Bang & Olufsen Beovox M150, need opinions/help

Hey guys,
I know B&O gear is not everyone's cup of tea, but they were part of a package deal I got on CL for 150. I was most excited about the turntable, but I think I like the speakers the best. They weigh a good 60 pounds each, and are impeccably finished rosewood cabinets, cool grilles and some interesting drivers.

The 8 inch driver and tweeter/mid drivers are enclosed in their own tubes while the 10 inch "sub" uses the rest of the volume with a huge port on the bottom.

Has anybody taken these things apart and have advice on how to get the drivers out without causing damage?

How do these speakers compare to the real speaker brands? They look impressive, and were made for their 150 wpc receiver at the time. I know they use a proprietary plug, but I can work with that.

The mid driver has a sort of metal screen behind it, I have no idea how it works unless its edge driven....can anybody explain?

Pics

Hi secondslc,

I used to work for a B&O Deal. I used to think they were gimmicky, but the more I worked on them and learned about what they were trying to do, the more I respected them. ...Awesome picture of the Beogram 8002 BTW. As far as I know, this era used the phase-link speaker. It was (from memory) a speaker band-passed at the x-over frequency, out of phase, to compensate for x-over phase shift, or something. Most of the speakers were sourced from Seas and Vifa, or Peerless. That fried egg mid range is supposed to be an awesome performer. I remember they sounded better than they had a reputation for.

I believe the plastic ring on the perimeter of the driver can be pried up to reveal mounting screws. Foam surrounds should not be to hard to find or repair. I have the S75 model which sports some quality drivers made by Peerless, Seas and Philips. Being very European post modern sleek in looks and well as having nice drivers I've always felt the speakers should more than outperform, however I think perhaps the cabinets were not built stout enough to control mid bass boom. Maybe they were not designed to played with a loudness level many of like. JMHO

That midrange driver looks a lot like an Infinity Polydome mid (see picture).

sometimes the cone of the midrange driver can sepearate from the coil - a frequency sweep will reveal if that is the case.

A good place to go for B&O questions is the beoworld.org forums. Lots of B&O experts there who can probably tell you exactly the info you need. From what I have read those are suppose to be excellent speakers, and that Beomaster 8000 is probably the best receiver/amp they made. I have the little brother (Beomaster 6000) which I think is highly underrated, whenever someone comes to visit its usually the first thing that everyone heads for. Good luck with the speakers.

Nudies!

I managed to find screws in the holes for the grille pegs. The front panel came off with a bit of a fight as there was a 30 year old seal to deal with. The front panel came off easy, these speakers are a dream to service.

The crossover seems rather sophisticated, and the drivers are indeed well made. The sub has a small magnet and is stamped steel.The LF woofer is cast with a huge magnet and a poly cone.

The cabinet doesnt seem braced, but it is well built in my opinion. Isolating the drivers from the sub seems like a good idea as well.

I think the driver with the tube around it may be the "Phase-Link" speaker. Looks like a protection circuit on-board.

How do these speakers compare to the real speaker brands?
These are real speakers. B&O invests a lot in engineering and design of their speakers. Though their products are typicaly sold in frou frou stores, most are exemplary. These are worth refoaming and recapping. You should find that they image quite well. The 8002 turntable is nothing to pass over either, if it is fitted with MMC 3, 2, or 1.

The mid driver has a sort of metal screen behind it, I have no idea how it works unless its edge driven....can anybody explain?

justw said:

The mid driver has a sort of metal screen behind it, I have no idea how it works unless its edge driven....can anybody explain?

Click to expand...

I believe it's just like a normal dome speaker. There's a magnet behind the screen. It's got a traditional voice coil.

My brother in law had a much smaller system but got the turntable like the one you have, the arm runs across at right angles to the record.

It had a moving iron cartridge it was equivalent to some of the better moving magnets around at the time.

The speakers, receivers, turntables were matched so you got the best sound out of them.

For the money he paid you could buy some top gear that outperformed his, but of course it didn't have the B&O logo to impress people with.

justw said:

The 8002 turntable is nothing to pass over either, if it is fitted with MMC 3, 2, or 1.

Click to expand...

What about this cartridge


Problem is, its got no diamond at the end of the stylus. It looks fine but wont track on a record, leading me to believe the diamond tip is missing.

Get ready for the sticker shock when you go to try to replace the missing needle. The replacement cartridge probably costs more than what you paid for the whole set up. I have had a B&O receiver and speakers for a while now, but was very lucky recently when I found two turntables to go with them. Both styli are intact and in perfect condition. One turntable has linear tracking, but the other has a standard tonearm. I must admit I was initially attracted to the Bang & Olufsen for the styling of the pieces. The whole 70's sleek design goes with my mid-century Danish decor. But I was pleasantly surprised by the sound and operation. You found yourself a very nice set up there. Good luck with it.

kangatoy said:

Get ready for the sticker shock when you go to try to replace the missing needle. The replacement cartridge probably costs more than what you paid for the whole set up. I have had a B&O receiver and speakers for a while now, but was very lucky recently when I found two turntables to go with them. Both styli are intact and in perfect condition. One turntable has linear tracking, but the other has a standard tonearm. I must admit I was initially attracted to the Bang & Olufsen for the styling of the pieces. The whole 70's sleek design goes with my mid-century Danish decor. But I was pleasantly surprised by the sound and operation. You found yourself a very nice set up there. Good luck with it.

Click to expand...

http://www.sound-smith.com/cartridges/boall.html

anybody have experience with that place? I would probably start with the 150 dollar cartridge just to play with the table and get it working. Then if its worth it, id definitely replace the mmc20cl with another one.

Du-uude. ...the 20CL was their top-of-the-line. I believe a sapphire cantaliever Pramanik cut (hyper elliptyical) nude diamond stylus.. I've got a BG4002 if you need some place to store your 20CL

Jon_Logan said:

Du-uude. ...the 20CL was their top-of-the-line. I believe a sapphire cantaliever Pramanik cut (hyper elliptyical) nude diamond stylus.. I've got a BG4002 if you need some place to store your 20CL

Click to expand...

The very end tip is missing on mine, at least I think since the thing doesnt track all that well. I'd be completely fine if my 20cl was intact, but i think its just eye candy for now :tears:

Drats. ....and sorry about that.

secondslc said:

The very end tip is missing on mine, at least I think since the thing doesnt track all that well. I'd be completely fine if my 20cl was intact, but i think its just eye candy for now :tears:

Click to expand...

About the cartridge, PM me, I might be able to help. (I used to work in a B&O authorized service center)

Other things:

1. That speaker is B&O's best, period. The bad news though, the "8-inch" driver is actually an odd size, and even at the service center we couldn't find the exact surround for it. If you get really good and exact measurements, maybe Gordon can help find a surround that will at least work.

Trust me though, that speaker IS worth the effort to get going again!

2. You got all that for $150????? I HATE YOU! You do realize that the turntable alone is worth more than twice that, yes? That receiver is the Beomaster 8000, and was B&O's best sounding amp (and yes, it can hang with a LOT of high-end amps) until they came out with the ICE modules. And you even have the remote! Hell, you could probably get your money back just from the remote alone!

3. Yes, the dome midrange is "edge driven". It's basically a dome tweeter on a larger scale. If you look closely with bright light, you can see where the voice coil is wound.

4. Oh yeah, if I remember correctly, some of the drivers in that speaker were sourced from Dynaudio. The 10" woofer may be a SEAS. It was very rare for B&O to use any drivers in their top-of-the-line speakers that weren't OEM'ed from either SEAS, Dynaudio, or Vifa (especially since they are all in Denmark).

5. I STRONGLY encourage you to get the speakers refoamed and a working cartridge for the turntable, and hook the whole system up as the "system" it was intended to be, and give it a listen. You basically have the "best of the best" from what I consider B&O's "Golden Age", and I think you'd be more than surprised by how well it holds up by just about any audiophile's standards. With the proper cables in place, the turntable and receiver can communicate with each other (and the tape deck too if you had it), and just just about every function can be controlled from the remote.

6. Speaking of the tape deck, the Beocord 8000, 8002, and 8004 HX-Pro all match that system, and they are simply AMAZING cassette decks! I played my old 8004 HX-Pro for a friend once, and they accused me of playing around with them by playing a CD player and telling them it was the tape deck! I've said it before, but it's worth mentioning again because some audiophiles dismiss B&O out of hand because it's "just an art object", but some things B&O made could/can stand toe-to-toe or just plain outclass ANYONE else in were: FM Tuners, Cassette Decks, Turntables, and TV's. Yes, I know a TV isn't piece of audio gear, but when you check out the picture on even an older B&O TV, you find out exactly why some people are willing to plunk down big $$$ for one....

Good luck, enjoy the system, and if you don't enjoy the system, I want dibs on the Beomaster 8000!

p.s., don't forget to PM me about the cartridge....

Cool score, I would love to hear that.

More nudies

Since you guys are making me feel great about my find, I decided to reward you all with more shots of these speakers that I am liking more and more.

Everything came apart rather easily. Any mis-conceptions I had that B&O was not thinking about ease of service and long life were quickly eliminated as I took these things apart without ANY difficulty. My only mishap was the negative terminal on the 10 inch driver decided to come off, but thats an easy solder fix. You can see where the red wire connects to the 10 inch, the negative one needs to be re-attached.



Instead of crappy paper speaker gaskets, B&O used these aluminum anodized rings with a rubber/silicone gasket on the inside that pressed against the drivers. These were a joy to work on.


The resin panel the drivers mount to is very very sturdy. Here is the 10 inch driver, stamped basket, decent sized magnet, a better than average driver.


I was most impressed by the 8 inch driver. You say dynaudio was an OEM for B&O, well...these look like their style design. The magnet is HUGE, the basket is cast and machined aluminum, and the speaker is several pounds heavier than the 10 inch driver. The poly you see is actually filling a hole in the magnet, I have seen small holes before, but this ones about 3 inches in diameter. Is this for cooling, or what?





One last thing, I have never foamed a speaker before, and I am going to be doing a few other (16) drivers before I tackle these.All the other drivers seemed easy to find their centers where there was no rubbing, these B&O ones have way tighter tolerances than the infinity, or CTS drivers I have played with. Should I send these to a pro, any recommendations that will not cut the dustcap? The more good I hear about these speakers, the more intimidating the job gets!