Beogram CD50 From North Carolina: Initial Assessment

It is time to change gears big time.

Most of the time our Bang & Olufsen restoration projects are analog amplifiers or turntables.
This is the initial assessment of another Beogram but it is a CD player, not a vinyl record player.

The Beogram CD50 (Type 5113).

This was Bang & Olufsen's first CD player audio component. As usual they went all out on the design and build.  Later B&O CD players would use third-party CD mechanisms but the CD50 was all theirs.

It was designed to be part of the Beosystem 5000 stackable audio component system and was offered with the Beomaster 5000 (Type 2323) receiver/amplifier, Beocord 5000 (Type 492x) cassette deck and the Beogram 5000 (or 5005) turntable. There is a very nice remote control that allowed the owner to operate all of the audio components through the Beomaster 5000.  When I finish this CD50 I will test it out using my own Beosystem 5000.

This Beogram CD50 was sent by its original owner to fix a problem where the CD tray mechanism stopped working. The most likely problem is with the belts but we will see.  Unfortunately Bang & Olufsen did not make changing the CD50 belts a task for the owner.  That task requires some disassembly of the CD50 chassis and care is needed in keeping the gear positions correct.

I will get to all of that in the next post.
This post documents the initial assessment of the CD50 as I received it.

A nice condition CD50.  The cover does have usual markings from being part of the stackable Beosystem 5000.  You can see that the door for the CD compartment won't close. The tray will not retract where the door stays shut.

I always liked the way the Bang & Olufsen engineers designed the cabinet lids on these units.
Instead of having to remove screws and save them off somewhere the CD50 cabinet opens up by just loosening two screws in the back, sliding a bracket up and then tightening the screws to keep the bracket in the up position.

That unlocks two levers on the back of the cabinet and allows the lid to be lifted off.

Very simple and clever.

Here is the CD50 with the lid removed.

Now that I have access to the inside of the CD50 I am able to manually move the CD tray all the way closed and the CD door remains closed.

I got out my CD50 service manual material and tomorrow I will dive into replacing the CD tray belt.