What's old is new. The design aesthetic is that retro-future look. Cars took on those wedge shapes around this time. Look at the Aston Martin Bulldog. And, of course, the new Tesla pick up. Beautifully dated look, that's withstood the test of time!
except for the rosewood sides. nobody uses wood panels in hifi gear anymore since the 80s.. but B&O devices always looked like something taken out of a spaceship..
@@WooShellTandberg from Norway also used wood panelling on the sides of its receivers, amplifiers, cassette decks, reel-to-reel recorders, speakers, with aluminium trims across top and bottom. Very beautiful, google f.ex. "Tandberg tr-1020" or "Tandberg tcd-330"
As a B & O owner for more than 45 years I have really enjoyed your videos on these wonderful products, expensive yes but timeless beauty and design, my system has been faultless since purchase, keep up the good work. 👌👍
Oh Vince mate that’s brilliant. What a thing! So retro and from our youth. They just don’t make things like this now. You would not see aluminium in anything today. Night rider lights , early touch screen , what’s not to like. Utterly brilliant and well done
Those Night Rider lights are so cool. I'm praying there's a clever solution to replacing the melted insert things. Someone else mentioned overhead projector paper. But idk how you would then create the necessary impression. Scan the originals, clean it up in photoshop, and then run the projector paper through an old laser printer or something? My ideas sometimes end in disaster lol xD
I love this restoration! I didn't even know this technology existed in 1976! It was WAY ahead of it's time. £65 is a bargain!! I would love to own one of these! Well done indeed! Keep up the good work! :)
Vince Thanks for your inspiration to have a go at repairs on what look really complex electronics. I recently bought 3 of these old Beomaster 1900 for very little money as I love the looks and they remind me of the 1970s. I know very little about electronics but working logically and in carefully I soon had 2 working. Eventually I got all 3 working and have now recapped all the capacitors in one. Yes the sound is transformed from the others. It is magnificent. I also have it working with bluetooth and my iPad so I can stream music to the unit via the tape plug. I now have 2 left to recap and I know it will be worth the effort. Great that the service manuals are readily available.
Very nice find ! Good deal ! It looks like an item in a Stanley Kubrick movie... I was born in the 60's and I remember the hype around the B&O designs. Well built ! Excellent job !
Wow, memories flush from the past. Had repaird a lot of those during my time as radio and television tech here in Denmark. During your test I already knew what all the faults was. 😁😁 There are a lot of tricks how to take this apart and back again. Thats why your controls are out. The worst with this type of unit are the damper greas on the lid. Its sticky like hell. Nice video by the way
Those capacitive touch buttons are a very clever way of making a button! Lil did they know like 50 years later, everything would be touch! I love B&O products, build to last! And looks so modern and stylish. Amazing piece of tech
Man, these old things are still very good. The sound in these are incredible, even with todays standards. They are a piece of art. Also, this model was intended to be wall mounted...thus it don't have "feet".
@@E_Dtl I mean... as Vince mentions, this would've been ~₤250 back in the day, equivalent to over ₤1000 today. You most definitely can get quality audio at that price today. Likewise, you could get a SoundDesign piece of junk back then if you cheaped out too, and that's what a lot of people did. The only difference is that the old crap stuff has simply been discarded by now, so we don't see it.
Great to see it working again. Because of your Beocord 5500 Video i got myself all components of a Besosystem 5000 and after fixing them I have a fully working hifi-setup that can play tape, cd, radio and records.
I know this was almost 2 years ago. Those 12V lights can be found be searching 12V Grain of Wheat globe. They are common in early model railways. The hissing on FM stereo is normal with a weak signal. FM Stereo needs a much stronger signal to eliminate the noise than a mono signal does.
Think this is one of the best te of sound systems to purchase. M late father bought the complete set, radio, tape deck and record player. I am turning 44 this ear and it's still working brilliantly for its age. Really worth every dollar.
This was an object of desire when I was 16 in the 70's. My much older brother had one of these in his home. I remember there were matching speakers and turntable with floor stands for all the equipment too.
@@gilles111 An uncle of mine had this, minus the turntable. I was amazed whenever we visited him, and just by looking at the video I was instantly taken back to 1980 :-)
its basically a simple NPN transistor and resistor touch switch seems impressive, but very basic in electronics terms. you can google it there are literally heaps of videos on how to make a circuit.
So cool! I'm a big B&O fan. Jacob Jensen is the designer of the B&O products from this time period, and he had said in interviews that this 1900 was his favorite of them all. So you have a very collectable item in the B&O world. I've been able to piece together a Beocenter 9000 with Beolab Penta speakers. I have the Beogram 9000 phono to match, Beolink 1000 remote, and an Active AM 10 antenna to match. They are brilliant systems, and I hope it brings joy to your life. P.S. Beomaster is the equivalent of an amplifier/receiver, Beocenter is more of a "all in one" so to speak.
Not Fur Elize again?! But seriously, this would be too old to have had a remote, wouldn't it. We are so used to a remote for everything these days, aren't we! Thanks for a wonderful restoration. I particularly enjoy your vocal deductive reasoning as you work your way through explaining to yourself what is or isn't happening!
That old b&o stuff is just so well built. The mechanics they designed to create cool light effects is so good and the futuristic look of it is just gorgeous. I allways loved that cd player with the 5 discs in a row where the player moves to the chosen disc. Great stuff Vince.
GOOD VIDEO. I bought my 1900 in 1976 and still have it. It weighs a ton! BTW: your 2 or 4 speaker switch has broken off - that's the switch missing on the base plate. ROB
This would blend in perfectly in the Tesla Cuber truck FOR SURE!! My grandma used to have this radio and I used to play around with the sliders and knobs when I was 10 yrs old. and I remember being in awe of the aesthetics and overall design. This was 28 years ago and I now realize that it was pretty old back then already. It's just Gorgeous!
I had this tuner/amp. As a young Airman, I knew I was going to literally the middle of nowhere, so, I invested in a stereo. I had the futuristic (back then) turntable and Frazier Monte Carlo speakers. I still own the speakers, and they still sound great.
I remember this unit well and I thought back then that the design would always look cool, maybe that was the inspiration that made me become a designer
Another great vid from 'My Mate VINCE' 👍😊 very nicely done ! and I see you now have the CD / Cassette and the amp! Regardless of age they should all click together as I believe they used the same DIN plugs/sockets to interconnect. All in all with the complete systems together no one can moan re the price of and bear in mind the cost it would have been re labour and time spent doing repairs et Thankfully there are those around such as yourself that give us the pleasure of seeing a piece of history brought back to life. I'm currently working on a Siemens valve radio from just after the end of WW2 ONLY 2 left in the world, with full provenance / receipts (bought by a soldier in Germany who had to pay customs and storage fees to bring it into the UK) An amazing piece of gear with a German record player as well. The build just like the B & O gear is very high quality. Lots of wheels and pulleys plus mechanical switching and of course I'm doing recap and new power mods but have it already working after spending days over the last few weeks to bring it all together/ still work to do, the UHF / FM section is VERY intricate. Luckily the service guy back in 1947 also had the full circuit diagram et It's not about the money it's about HISTORY, what decade and so much more. I have my main hi fi system from the 70s+ of separates that have been fully repaired, serviced et and the sound is awesome. Keep em coming ! 👍😊
Congratulations you have one of the most sought-after Bang & Olufsen amplifier receivers ever made that unit still has some really good value to it too
I salvaged one of these from the dump in the '80s. After a bit of care and soldering it worked nonstop for more than a decade, then I moved and I gave it to some friend. I wonder if it's still playing music somewhere. B&O sure made the whackiest stuff. I had a Beovision TV that was so thin you wondered where the CRT had gone. It sounded like a HiFi system and had a printer output that I never found a use for :D
OH holy crap I was in the service department and we were a B&O dealer. They were a nightmare to repair. Good luck with the switches, everyone of them are as crappy as could be. Just make sure you have stellar rounds or you will be chasing problems all around. Good on you my man
My first job on leaving school in the early '70s was in a 'proper' HiFi shop. We sold all the good makes, including B&O. We sold the B&O, not for its dynamic qualities, but for its very good looks and finish. Not every Lady would countenance what looked like a pile of battery chargers in her living room, never mind how good her Husband said they sounded. It was very expensive, but then so were the 'battery chargers'. Really interesting video, keep it up!!
I have to say Vince you are getting much much much better at these repairs, you are now a proper tinker! you can now spot problems more easily which means less screaming at the screen for most of us hahahhaha.
I'd suggest getting some acetate sheets for a laser printer (be careful to get laser-compatible ones! inkjet ones will melt) and making some new transparencies for the indicators.
I'd just leave it, in context you're gonna get away with it. Even if you looked very closely, once it's all closed up, you'd be very hard pressed to see the melted parts.
I have been watching you for years and I am amazed at the things you find and for people like me that love tech old and new it's great thank you for helping me through my break at work until next time
I've fixed a number of these 1900. Had a varierty of faults, the Bal and Tone foils can be remade at home. Dismanting the thing is an effort and so is reassembly where the little fingers need to touch the touchpad posts. It's very crammed inside. The lamps expire too, there's a re-cap kit available. I had one that would go into safe mode on power up, took an age to find the fault. When done, I still think it has one of the best FM demods ever, shame there are no radio stations worth listening to. I think we got ours new in 1975 and cost £250 which was a lot back then, it even came with the circuit diagrams, which I knew to keep and still have.
Thanks for a peek inside! I almost had one of these on my workbench. I have always had a soft spot for B&O design. The ring core power transformer is high end stuff, it has hardly any magnetic field spreading.
Nice bit of kit and nice work fixing it. I think my musician uncle had the previous model of Bang & Olufsen Beomaster in the mid 70's with turning knobs, not half as cool as this timeless design masterpiece! Thank you for the video, you got a new subscriber!
I believe to two arrow head shaped green lights on the right of the unit are to indicate how accurate the tuner is aligned to the stations frequency, ie you fiddle with the tuning dial till both lights are balanced to get best radio signal.
Hiya! At the start of the video I'm like "wow that looks amazing. I would have loved to have that as a kid"! Then you opened that stunning lid and I was disappointed at the looks. Then you turned it on and I saw those night rider lights and was in love again! Such quality and things from that time period just seemed easier to take apart (without breaking clips etc) and easier to repair. Just a tip. If you get background music that will copyright strike you then you can always put your own low volume music to mask it rather than lower the volume. I had it on my other channel because I waked past a pub playing loud music. 😂😂🤣🤣 Another quality video. Enjoyed it a lot! Have a great day! 😊
I do think all youtubers are getting overly obessed with playing even a bit of music on their channels. Who's it going to hurt? Nobody. In fact its more likely to result in more sales and streams for the actual music.
I had a stereo that was similar (but not B&O) that had a classy control panel under a flippy slow closing lid like that, I took it apart to replace a capacitor that blew and stank out the house, and the mechanism was quite ingenious. The lid had a rack that drove a pinion connected to a slipper clutch that then drove a gear inside a sealed container that contained a viscous fluid. You could open it as slow or as quick as you want thanks to the slipper clutch but the idea was when you closed it, you pushed it far enough for gravity to take over, and the rack and pinion/gear in gooey stuff took over, gracefully closing the panel.
thanks for the video, i was fixing one of these and needed your video for guidance and thanks for what you showed. mine had the two speaker connections (female) pushed into the metal frame on speakers no 2 got in and fixed them after watching your video. in reference to you speaker switch with the missing arm, you are absolutely right in reference to there being an extended arm going from the front to the switch. l have not plugged in the phono yet or the tape but they light up ,infect the all of the lights work,(but does not mean they realy do work) just one thing you could do is show the screws you take out and put in. together
wonderful result mate, these old jewels are trusted to your hands! But i have a good tip for you , How to repair scratched plexi glass I,m also watching Marty;s Matchbox repairs on youtube, and what he does with plastic glass repairs of little toy cars, could be working fine for your repairs. He sands heavy scratches away and goes to the finest polish paper and then he uses floor polish to fix it to new shine look. and these results are stunning good! keep on going with your hunt for old stuff like this one, i like it!
As a dane you get 1000x thumps up Vincent :-) I relly enjoy these B&O videos. The "big"round transfprmer in the corner is called a Toroidal Transformer and they are used in eqipment where you dont want to introduce noise like medical eqipment and high end Hi-Fi. Back in the days B&O had women to do quality controle on evry single part used in there products so thats why its flawless :-)
Filter caps on the power supply may be dried, that buzz that it did when you raised the volume without tunning anything usually is caused by bad power supply filtering.
the connectors are DIN ones(an old standard) the extra pins on your other B&O bits are to do with remote controlling from other machines or controllers
You got a really good deal on this. Nice job. The torroid transformer is cool looking, and allows this to be so low profile. Awesome design for the time.
I still have my Beomaster 1900 I bought new in 1981 along with the Beocord 1900 cassette deck, Beogram 1700 turntable and Beovox S45 speakers. While there is not a scratch on any one of them and they look as beautiful as ever, I have had to have repairs done over the years. Loved your video Vince. Keep it up.
Liked and subbed from Denmark, Scandinavia. I got the somewhat updated 1900-2 Beomaster which looks similar on the exterior apart from the lights having a redesign. The steps on the volume control expanded from 16 to 32. These 1900/1900-2 Beomasters have a cousin, the Beomaster 2400/2400-2 that had yet another exterior redesign but was also equipped with remote control. This small size flat receiver 1900-type went on up until the 4500-series. There's just something about the 1900. It was the first and the Japanese went ballistic. They hadn't seen anything like it. We're talking 1976. Think of any Japanese 1976 HiFi-equipment and it's just bulky. The Beomaster 1900 on the other hand is in The Museum Of Modern Art in New York. I would think that it wasn't until Technics made their superb and flat out fantastic SL-10 Turntable, the Japanese made anything equivalent to Bang & Olufsen
Lots of good ideas in these comments. One thing I think is worth checking is the 2/4 speaker switch. Depending on whether the extension arm was straight through (right = right, left = left) or swivel (right = left, left = right, which is what I think it was since there is a large empty hole in the middle where a pivot point could insert) you can't really be sure which position you are in. That being said, take note of the other comments that say not to flip the switch while powered.
I remember when shopping for audio equipment that B&O was comparatively expensive considering the specs. Very futuristic when compared to most of the gear at the time. The price you paid isn't bad. I enjoy it when you save old gear and save it from the landfill.
B&O have mostly used what amounts to philips reference designs for the audio and TV gear, AFAIR, so you're mostly paying for the design. Their beolink multi-room system and the remotes were most of the allure to many buyers. Pity they can't come up with anything that makes sense for TVs now. It's hard to compete with "black rectangle" when it comes to interior design.
Great video. B&O equipment looked so cool. The AFC is Automatic Frequency Control, it is to try and keep the tuner on station and not drift and the extra hiss on stereo FM is normal, mono will be better with less hiss. A good antenna will give a better signal and reduce hiss to almost silent. Good luck on future repairs & mods with it.
Lovely piece of kit worth every penny i remember seeing them in the day well out of my price range back then. You could do with trying to pick up some B and O speakers that would be good. It will sound better than a lot of equipment from these days which will fail with in two years never mind 40 years this show quality with the aluminium top which is recyclable not that you would want too. Instead of all this plastic as used in todays equipment. Thanks for sharing and stay safe.
Excellent timing! I have a Beomaster 2400 with some of the same issues, namely the lights are out. So this was very helpful figuring out what I'm up against. Unfortunately, the volume lights are out and, as you mentioned, they are somehow connected to the actual sound output. If I can track down the proper parts, this gives me hope on restoration. Thanks!
34:00 Important! The knobby-like contact surfaces of the levers should point outwards where the electrical connection is to be made. You've inserted the levers with the knobs pointing inwards where no electrical connection is needed. These knobs on the levers minimize the burning of the contacts when switched on and off. When plugged in, every operation of the switch, produces arcs and can be destructive to the Material. These knobs you can find on the levers of relays too. Everytime when i get an older device to repair, i often found the same dark red capacitors but most of them with sightable cracks and arched tops. It's always better to measure them all for capacitiy and especially for leakage and replace the bad ones before something really bad can happen. It's the best to measure them out of circuit, so no other components can falsify measured values.
Question: Can't all the data be gleaned from the outer jacket? And why measure when they've probably strayed from their original specs anyway? Wouldn't it be better to replace all of them right off?
Hi as a long time enthusiast of hifi and a 15 years+ of buying and selling online...the b&o stuff is very slick design but pound for pound is blown into the weeds by more conventional separates. ...stunning to look at tho...hard to imagine but back when eBay was in its infancy I used to pick up these and models above it for relative pennies. ..
nice video. I have a B&O BEOGRAM 1700 turntable. The dust cover was badly scratched so I used automobile headlight polish and it worked very well. You might want to consider using that for the black panel where the lights project. You would want to tape off the aluminum first so you don't scratch the silver surface.
I had a Beomaster 1900 for many years I got second hand. Used it through 80's and 90's for turntable and tape it's awesome. Well worth £65. The output impedance is 4ohm rather than the usual 8ohm speakers but if not driven too hard won't be a problem. The circular thing is a toroidal transformer which reduces induced interference (mains hum). I think you got a good deal there..a real blast of nostalgia for me.
This Beomaster 1900 was the first in a long row of similar units. The 2000, 2400, 3000, 3500 and 4500, just to mention some. Very beautiful and groundbreaking, with really nice sound - not high end, but good and sufficient for most people. Easy and logical to operate too. Now a couple of KEF LS-50 wireless II, maybe with a sub, is all we need - bit of a shame, I miss those nice designed tapedecks, receivers, and turntables.
Having had the Privilege of owning a 2400 with P45 speakers and and the Beogram 1700, since 1978, which probably set me back 4x my monthly salary🙈 obviously over time there has been some work on the various components but now works perfectly. One suggestion though, that magical, soft close Aluminium “flap “should be raised by lifting both ends at the same time. This will prevent the plastic hinges from breaking! Speaking from experience! I managed to do a repair using PVC weld. Enjoy your classic!
My dad bought one of these in Frankfurt DE back in 1976. His was the white version. We used the hell out of this unit over 3 years in Tehran Iran. Then the civil war hit and the unit got left behind as we got the hell out of Dodge!! It's a damn shame it got left behind. We all really loved it.
Its incredible how an amp from the mid 1970s manages to still look modern in 2020.
What's old is new. The design aesthetic is that retro-future look. Cars took on those wedge shapes around this time. Look at the Aston Martin Bulldog. And, of course, the new Tesla pick up. Beautifully dated look, that's withstood the test of time!
except for the rosewood sides. nobody uses wood panels in hifi gear anymore since the 80s.. but B&O devices always looked like something taken out of a spaceship..
@@WooShellTandberg from Norway also used wood panelling on the sides of its receivers, amplifiers, cassette decks, reel-to-reel recorders, speakers, with aluminium trims across top and bottom. Very beautiful, google f.ex. "Tandberg tr-1020" or "Tandberg tcd-330"
@@dtsdigitalden5023 Tesla pickup? No that just looks like someone from kinder garden had drawn it. Nothing 70's there.
That's Jacob Jensen Design. Most of his design ages very well.
Vince is the only person who’s happy when things are worse than it was described. 😄
He was probably happy because the more problems there are the more content he can create.
Ha, I thought this in the last video with the E.T. book.
Erm yeah, I know.
It will piss me right off
I can,t stand lie yer,s don,t like it at all
I love this old stuff. Nothing is glued or sealed and everything can be fix. Those lights with "digital effect" - just perfect. Brilliant idea.
It was, is and always will be a beautyful system. Of course it is worth 65 quit, it a B&O. Well done Vince!
Brilliant! A quality item like that deserves to be treated well, here’s to another 10 years of service. Well played Sir!
As a B & O owner for more than 45 years I have really enjoyed your videos on these wonderful products, expensive yes but timeless beauty and design, my system has been faultless since purchase, keep up the good work. 👌👍
I have a b&o 5500 still looks great in Today. This system looks great still now after 44 years. Good video
Oh Vince mate that’s brilliant. What a thing! So retro and from our youth. They just don’t make things like this now. You would not see aluminium in anything today.
Night rider lights , early touch screen , what’s not to like.
Utterly brilliant and well done
Cheers Mike, it is a beauty :-)
Those Night Rider lights are so cool. I'm praying there's a clever solution to replacing the melted insert things. Someone else mentioned overhead projector paper. But idk how you would then create the necessary impression. Scan the originals, clean it up in photoshop, and then run the projector paper through an old laser printer or something? My ideas sometimes end in disaster lol xD
I owned B&O Hi-FI system and TV in the 70s I loved them superb quality and in their day they were very futuristic, wish I still had them!
I love this restoration! I didn't even know this technology existed in 1976! It was WAY ahead of it's time. £65 is a bargain!! I would love to own one of these! Well done indeed! Keep up the good work! :)
40+ years and still beautiful to look at .... design world class
Vince
Thanks for your inspiration to have a go at repairs on what look really complex electronics. I recently bought 3 of these old Beomaster 1900 for very little money as I love the looks and they remind me of the 1970s. I know very little about electronics but working logically and in carefully I soon had 2 working. Eventually I got all 3 working and have now recapped all the capacitors in one. Yes the sound is transformed from the others. It is magnificent. I also have it working with bluetooth and my iPad so I can stream music to the unit via the tape plug. I now have 2 left to recap and I know it will be worth the effort. Great that the service manuals are readily available.
GORGEOUS B&O !!!!. Classic Jacob Jensen style.
Very nice find ! Good deal ! It looks like an item in a Stanley Kubrick movie... I was born in the 60's and I remember the hype around the B&O designs. Well built ! Excellent job !
Wow, memories flush from the past.
Had repaird a lot of those during my time as radio and television tech here in Denmark.
During your test I already knew what all the faults was. 😁😁
There are a lot of tricks how to take this apart and back again. Thats why your controls are out.
The worst with this type of unit are the damper greas on the lid. Its sticky like hell.
Nice video by the way
Those capacitive touch buttons are a very clever way of making a button! Lil did they know like 50 years later, everything would be touch! I love B&O products, build to last! And looks so modern and stylish. Amazing piece of tech
Man, these old things are still very good. The sound in these are incredible, even with todays standards. They are a piece of art. Also, this model was intended to be wall mounted...thus it don't have "feet".
It's because Sound quality, is not a thing anymore, a mono bluetooth speaker that's loud, is the new thing.
@@E_Dtl I mean... as Vince mentions, this would've been ~₤250 back in the day, equivalent to over ₤1000 today. You most definitely can get quality audio at that price today. Likewise, you could get a SoundDesign piece of junk back then if you cheaped out too, and that's what a lot of people did. The only difference is that the old crap stuff has simply been discarded by now, so we don't see it.
Great to see it working again.
Because of your Beocord 5500 Video i got myself all components of a Besosystem 5000 and after fixing them I have a fully working hifi-setup that can play tape, cd, radio and records.
I know this was almost 2 years ago. Those 12V lights can be found be searching 12V Grain of Wheat globe. They are common in early model railways.
The hissing on FM stereo is normal with a weak signal. FM Stereo needs a much stronger signal to eliminate the noise than a mono signal does.
Think this is one of the best te of sound systems to purchase. M late father bought the complete set, radio, tape deck and record player. I am turning 44 this ear and it's still working brilliantly for its age. Really worth every dollar.
This was an object of desire when I was 16 in the 70's.
My much older brother had one of these in his home.
I remember there were matching speakers and turntable with floor stands for all the equipment too.
cost an absolute fortune as well
Friends of my parents had a full Beomaster set. Had to see and touch it every time I was over there.
@@gilles111 An uncle of mine had this, minus the turntable. I was amazed whenever we visited him, and just by looking at the video I was instantly taken back to 1980 :-)
I really like watching you work on B&O stuff, the attention to detail on these things is amazing.
Those touch buttons and the design of the indicators is quite impressive for the time. No wonder this cost a fortune back then.
its basically a simple NPN transistor and resistor touch switch seems impressive, but very basic in electronics terms. you can google it there are literally heaps of videos on how to make a circuit.
hiigi
Dave Davidson hgh
@@patprop74
Didn't mean it's technically impressive, but design wise.
I knew a few old devices with Touch Buttons. The integrated Circuits SAS 580 and SAS 590 are designed for similar use.
I find it hilarious to see all the burn marks on your work tray. Great videos and love your patience.
So cool! I'm a big B&O fan. Jacob Jensen is the designer of the B&O products from this time period, and he had said in interviews that this 1900 was his favorite of them all. So you have a very collectable item in the B&O world. I've been able to piece together a Beocenter 9000 with Beolab Penta speakers. I have the Beogram 9000 phono to match, Beolink 1000 remote, and an Active AM 10 antenna to match. They are brilliant systems, and I hope it brings joy to your life.
P.S. Beomaster is the equivalent of an amplifier/receiver, Beocenter is more of a "all in one" so to speak.
Not Fur Elize again?! But seriously, this would be too old to have had a remote, wouldn't it. We are so used to a remote for everything these days, aren't we! Thanks for a wonderful restoration. I particularly enjoy your vocal deductive reasoning as you work your way through explaining to yourself what is or isn't happening!
Very entertaining video! It's good to see tinkering on older things. You've inspired me to start my own repair channel!
That old b&o stuff is just so well built. The mechanics they designed to create cool light effects is so good and the futuristic look of it is just gorgeous. I allways loved that cd player with the 5 discs in a row where the player moves to the chosen disc. Great stuff Vince.
That's six cd's and its thé beosound 9000
GOOD VIDEO. I bought my 1900 in 1976 and still have it. It weighs a ton! BTW: your 2 or 4 speaker switch has broken off - that's the switch missing on the base plate. ROB
Incredible job for one of the most beautiful amplifier. Thanks for sharing
What a beautiful piece of kit. Cleaned up nice too. Good to see you giving it another chance to live on for some more years!
This would blend in perfectly in the Tesla Cuber truck FOR SURE!! My grandma used to have this radio and I used to play around with the sliders and knobs when I was 10 yrs old. and I remember being in awe of the aesthetics and overall design. This was 28 years ago and I now realize that it was pretty old back then already. It's just Gorgeous!
What a Beauty and a wonderful restauration! Well done 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I had this tuner/amp. As a young Airman, I knew I was going to literally the middle of nowhere, so, I invested in a stereo. I had the futuristic (back then) turntable and Frazier Monte Carlo speakers. I still own the speakers, and they still sound great.
It's good that you spotted the bodgy solder joints Vince. It's a problem on older equipment.
Thoroughly enjoyed this video I like the older stuff you repair Vince as well as the modern. Cheers
I remember this unit well and I thought back then that the design would always look cool, maybe that was the inspiration that made me become a designer
Another great vid from 'My Mate VINCE' 👍😊 very nicely done ! and I see you now have the CD / Cassette and the amp! Regardless of age they should all click together as I believe they used the same DIN plugs/sockets to interconnect. All in all with the complete systems together no one can moan re the price of and bear in mind the cost it would have been re labour and time spent doing repairs et Thankfully there are those around such as yourself that give us the pleasure of seeing a piece of history brought back to life. I'm currently working on a Siemens valve radio from just after the end of WW2 ONLY 2 left in the world, with full provenance / receipts (bought by a soldier in Germany who had to pay customs and storage fees to bring it into the UK) An amazing piece of gear with a German record player as well.
The build just like the B & O gear is very high quality. Lots of wheels and pulleys plus mechanical switching and of course I'm doing recap and new power mods but have it already working after spending days over the last few weeks to bring it all together/ still work to do, the UHF / FM section is VERY intricate. Luckily the service guy back in 1947 also had the full circuit diagram et It's not about the money it's about HISTORY, what decade and so much more. I have my main hi fi system from the 70s+ of separates that have been fully repaired, serviced et and the sound is awesome. Keep em coming ! 👍😊
Nice explanation on a practical approach on how to fix things.
Hey V
Great video mate.
Its also great to hear your enthusiasm.
Keep them coming mate
Congratulations you have one of the most sought-after Bang & Olufsen amplifier receivers ever made that unit still has some really good value to it too
My name is kaldar lion from Canada wow
I love how thorough you are. What a nice piece equipment you brought back to life!
I salvaged one of these from the dump in the '80s. After a bit of care and soldering it worked nonstop for more than a decade, then I moved and I gave it to some friend. I wonder if it's still playing music somewhere.
B&O sure made the whackiest stuff. I had a Beovision TV that was so thin you wondered where the CRT had gone. It sounded like a HiFi system and had a printer output that I never found a use for :D
OH holy crap I was in the service department and we were a B&O dealer. They were a nightmare to repair. Good luck with the switches, everyone of them are as crappy as could be. Just make sure you have stellar rounds or you will be chasing problems all around. Good on you my man
Yeah I'll stick with Yamaha
My first job on leaving school in the early '70s was in a 'proper' HiFi shop. We sold all the good makes, including B&O. We sold the B&O, not for its dynamic qualities, but for its very good looks and finish. Not every Lady would countenance what looked like a pile of battery chargers in her living room, never mind how good her Husband said they sounded. It was very expensive, but then so were the 'battery chargers'. Really interesting video, keep it up!!
I have to say Vince you are getting much much much better at these repairs, you are now a proper tinker! you can now spot problems more easily which means less screaming at the screen for most of us hahahhaha.
I'd suggest getting some acetate sheets for a laser printer (be careful to get laser-compatible ones! inkjet ones will melt) and making some new transparencies for the indicators.
Yep What SkonkFactory says 100% used to use it all the time back in Uni
That's exactly what I was going to suggest
In any case i can share scans of those gradients. Got them in perfect condition.
I'd just leave it, in context you're gonna get away with it. Even if you looked very closely, once it's all closed up, you'd be very hard pressed to see the melted parts.
Good to see some knowledgeable people commenting. Those old B&O's are pieces of art. Should be cared for by those who know.
I really like the resistor and LED trick. Good Job, nice repair!
What a beautiful machine. B&O had always great designers !
Back in 1977 a girlfriend of mine, dad bought one. Threw me out of the house for earlier changing the bass & treble settings.
Lol ,did you marry her
@@maltronics He is too scared to reply. She might notice....lol!
I have been watching you for years and I am amazed at the things you find and for people like me that love tech old and new it's great thank you for helping me through my break at work until next time
I've fixed a number of these 1900. Had a varierty of faults, the Bal and Tone foils can be remade at home. Dismanting the thing is an effort and so is reassembly where the little fingers need to touch the touchpad posts. It's very crammed inside. The lamps expire too, there's a re-cap kit available. I had one that would go into safe mode on power up, took an age to find the fault.
When done, I still think it has one of the best FM demods ever, shame there are no radio stations worth listening to. I think we got ours new in 1975 and cost £250 which was a lot back then, it even came with the circuit diagrams, which I knew to keep and still have.
Get an FM pantry transmitter and feed internet or your own audio into it
Thanks for a peek inside! I almost had one of these on my workbench.
I have always had a soft spot for B&O design.
The ring core power transformer is high end stuff, it has hardly any magnetic field spreading.
Looks really great and I love that they put keyhole routing holes on the base for wall mounting. I bet this would be amazing mounted on a wall.
Superb ! Thanks for the link to Beolover. Found a manual for my Beomaster 3000-2 which solved some major issues.
What a beautiful bit of kit that is, reminds me of the stereos that my parents owned, real quality. For 65 quid you have a nice bit of history there.
I think that is really nice. You did very well with what you paid for it.
Nice bit of kit and nice work fixing it. I think my musician uncle had the previous model of Bang & Olufsen Beomaster in the mid 70's with turning knobs, not half as cool as this timeless design masterpiece! Thank you for the video, you got a new subscriber!
Great video Vince. It's a lot of fun to watch electronics from the 70-80 being repaired.
I believe to two arrow head shaped green lights on the right of the unit are to indicate how accurate the tuner is aligned to the stations frequency, ie you fiddle with the tuning dial till both lights are balanced to get best radio signal.
Lovely job again Vince.
I wish I could repair as many things Vince has... I've learnt so much! Great videos 100%
Hiya! At the start of the video I'm like "wow that looks amazing. I would have loved to have that as a kid"! Then you opened that stunning lid and I was disappointed at the looks. Then you turned it on and I saw those night rider lights and was in love again! Such quality and things from that time period just seemed easier to take apart (without breaking clips etc) and easier to repair. Just a tip. If you get background music that will copyright strike you then you can always put your own low volume music to mask it rather than lower the volume. I had it on my other channel because I waked past a pub playing loud music. 😂😂🤣🤣
Another quality video. Enjoyed it a lot! Have a great day! 😊
I do think all youtubers are getting overly obessed with playing even a bit of music on their channels. Who's it going to hurt? Nobody. In fact its more likely to result in more sales and streams for the actual music.
I had a stereo that was similar (but not B&O) that had a classy control panel under a flippy slow closing lid like that, I took it apart to replace a capacitor that blew and stank out the house, and the mechanism was quite ingenious. The lid had a rack that drove a pinion connected to a slipper clutch that then drove a gear inside a sealed container that contained a viscous fluid. You could open it as slow or as quick as you want thanks to the slipper clutch but the idea was when you closed it, you pushed it far enough for gravity to take over, and the rack and pinion/gear in gooey stuff took over, gracefully closing the panel.
thanks for the video, i was fixing one of these and needed your video for guidance and thanks for what you showed.
mine had the two speaker connections (female) pushed into the metal frame on speakers no 2 got in and fixed them after
watching your video. in reference to you speaker switch with the missing arm, you are absolutely right in reference to there being an extended arm going from the front to the switch. l have not plugged in the phono yet or the tape but they light up ,infect the all of the lights work,(but does not mean they realy do work)
just one thing you could do is show the screws you take out and put in.
together
wonderful result mate, these old jewels are trusted to your hands!
But i have a good tip for you , How to repair scratched plexi glass
I,m also watching Marty;s Matchbox repairs on youtube, and what he does with plastic glass repairs of little toy cars, could be working fine for your repairs. He sands heavy scratches away and goes to the finest polish paper and then he uses floor polish to fix it to new shine look. and these results are stunning good!
keep on going with your hunt for old stuff like this one, i like it!
As a dane you get 1000x thumps up Vincent :-) I relly enjoy these B&O videos.
The "big"round transfprmer in the corner is called a Toroidal Transformer and they are used in eqipment where you dont want to introduce noise like medical eqipment and high end Hi-Fi.
Back in the days B&O had women to do quality controle on evry single part used in there products so thats why its flawless :-)
Amazing technology and good job Vince
It's an awesome piece of vintage technology, would love to have one.
Very helpful! I intend to replace the lighting for the bass setting and now I know how to do it. Thank you very much!
Filter caps on the power supply may be dried, that buzz that it did when you raised the volume without tunning anything usually is caused by bad power supply filtering.
the connectors are DIN ones(an old standard) the extra pins on your other B&O bits are to do with remote controlling from other machines or controllers
quality never wears out, good job Vince!
You got a really good deal on this. Nice job. The torroid transformer is cool looking, and allows this to be so low profile. Awesome design for the time.
We had one just like it in a house in Palm Springs as a kid (1-6th grade). Was mounted on a wall at the end of a Pool Table.
Really Cool ....1972
In the 70's Finland my friend's dad worked for B&O and they had this snazzy looking slimline stereo and other equipment too. It looked so modern then.
I still have my Beomaster 1900 I bought new in 1981 along with the Beocord 1900 cassette deck, Beogram 1700 turntable and Beovox S45 speakers. While there is not a scratch on any one of them and they look as beautiful as ever, I have had to have repairs done over the years. Loved your video Vince. Keep it up.
Great repair, beautiful high quality equipment! My compliments Sir!
Liked and subbed from Denmark, Scandinavia. I got the somewhat updated 1900-2 Beomaster which looks similar on the exterior apart from the lights having a redesign. The steps on the volume control expanded from 16 to 32.
These 1900/1900-2 Beomasters have a cousin, the Beomaster 2400/2400-2 that had yet another exterior redesign but was also equipped with remote control.
This small size flat receiver 1900-type went on up until the 4500-series.
There's just something about the 1900. It was the first and the Japanese went ballistic. They hadn't seen anything like it. We're talking 1976. Think of any Japanese 1976 HiFi-equipment and it's just bulky.
The Beomaster 1900 on the other hand is in The Museum Of Modern Art in New York.
I would think that it wasn't until Technics made their superb and flat out fantastic SL-10 Turntable, the Japanese made anything equivalent to Bang & Olufsen
Yeah... someone else mentions that if you leave the LEDs in it'll save burning the acetate slider thingys again.
Nice fixes there Vince🤩
Mate just came across you vids and i must say i love them keep up the great work you now have a loyal follower
nice repair mate well done
Lots of good ideas in these comments. One thing I think is worth checking is the 2/4 speaker switch. Depending on whether the extension arm was straight through (right = right, left = left) or swivel (right = left, left = right, which is what I think it was since there is a large empty hole in the middle where a pivot point could insert) you can't really be sure which position you are in.
That being said, take note of the other comments that say not to flip the switch while powered.
I remember when shopping for audio equipment that B&O was comparatively expensive considering the specs. Very futuristic when compared to most of the gear at the time. The price you paid isn't bad. I enjoy it when you save old gear and save it from the landfill.
B&O have mostly used what amounts to philips reference designs for the audio and TV gear, AFAIR, so you're mostly paying for the design. Their beolink multi-room system and the remotes were most of the allure to many buyers. Pity they can't come up with anything that makes sense for TVs now. It's hard to compete with "black rectangle" when it comes to interior design.
Beautiful piece and excellent work! Really enjoyable to watch you fix it!
Very cool device, love that light panel, looks a bit like space ship control panel. Futuristic in it's time and now it's retro-futuristic :)
Used to love working on B&O and Loewe stuff , Good quality and easy to service , Great video :)
Thanks AR :-)
Absolutely love this era of b&o products would love to see you do a 9000 series as the cd and tape compartment movements are a thing of beauty
Great video. B&O equipment looked so cool. The AFC is Automatic Frequency Control, it is to try and keep the tuner on station and not drift and the extra hiss on stereo FM is normal, mono will be better with less hiss. A good antenna will give a better signal and reduce hiss to almost silent. Good luck on future repairs & mods with it.
Lovely piece of kit worth every penny i remember seeing them in the day well out of my price range back then. You could do with trying to pick up some B and O speakers that would be good. It will sound better than a lot of equipment from these days which will fail with in two years never mind 40 years this show quality with the aluminium top which is recyclable not that you would want too. Instead of all this plastic as used in todays equipment. Thanks for sharing and stay safe.
Absolutely love this one Vince! I appreciate all the videos you’ve done. I’ve learned a lot too!
Excellent timing! I have a Beomaster 2400 with some of the same issues, namely the lights are out. So this was very helpful figuring out what I'm up against. Unfortunately, the volume lights are out and, as you mentioned, they are somehow connected to the actual sound output. If I can track down the proper parts, this gives me hope on restoration. Thanks!
34:00 Important!
The knobby-like contact surfaces of the levers should point outwards where the electrical connection is to be made. You've inserted the levers with the knobs pointing inwards where no electrical connection is needed. These knobs on the levers minimize the burning of the contacts when switched on and off. When plugged in, every operation of the switch, produces arcs and can be destructive to the Material. These knobs you can find on the levers of relays too.
Everytime when i get an older device to repair, i often found the same dark red capacitors but most of them with sightable cracks and arched tops. It's always better to measure them all for capacitiy and especially for leakage and replace the bad ones before something really bad can happen. It's the best to measure them out of circuit, so no other components can falsify measured values.
Question: Can't all the data be gleaned from the outer jacket? And why measure when they've probably strayed from their original specs anyway? Wouldn't it be better to replace all of them right off?
Hi as a long time enthusiast of hifi and a 15 years+ of buying and selling online...the b&o stuff is very slick design but pound for pound is blown into the weeds by more conventional separates. ...stunning to look at tho...hard to imagine but back when eBay was in its infancy I used to pick up these and models above it for relative pennies. ..
nice video. I have a B&O BEOGRAM 1700 turntable. The dust cover was badly scratched so I used automobile headlight polish and it worked very well. You might want to consider using that for the black panel where the lights project. You would want to tape off the aluminum first so you don't scratch the silver surface.
I had a Beomaster 1900 for many years I got second hand. Used it through 80's and 90's for turntable and tape it's awesome. Well worth £65.
The output impedance is 4ohm rather than the usual 8ohm speakers but if not driven too hard won't be a problem. The circular thing is a toroidal transformer which reduces induced interference (mains hum). I think you got a good deal there..a real blast of nostalgia for me.
This Beomaster 1900 was the first in a long row of similar units. The 2000, 2400, 3000, 3500 and 4500, just to mention some. Very beautiful and groundbreaking, with really nice sound - not high end, but good and sufficient for most people. Easy and logical to operate too.
Now a couple of KEF LS-50 wireless II, maybe with a sub, is all we need - bit of a shame, I miss those nice designed tapedecks, receivers, and turntables.
Having had the Privilege of owning a 2400 with P45 speakers and and the Beogram 1700, since 1978, which probably set me back 4x my monthly salary🙈 obviously over time there has been some work on the various components but now works perfectly.
One suggestion though, that magical, soft close Aluminium “flap “should be raised by lifting both ends at the same time.
This will prevent the plastic hinges from breaking!
Speaking from experience!
I managed to do a repair using PVC weld.
Enjoy your classic!
My dad bought one of these in Frankfurt DE back in 1976. His was the white version. We used the hell out of this unit over 3 years in Tehran Iran. Then the civil war hit and the unit got left behind as we got the hell out of Dodge!! It's a damn shame it got left behind. We all really loved it.