• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Bang and Olufsen type 6501

"ItsTooLoud"

"ItsTooLoud"

Metal Mind
Talked seller down to $230, they're now in my living room :banana: (I think the Bose speakers will be fine for surround speakers, though I'll have to see if the 'center' is up to snuff), with the int-amp and tuner going into my bedroom (tired of not having a remote for the Luxman 201, and surround sound in bed will be fun).

The B&O's sound GREAT! They were nice in the seller's home, WAY better on my stereo, and that's just after a quick listen to 'One Man Band' on the kid's 'Cars' DVD. I'm a happy camper! Having the ability to easily hang them on my wall is a nice (and needed - they're thrice the size of the speakers they're replacing) bonus. I'll be keeping these a long while. :music:

Now, about those crumbling surrounds... any advice? I'm a diy'er, and actually assembled drivers for a while.
 
Register to hide this ad
These things sound NICE. Enya's 'O Come Emmanuel' sent chills up the spine, and Tourniquet's 'Acoustic Archives' CD was almost TOO revealing, there were so many new sounds I've never noticed it was distracting!

They were also pretty easy to hang on the wall (having small, healthy children made this decision for me). The floor stands have a built in wall bracket that is apparantly made to remove, if wanted. The hardest part was deciding whether or not to move them down 4.5" and leave four more holes in the wall. There are now four more holes in the wall, and I am better for it.

That said, I had to lie to my preamp and tell it that the mains are 'small', and then cut the bass 5dB to spare the woofers due to the crumbling surrounds. I did find replacements online (thanks to the archives), and need to decide if I want to change all four of the 6.5" woofers, or only the two that are obviously in need of help. I'm also questioning whether I should do the same for the two 5" mids (these are 20yr-old speakers that spent time in storage, after all).
 

Attachments

  • 11-29-2009 3-19-54 AM_0076.jpg
    11-29-2009 3-19-54 AM_0076.jpg
    61.1 KB · Views: 252
  • 11-29-2009 3-20-36 AM_0078.jpg
    11-29-2009 3-20-36 AM_0078.jpg
    64.3 KB · Views: 328
  • 11-29-2009 3-20-47 AM_0079.jpg
    11-29-2009 3-20-47 AM_0079.jpg
    57.1 KB · Views: 221
  • 11-29-2009 3-20-58 AM_0080.jpg
    11-29-2009 3-20-58 AM_0080.jpg
    58.1 KB · Views: 246
The Bose speakers seem to be working well for surrounds, having a good tonality for voice. They're much heavier than they look. Critical music listening is, in this case anyway, much better in stereo.

That sub, btw, is 72" tall. I think I'll make an ottoman out of it.
 

Attachments

  • 11-29-2009 3-24-45 AM_0077.jpg
    11-29-2009 3-24-45 AM_0077.jpg
    57.1 KB · Views: 118
  • 11-29-2009 3-21-44 AM_0081.jpg
    11-29-2009 3-21-44 AM_0081.jpg
    56.4 KB · Views: 146
  • 11-29-2009 3-32-48 AM_0001.jpg
    11-29-2009 3-32-48 AM_0001.jpg
    49 KB · Views: 137
SO, I removed the back from one of these elaborate things to look at exactly what needs to be tended to. I know that BOTH speakers need foam, but I'm in the middle of ordering foam from Denmark, so I'm taking inventory.

First of all, these things are VERY well thought out and put together. They are the most elaborate speakers I've ever had apart. 21 screws later, I had the back off.

Those are two 6" drivers on the right, a 1" tweeter top center, a separate enclosure molded into the front baffle for the 5" midrange dead center, the crossover bottom center, and the cylinder on the left is the port (it makes a quick 90 deg bend and fires out the front of the speaker). Lots of chunky fabric-covered foam inside this speaker. I don't really know about these things, but that looks to me like a well-made crossover.
 

Attachments

  • 12-2-2009 4-19-40 PM_0010.jpg
    12-2-2009 4-19-40 PM_0010.jpg
    94.8 KB · Views: 150
  • 12-2-2009 4-19-32 PM_0009.jpg
    12-2-2009 4-19-32 PM_0009.jpg
    74.6 KB · Views: 192
  • 12-2-2009 4-07-59 PM_0003.jpg
    12-2-2009 4-07-59 PM_0003.jpg
    80.8 KB · Views: 198
  • 12-2-2009 4-07-25 PM_0001.jpg
    12-2-2009 4-07-25 PM_0001.jpg
    98.8 KB · Views: 303
  • 12-2-2009 4-07-40 PM_0002.jpg
    12-2-2009 4-07-40 PM_0002.jpg
    74.2 KB · Views: 224
Both woofers have foam rot (see bits extracted from inside of enclosure in my hand). Both woofers are beefy, with large magnets. Luckily, the 5" mid uses a rubber surround, and was in tact and pliable. The tweet is also large, to me.
 

Attachments

  • 12-2-2009 4-09-51 PM_0005.jpg
    12-2-2009 4-09-51 PM_0005.jpg
    100 KB · Views: 126
  • 12-2-2009 4-13-11 PM_0008.jpg
    12-2-2009 4-13-11 PM_0008.jpg
    72.8 KB · Views: 133
  • 12-2-2009 4-12-43 PM_0007.jpg
    12-2-2009 4-12-43 PM_0007.jpg
    84.6 KB · Views: 119
  • 12-2-2009 4-08-57 PM_0004.jpg
    12-2-2009 4-08-57 PM_0004.jpg
    49.3 KB · Views: 114
  • 12-2-2009 4-09-59 PM_0006.jpg
    12-2-2009 4-09-59 PM_0006.jpg
    129.3 KB · Views: 145
And, of course, once I had the thing back together and on the wall(no small feat!), I noticed the foam pad that went on the back of the mid enclosure sitting on the bed. My Dewalt drill nearly went dead by the time I had it back together again.

So, I'm ordering 4 new foam surrounds for the pair of speakers. For everyone who dismisses B&O as more haute-couture than hi-fi, I MUST disagree. In regards to THESE speakers, B&O is BOTH.
 

Attachments

  • 12-2-2009 4-42-21 PM_0011.jpg
    12-2-2009 4-42-21 PM_0011.jpg
    65.9 KB · Views: 116
How in the world did you get those to hang on the wall like that? Can I see a picture? Cause that's how I would like to hang my pair.
 
Damage - Do you have the floor stands? If you do, it's EASY. The plastic covers are made to snap off the stand where the speaker hangs. Underneath you'll find 2 allen-head bolts - 5mm I think. If you remove those the section that the speaker actually hangs on comes right out. You can see that it already has screw-holes punched into it. B&O really thought things through! Find your wall studs (I used a hammer and a finishing nail). I used two 2" drywall screws per speaker mount. I was going to use 2.5" screws, but I decided that was overkill. As is they will support ME. I was lucky that there were studs within 4" of where I wanted the speakers. If you want more accurate placement you can screw a strong board across 2 studs and screw the mount to that. Let me know if you need pics. If you don't have the floor mounts pics will show you what to emulate.

kfa888 - Yeah, I'll be talking to my wife about that come taxtime!
 
to me, b&o styling is totl. put that together w/ the engineering and the performance, and you have equipment which will embarrass no one, in any venue. those are great speakers; you really did well.
 
tincat2 said:
to me, b&o styling is totl. put that together w/ the engineering and the performance, and you have equipment which will embarrass no one, in any venue. those are great speakers; you really did well.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I was listening to them again yesterday and was amazed by them some more. I have a very simply done acoustic CD with two guitars, a conga, and a guy with gravel in his throat that I can't get enough of on these speakers. The instruments are skillfully played, and the tonal differences between the two guitars is remarkable. Since this CD is severely lacking in low notes, I braved raising the bass control from -6 to -4 and that was all it needed to sound wonderful. I'm chomping at the bit to get those new surrounds and get them on the woofers so that I can stop lying to my preamp about them being 'small' and also run the bass control up to flat. I'm not sure if the seller included adhesive, so I may need advice on something strong and user-friendly. The battery method is a great tip, and seems to me to center the voice coil under 'working' conditions.

Damage - I'll get some pics of the wall mount up for you. Replicating it shouldn't be hard, though as heavy as the speaker is I'd recommend heavy gauge steel.
 
Another RL 140 owner here, and from a border state no less. Also had to refoam my woofers right off the bat. Was all excited about getting them going, but when I fired 'em up, something just wasn't quite right.

Turned out one of the tweeters had low, poor quality output. Subsequent removal of said afflicted driver revealed the same voice coil DCR as the good one, so I'm assuming some mechanical damage has occurred. Arrrrrgh! Looked for a replacement for months, no dice. Finally picked up a pair of Peerless tweeters I think may work out, but they require a little finessing to get them fitted properly and I keep letting myself getting distracted by other projects. Your enthusiasm may get them moved up the list. If they show promise with the new tweeters, a recap will be in order which may be a bit of a challenge as we both know how tight it is in the enclosure. I like to use poly cap.s and they're larger than similar rated electrolytics.

I don't notice speaker wires running down the wall from your B&O's. Kudos on going to the trouble of fishing the wires inside the wall. Very nice looking installation.
 
Mazeppa - There is actually a 1.5" thick chunk of foam that sits on the crossover in the enclosure, so I think you would have enough room for larger caps. From what I understand tired caps can result in diminished highs. Quote from Beocentral:

"The capacitors in the crossover network can deteriorate, especially if the loudspeakers are only ever used quietly. In cases where the treble level is low (rather than being completely absent) the capacitors are the main suspect, especially if the situation improves after playing the loudspeakers really loudly for a few minutes. Replacement is a practical home proposition for those with basic handiwork skills, the parts are large and sturdy. Use quality film or polypropylene capacitors instead of the cheap electrolytics that B&O fitted and you will never have to do it again."

Would a recap improve sound quality if everything already seems fine? Are there any more mods to the crossover that I can do that would improve things? I'm sure room can be found in the enclosure for crossover mods.

Looks like the foam seller shipped my order on the 11th, and went ahead and sent some of the glue that he uses with my order for free! I'm ready to get these things re-foamed asap. Using the speakers at all in their present state makes me nervous.
 
Wall bracket:
 

Attachments

  • 12-5-2009 5-39-28 PM_0001.jpg
    12-5-2009 5-39-28 PM_0001.jpg
    72.1 KB · Views: 88
  • 12-5-2009 5-39-40 PM_0002.jpg
    12-5-2009 5-39-40 PM_0002.jpg
    63.2 KB · Views: 84
  • 12-5-2009 5-40-03 PM_0003.jpg
    12-5-2009 5-40-03 PM_0003.jpg
    65.6 KB · Views: 94
"ItsTooLoud" said:
So, I'm ordering 4 new foam surrounds for the pair of speakers. For everyone who dismisses B&O as more haute-couture than hi-fi, I MUST disagree. In regards to THESE speakers, B&O is BOTH.
Click to expand...

I've always liked B&O speakers. My brother had some of the high end 3 way speakers (forget the model) he picked up new in Denmark. They had rosewood cabinets.

I have a pair of Redline 60s that I used as rear surrounds and office speakers. However the foam in the passive radiators (at least) is shot. The radiator in the 60s is a big rectangular affair that may have to be replaced with something more conventional.
 
Interesting, in the place my RL 60s have a radiator your 140s have what looks like a large port.

BTW I have the wall bracket for mine. No floor stand though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom