Beogram 4002 (5513): A New Arrival and a First Look

A few days ago another Beogram 4002 (5513) arrived on my bench for some TLC. It came with the indication of unstable RPM performance. A new candidate for my recently developed BeoloverRPM device! But first things first. I unwrapped the unit, which was very carefully packed, heeding the Beolover packaging advice shown here. The unit therefore made it in great condition. Here are some impressions. The unit is in lovely cosmetic condition:

The keypad is near-pristine, indicating light previous use:

there are some minor blemishes on the veneer, which are hardly noticeable:

The only cosmetic issue is the scratched hood that has some of the usual deep scratches resulting from careless storage:

A look under the hood revealed a non-adulterated pristinely original situation:

After this visual inspection I tested the basic functions of the control system. The usual sluggishness of the arm lowering mechanism is present. More troubling is the absence of the 45 RPM switching when no record is detected during the arm sweep across the platter. The unit switches from 33 to 45 and back manually when pressing the buttons, so there is a control system issue that needs addressing.

After this is set the unit up for a RPM consistency test with my BeoloverRPM device. I recently gave it a redesign incorporating different bases that allow to clamp it to the Beogram frame in service position, or, alternatively, to set it up on the aluminum plates without the need for dismantling anything for the measurement. This is intended as a 'consumer version' of the device for customers who simply want to occasionally check on their RPM spec (there is some drift over time due to the fully analog nature of the RPM control system, i.e. one needs to check occasionally if the nominal RPM is still 33.33...). Here is an impression of the new set-top version in action:

I'll be back with a report on the RPM performance of this unit.