but stylish and competent.

I do have B&O active speakers and turntable Beogram 1600 which is need of service. I'm happy with a quality and design of the speakers.

The item I didn't mention was their cartridges. I have 2 of these, one of the MMC20 series and one MC6000 with the adapter to regular mounting. They are high output MC - with either an aluminium or sapphire cantilever depending on which of the series it is. Tip is called Pramanik on mine, which essentially is shibata.

Very nice cartridges, much underrated and at last check there are indeed places in the EU that retip to a very high standard (no need to mess with customs and shipping to USA to soundsmith).

Only time I have had experience with this brand was on holiday last year. The apartment was fitted out with one of the tv's that swivels remotely and with large speakers built into it. It also had separate speakers either side. The tv quality was great and when it was turned off or on ,the picture appeared/disappeared behind an opening/closing curtain affect.
It also had a hifi with cd player. A clear plastic cover would smoothly retract when placing a cd.

You stay in better places than I do! ;-)