Beomaster 8000 & Beocord 9000: Completing the Restoration

The final step in this Beomaster 8000 and Beocord 9000 project is a system test. To do that I needed plenty of space as these units take up a lot of room. Especially when you add in a Beogram turntable to complete the system. It is also time to clean up and put parts away. My soldering bench is my largest desk so I used it to set up the system test.

Here is a picture of everything layed out for testing.  Quite lengthy! With all of the system connected together the dependent functions can be exercised. A really nice feature of this system is that turning on one component will notify and turn on any related component. For example, placing a record on the Beogram and pressing the Beogram play button will turn on the Beomaster and switch it to phono mode. Same thing for the Beocord. Conversely, selecting PH (phono) on the Beomaster will cause the Beogram to operate. Turning the Beomaster off turns all of the other components off. To make things even nicer, all of these features also operate from the wireless remote control. The well thought out design is what makes this Bang & Olufsen system my favorite. Of course B&O continued some very cool integrated systems after this one but this system was a few years before the digital age and is analog audio at its best.

I continued testing by doing some recording on the Beocord 9000 with the Beogram 8002 as the source. I used a new TDK MA90 cassette (metal type IV) and ran the Beocord tape calibration procedure. This is when you start really appreciating the complexity of the Beocord 9000. After calibration I selected Tape End so the Beocord would run through the tape once and figure out exactly how much recording time is available on the tape. The Beocord tape counter of course displays the amount of time used and remaining. Really handy if you want to fill up as much music you can on a side.

For the recording test I like to use music with some distinct instruments and some that really get up there in range. That usually means some brass. So this time I selected an old Maynard Ferguson album from 1973, "M.F. Horn 3". It has that early 70's sound and of course Maynard screams on the trumpet. Quite fun if you like that era like I do. The recording testing all worked perfectly. I also tested pausing and restarting recording. The Beocord fast forward and reverse functions all work great (remember the belts and pulleys are all new). This is the payoff for the time and effort it took to get these beautiful machines fully restored.

With all of the Beosystem 8000 functionality working beautifully it is time for their owner to enjoy them so Beomaster 8000 and Beocord 9000 are ready to be packed up and shipped home.

For me it is time to prepare for the next project.