Beogram 8000: First Record Play

Today I finished up the remaining Beogram adjustments so I could try out the turntable playing a vinyl record.

My Beolover custom part for the Beogram transformer box arrived last week. This replaces the non-polar, coupling capacitor for the linear motor coils that B&O put in the transformer box.

A very nice design on the replacement don't you think?

On the mechanical side the service manual says the distance from the top of the fixed arm to the platter surface should be 23 mm. I checked this Beogram and the measurement looks good.

There isn't any adjustment screw for that check. If the distance isn't correct then one would need to work with the plastic disc inside the bearing for the platter hub.  Beolover ran into a problem with that disc on a past Beogram project.

This Beogram platter and detector arm/tonearm height check out fine.

Next is a quick check of the tonearm tracking force calibration. I set the Beogram turntables where the 1 gram tracking force setting is calibrated to be 1 gram (as close as possible). With the tracking force scale set to 1 gram I adjust the tonearm counter weight so I get 1 gram on the scale.

The final adjustment is the tangential record tracking of the Beogram. Like the 400x series of turntables the 800x series uses a lamp and a light sensor at the base of the tonearm. An aperture that is part of the pivoting tonearm base allows light to reach the sensor. The circuit is adjusted per the service manual where the the tangential drive motor starts moving the tonearm after 2 rotations of a record. After that it moves the arm on every rotation. The sensitivity of the photo control circuit is adjusted using a small screw at the base of the lamp/sensor housing.

Once I had this adjustment set I let the Beogram play an entire side of a test record to observe that it completed play successfully. After that I tested that the Beogram 8000 could pause play, return to rest and resume play where the Pause button was pressed. All turntable functions checked out.

Here are some pictures of the Beogram playing a vinyl record.

These Beogram components are ready to be re-installed in the Beogram cabinet so I can start using the turntable.

Before I do that though, I have to re-attach the wood veneer that has started to come off the cabinet.
I will have to soak some GooGone where the original glue was and get the surfaces nice and smooth before re-attaching the veneer pieces.

Now it is just wait and let the GooGone do its thing.