Beomaster 8000: From One Beomaster 8000 Project To Another

Having just shipped back the most recent Beomaster 8000 and Beogram 8000 restorations to their owner I find myself continuing on with another Beomaster 8000 restoration project. Maybe 2018 will be the year of the Beomaster 8000. At least on the sonavor workbench :-).

As a Beosystem 8000 owner myself I understand these fellow owners wanting to have a fully working system again.

This works out good for me because my workbench is already in the Beomaster 8000 mode. I have the parts ready, the work bench ready and the test bench ready so it is time to begin.

First though, this Beomaster 8000 arrived in the best shipping box I have ever seen. It is not a Bang & Olufsen original box. It is better. I haven't ever seen a kübox shipping box before this one. It is very well designed and for the Beomaster 8000 well worth the cost I think. The Beomaster is a really heavy receiver. It benefits from a really sturdy shipping box to ensure safe transit. 

Another cool packing product the owner used on this shipment was Sealed Air Instapak cushioning. These are various size bags with foam cushioning that is activated during the packing process so the expanding foam molds itself to the item being protected. The shipping box limits the foam bag expansion so the bag forms itself to the space between the Beomaster and the shipping box.

Inside the shipping box was another nice Beomaster 8000. 

The cosmetic condition of this unit is pretty good. I don't see anything broken so far. There are some surface scratches though and as usual the flat, metal spring clips for the center bar are not a complete set.

This Beomaster was manufactured around the same time as the previous Beomaster 8000 project. Like that one this Beomaster has the later, improved microcomputer box that is easy to open up.

The restoration on this Beomaster will also be pretty much the same scope as the previous Beomaster 8000 project.  Electrolytic capacitors will be replaced with new high quality capacitors that are rated up to 105°C. Most capacitors 4.7uF and lower will be replaced with WIMA MKS polyester capacitors. The old LF353N audio OpAmps will be checked and likely replaced with new ones. The old, dry heat sink compound will be cleaned off and and replaced with SIL-Pads. The Beomaster display panel will be reworked with new light sources installed. The volume and tuning wheel sensors will be checked and probably replaced with new emitter and detector devices as I have been running into a number of these with failing sensors.

Enough talking about the project. It is time to get started.