[matador]

Hi,

I’d like to chime in even if my point of view may not be useful at a all.

I entered the world of vinyl records just because Beograms were beautiful.
Not because records sounds better or whatever else.

Of course quickly came the question of “what if my cartridge is just not good?”
And even if sometimes, on certains records, I found the sound pleasant, good, nice… I’ll always going to have that little voice in my head: “maybe your cartridge is just not good”.

Reading around people who are blown away with cartridges that cost a lot or using words you would never use to describe music didn’t help.

Also reading about all that can turn wrong in a cartridge (stone, cantilever, suspension, coil…) didn’t help either.

Then I had the opportunity to have MMC4 rebuilt by a reputable man, who’s work can’t be questioned. I was exited to listen to those “like new” cartridges, with new diamond and new rubber. I put them on, put a record and what I heard was… Music.
The same that with my old SP10, SP14, SP12 and not better than my recent old MMC20S.

Just music, good enough, I mean I can hear the difference with a CD or a digital file but music with the added pleasure of seing it spinning and holding the sleeve and so on.

But honestly, in the different cartridge families I could listen to, their condition and their quality level, I never heard any major difference.

I’m not saying they do not exist and that a trained or used ear can make a substantial difference between them. But I may be fuzzy, I want just to say that sometimes its more about hype than music. And forums don’t help: they are so much things that can change the music between the tip of the diamond and the sound in your head: deck condition, preamplifier, amplifier, speakers, power cords (this one is for you M), room acoustics…
I let it go. As long as I can listen to music and have a spare cartridge just in case, it’s good for me. I’d like to have an MMC20EN for my deck, yes, but it’s only because it is silver.
And maybe if it happens, I could wake up in a different world that will make me consider this whole post as stupid, maybe… But, I doubt.

With all due respect to those who ear a difference.

[matador]

Ok, I surrender and have a 1611 converter on the road . But…

I vaguely remember and a drawing from our old funky pal Peter Pan seems to confirm that the box MUST be SW 3.1. Mine (my future) is SW 1.3.

What should I expect from this?

Thank you!

[matador]

matador wrote:
Another lead here Beolab 3500 Standalone

So, I contacted that member Curious-dreamer and he was very kind to give all the details of its setup and answer my questions, Thank you Curious Dreamer!

So, That’s indeed a Beolab 3500 and it is used as a standalone like an usual Beolab speaker.
The 3500 is triggered by an external 5v signal coming thru the Din plug. I asked him if that was enough or if another trick was needed. The special Cable was enough and he don’t even have a remote so no cumbersome key sequence here.

I did a cable similar to is: L+R as usual and 5v on pin 1 grounded to pin 7.
And… It did not work! The audio part is good, tested in PL mode, and the power part do work and trigger correctly a Beolink Passive.

This do work on its Beolab 3500 but not on mine.
Its is a type 1601 with serial 116xxx and S.W 1.1
Mine is a type 1601 with serial 194xxx and S.W 3.1

Maybe the problem lies here in the S.W version or maybe I should use pin 4 instead of pin 1 to trigger the speaker? But it’s well known and repeated again and again that the 3500 can’t be used as an usual Beolab. And if it was pin 4, any Powerlink cable should have triggered the speaker right ?

The quest continues…

[matador]

matador wrote:

Another lead here Beolab 3500 Standalone

So, I contacted that member Curious-dreamer and he was very kind to give all the details of its setup and answer my questions, Thank you Curious Dreamer!

So, That’s indeed a Beolab 3500 and it is used as a standalone like an usual Beolab speaker.
The 3500 is triggered by an external 5v signal coming thru the Din plug. I asked him if that was enough or if another trick was needed. The special Cable was enough and he don’t even have a remote so no cumbersome key sequence here.

I did a cable similar to is: L+R as usual and 5v on pin 1 grounded to pin 7.
And… It did not work! The audio part is good, tested in PL mode, and the power part do work and trigger correctly a Beolink Passive.

This do work on its Beolab 3500 but not on mine.
Its is a type 1601 with serial 116xxx and S.W 1.1
Mine is a type 1601 with serial 194xxx and S.W 3.1

Maybe the problem lies here in the S.W version or maybe I should use pin 4 instead of pin 1 to trigger the speaker? But it’s well known and repeated again and again that the 3500 can’t be used as an usual Beolab. And if it was pin 4, any Powerlink cable should have triggered the speaker right ?

The quest continues…

[matador]

Ce sont deux choses différentes et indépendante : d’une part l’affectation des touches et d’autre part la liste PUC.

Pour l’affecation des touches vous avez des entrées physiques sur le téléviseur AV1, AV2, etc et des touches sur la télécomande : DTV, SAT, V.MEM… Qui correspondent plus ou moins aux appelations B&O. Mais en réalité vous branchez ce que vous voulez où vous voulez et affectez la touche qui vous arrange. Par exemple, vous utilisez principalement decodeur TNT alors vous le branchez là où vous voulez, par exemple AV3, et vous affectez à l’entrée AV3 la touche DTV parce qu’elle se trouve en plein milieu de la telecommande donc facilement accessible… Pour la touche V.tape, vous afectez l’entrée AV1 si vous voulez mais au lieu de brancher un magnétoscope (V.tape, c’est l’appellation pour les magnetoscope chez B&O…) vous branchez une Apple TV par exemple : vous ne faites que decider quelle touche active quelle entrée de la TV, indépandament de ce qu’il y a réellement branché.

Ensuite la liste… C’est une liste de code PUC : c’est un système qui permet d’utiliser la telecommande B&O pour contrôler un appareil tiers, via un petit transmetteur Infra rouge. Donc déjà si vous n’avez pas le petit bidule qui permet d’emmettre les signaux IR, ça ne vous sert à rien. Si vous l’avez, il faut selectionner la marque et le modèle de votre decodeur TNT par exemple. Alors, une touche de la telecommande ouvre un menu speciale ou vous accedez aux fonctions primaire de l’appareil et cela vous permet, pour un usage courant de ne pas avoir sur la table, la telecommande en plastique moche à coté de votre superbe Beo4.

Mais la BV7 est une tele relativement ancienne et les decodeur ont évolué, donc il y a peu de chance que votre decodeur se trouve dans la liste. Seule possibilité, trouver une reference qui utilise des codes similaires mais pour cela il faut en effet s’eplucher toute la liste et essayer les codes un par un.

Bon courage.

[matador]

Steve at Sounds Heavenly wrote:

that looks like a Nikon…

I’m afraid it is even worse…

[matador]

Steve, you know I respect you,

But are you REALLY shooting an interview with the Beolab 90 designer with only 24% of battery left? Not good! 🙂

Happy new year’s eve to you and all Beoworld members.

[matador]

Carefully follow the procedure described by Ramabo and it will work. Remember to activate “again” the IR reception with the appropriate (I don’t remember right now) procedure.

Yes the Century is a beautiful piece, I always wanted to have a working one.
If you’re an Architect I would advise you to do a search on the old forum about fret reclothe: with this and and any fancy pantyhose shop, you can do miracles in terms of integration! The old forum ‘flash your B&O’ thread is full of gorgeous pictures of Centurys, in dark red, dark green, or any other duck blue like color that will just make you want to refurbish you interior.

Happy new year to you too and to all Beoworld members

[matador]

Bonjou Lyosha,

CE que je comprends de votre message, c’est que vous n’arrivez pas à faire correspondre les touches de la telecommande (DTV, SAT, V.MEM…) avec les sources physiquement raccordées au téléviseur AV1, AV2, … C’est vrai que chez B&O c’est une gymnastique un peu particulière pour tout ajuster. Je n’ai pas de Beovision 7 mais a priori dans les menus vous devriez trouver la liste de toutes les entrée (AVx) avec en face la selection de la source, c’est à dire la touche de la telecommande qui va selectionner cette entrée.

Pour vous aider vous trouverez le manuel d’utilisation ici.

Bien tentendu si vous avez des élements à la suite les uns des autres comme votre box à travcers le décodeur TNT, vous ne pourrez selectionner que le dernier element de la chaine (le decodeur TNT) à moins que celui-ci ne commute automatiquement sur le signal de la box s’il s’en present un.

Le plus simple serait de trouver une personne qui est à l’aise avec ce genre d’appareil pour qu’il puisse experimenter avec le materiel.

Bonnes fetes.

[matador]

Kay1Kar wrote:

I guess the first step is to open the device up and see which capacitor I need to order.

The danish song is mandatory, it won’t work without.

The capacitors are mentioned by Ramabo earlier in this thread:

RaMaBo wrote:

[…] ordinary electrolyctic capacitors ( 22µF / 6.3Volt ).

Read his post for the full procedure.

[matador]

Hi Kay1Kar,

I’ve been there before: dont bother with door slapping or whatever…
Follow the Ramabo Advice, change the capacitors.

The IR board is located more or less at the rail level, on the right side.
You’ll have to:
– take off the grills.
– take off the front CD and cassette fascia. Take care of the cd clamper.
– take off the screws holding the main amp PCB (heavy) on the right side, just enough to lift the IR board.
– Then disconnect the cable, almost in the blind.
– Take out the board, shoot it, note polarity of the two capacitors.
– Make a search on this forum for guidance (because some details have been already discussed here).
– Replace the capacitors.
– Sing a traditionnel danish song out loud (a traditional dance may help too).
– build back the unit (only after the previous instructions).

90% sure the unit will come back to IR life (option setting etc…)
2 hours work, 60% of the the time being taking the grills out if you never did it before.

Ramabo told me to do that long ago and I didn’t want to listen to him because e you know: capacitors etc etc…
But I eventually did and it worked.

Dont bother, do it.

Godspeed.

[matador]

Are you sure the keyboard is correctly installed? Sometimesput it can look like ok but it is only hold by the magnets and not correctly put.

If correctly installed, maybe you could try to clean the contacts on both sides, or see if any key is stuck?

[matador]

Hi Xavier and thank you for your answer,

Thats exactly what I wanted to know and now I know!

Then it would not work for me because that’s exactly what I want to avoid: a system you have to set up each time your turn it off (that is the contrary of standalone for me).

[matador]

Thanks MM.

I know that one but i’d like to understand how these speaker works.

But while we’re at this, you remind me a question I forgot to ask:
Will ant 1611 works? I think I remember vaguely they were serial number or SW version limitation, no?

[matador]

Yes… I’ve often told it but B&O market here is crazy: people often don’t even know what they sell but put hight prices just because some dark mysterious black box is labelled B&O ar sometimes because you have interest in it…

To be fair sometimes it’s the other way around and I’ve myself have had the chance of incredible bargains sometimes. But all in all it doesn’t seem to be a market as even or realistic as it seem to be in UK or the northern countries.

I’m not in a hurry, I’ll wait.

Ah, and about the PC2, I suspected that answer, so don’t bother spending time on experience but thank you anyway.

Enjoy your evening…

 

[matador]

Hi Guy,

I’ve read the link (I now have the 3500 and want it standalone more than ever!) and your post carefully. I still wonder if you think or know if the PC2 could act as an audiomaster for the beolab 3500 as it, disconnected from any computer and just using the line in, preferably without IR eye. Even if it would need to be connected to a computer for setup it deosnt matter, what I would like to know is if after that it could work by itself to drive the 3500.

The reason is that 1611 converter are not a lot around and even less in my prices but PC2 comes from time to time for cheap.

Thanks in advance and merry Christmas.

[matador]

Hi KolfMAKER,

Did you find anything new ? I’ve found two Beolab 3500 and like to investigate a way of making them really standalone.

Let’s play with those things and give them a new life!

[matador]

Glitch wrote:

Could you put a piece of black electrical tape on the lip?

It would be difficult I think because the lip is a tight fit under the main plate and down to these level, electrical tape is quite thick.

What I did is to cut a square rubber belt and tuck it in the groove: absolutely reversible, no arm to any part, quickly removable in case of an unexpected hardcore beo-lover visit, and to my eyes, better looking.

In fact, possibly better looking for B&O marketing people too, as they did emphasis (with photoshop) those black separation in every picture of the Beogram 4000c.

Thank you to everyone who gives is view.

[matador]

Hi and welcome to Beoworld,

See here, have a drink and take a deep breath, Its just two hard hours. 😀

Alternatively, you can also search in this or better, in the old forum. They’re a lot of thread about laser replacement and the usual issues that may arise (whistling laser, incompatible ones even if the reference is good…)

It’s a common issue with plenty of solutions.

[matador]

Dillen wrote:

So is the light at the speed dial. Looks all LED’ish.

Picture effect: light are usual lamps and shines orangish in real.

Dillen wrote:

Can’t your panels align properly?

They are as much as they can in the three dimensions. The shining line is from the “lip” from the upper right plate that goes under the main table.

[Author]

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