I bought this some months ago with a view to restoring it. I was relaxing in the south of France and just looking through some old hi-fi on eBay, this one caught my eye as it was not far from where I live in the uk and it was going very cheap. Supposedly fully working except for needing a cartridge. Normally that wouldn’t be much of a problem, but in the case of B&O only the original cartridge will fit and with it being ‘vintage’ there are no new ones available. So after a quick internet search I found a few companies that refurbish the damaged cartridge, not a cheap service but the only option if I wanted to bring this lovely old music centre back to life.
On further investigation I found that the tuner worked perfectly but the tape deck didn’t work at all. So after stripping it down and removing the tape mechanism I soon discovered that all the drive belts had degenerated to something resembling liquorish. Not a problem as a belt kit was soon ordered up from Germany. It’s great that parts are still available considering the age of it. A few years ago I was able to order a set of rubbers for a B&O turntable, a very specific part, nothing else would do, yet they were still available.
So as time goes by I’ll update this post with progress on the refurb, but for now a couple of photos –
A photo below of the awful state of the main drive belt, it had melted onto the flywheel!
All belts now replaced, everything on the tape mechanism either cleaned or lubricated.
Below is a picture of the refurbished MMC4 cartridge / stylus, the only real barrier to restoring this Beocentre was the availability of this item.
Finally, with the fitment of the cartridge, and a bit of cleaning, the Beocentre is back (almost) to pristine condition with everything working perfectly. I have to say, B&O make very good quality products and this has stood the test of time, being from the 80’s yet sounding so much better than the majority of modern music systems.
MAR
2018