Beogram 8000 (5613): Full Restoration and Installation of a Beolover Commander Remote Control and an Internal RIAA Pre-Amplifier

This post discusses the full restoration of a Beogram 8000 (Type 5613) that I recently received from a customer in Virginia. The initial assessment of this unit is posted here. I will also discuss the installation of two upgrades in this unit: It received the new Beolover Commander Remote Control and the new Beolover internal RIAA pre-amplifier for Beogram 8000 and 8002. The RIAA board should be available via the Beolover's DKaudiolover store early February 2026.

I started my work by removing all functional components of the Beogram from its enclosure so I could set it up on my Lazy Susan work platform:

As usual I started out with the restoration of the circuit board. I unplugged it from the wire harnesses:

Then I removed the microcontroller can that is piggybacked on top of the main board:

First I replaced the big reservoir capacitors for the power rails. This shows the original ones:

and after replacement:

I used the Beolover 4-Pin 2200uF Reservoir Capacitor for Beogram 8000 and 8002, which neatly replaces the original 2200uF capacitor that is used as a circuit board bridge in this design due to its convenient three interconnected pins on the outside perimeter of the housing:

After replacing all the other electrolytic capacitors on the board I also replaced the two that were added to the solder side of the board. Original:

And new:

These two capacitors were added to the component side in the later Beogram 8002 and therefore are not present in those designs. This shows the board with rejuvenated capacitors:

I also re-soldered all the board headers and jacks. All these connectors are notorious for having problematic solder joints due to mechanical and thermal stresses.

Next came the microcontroller enclosure. Here you can see it on its side:

I removed the top cover

and after pulling up a small PCB that was added later, the golden decoupling capacitor for the microcontroller chip can be seen right next to the controller:

The fun part with this capacitor is that one of its pins doubles as a board via, i.e. is soldered on both sides. In the 1980s they did not have through-plated vias like it is standard in today's boards. This shows the solder side of the PCB after removal of the bottom cover of the enclosure:

It is best to remove the wire that is soldered to the board for better access to the solder points of the capacitor:

I unsoldered the pin that is only connected on the solder side. This allowed me to pull up the capacitor on one side:

Unsoldering the other pin is more involved. I usually rotate the old capacitor until the lead breaks off and then I unsolder the remnant of the lead that is stuck in the board from both sides and remove it.

Soldering in the new capacitor can be done by first soldering the via lead on the top side. Once  the solder is on the lead, it can be heated from the bottom side and the capacitor can be moved closer to the board.:

Then I soldered the other lead followed by tacking the shielded wire back on:

The final task was stabilizing the attachment of the solder tab that is attached to the other end of the above wire. In this case it came off readily:

I soldered it back on and firmed up the joint with a piece of shrink tubing:

Then I reinstalled the microcontroller can. Care needs to be taken that the ribbon cable is properly inserted into the receptacle on the main PCB:

It is easy to get some of the wire ends crossed over and inserted into the same spot. This shows the board completely re-assembled:

There are two more capacitors that need replacing: They stabilize the 5V and 15V power rails. The regulators are mounted to the chassis for heatsinking:

I replaced the two capacitors:

It is a good idea to disconnect the blue, yellow and black wires for this task. It is easy to damage the insulation with the soldering tip.

One more capacitor to replace! It is in the transformer block. This capacitor takes care of the phase shift for the second phase of the platter motor. It can be seen after removing the cover of the block: 

It is a non-polar capacitor since it sees AC voltage. I replaced it with the Beolover Motor Capacitor for Beogram 8000 and 8002:

It is built using an array of modern multi-layer ceramic capacitors which are non-polar by design. A much better choice for this task. The original capacitor essentially contains two polar capacitors connected back to back in series thereby creating a non-polar total capacitance.

The Beolover component features both capacitances specified for 50 Hz and 60 Hz Beograms. Just solder one of the leads to the COM pad and the other to the appropriate capacitance for the grid voltage of the Beogram.

The next task was rebuilding the <</>> buttons control system. The <</>> buttons can control the speed of the carriage depending on how hard the buttons are pressed. This is achieved with a setup where a light bulb illuminates two photoresistors, one for >> and the other for <<. Pressing one of the buttons moves an aperture in and out between light bulb and respective resistor. This controls the amount of light falling on the resistor, and that in turn controls the motor voltage.

This mechanism is located in the black box that is mounted on the circuit board behind the keypad:

After removing the cover the bulb and the photo resistors can be seen:

This design suffers from changes in the luminous intensity of the bulb over time as well as photoresistors that are going out of spec. I usually replace the light bulb with a 5mm white LED that I sand a bit to improve its emission intensity towards the photoresistors:

5mm LEDs fit perfectly into the spot vacated by the bulb. Since the bulb runs on 15V, a current limiting resistor is needed for the LED:

This shows the box with the new LED and two new photoresistors:

If everything went well and the LED has a suitable brightness, the base voltage at the resistors for << and >> can be adjusted to be 620mV by adjusting the screws that are in the cover part of the box:

Now it was time for focusing on the carriage. It usually has old lubricants that cake up the spindle and sliding rods. This Beogram was no different. I removed the carriage

and extracted the moving parts so I could clean them in my ultrasonic cleaner:

Once the rods were clean I coated them with Tactikel NST, which makes them very smooth and slippery:

With the carriage up it was the perfect moment for installing the Beolover Tracking Sensor LED Light Source for Beogram 8000 and 8002. This shows the tracking sensor compartment after sliding out its cover:

Light bulb and photoresistor are both mounted on a small PCB that needs to be pulled out for exchanging the bulb with the LED assembly. This requires pulling out its wire harness to give the board the required slack so one can pull it out. The wires are held in place with small rubber rings on posts:

After removal of the rings the wires can be liberated:

This allows pulling out the board:

I removed the bulb. This shows it in comparison with the LED assembly:

I soldered the LED board to the solder points of the bulb:

The narrow end of the LED board should be about flush with the solder side of the bulb PCB, and the LED board should also be orthogonal, facing the photoresistor:

After installation the bulb board can be re-inserted:

The process concludes by re-placing the wire harness and sticking the rubber rings back on their posts:

While the carriage is up it is also the moment for adjusting the vertical arm parallelism. The adjustment screw can only be accessed from the bottom of the carriage assembly:

This shows the arms nicely parallel:

This shows the cleaned parts:

I installed them. This is one of such situations where a third hand would be very helpful...;-). With only two hands it seems best to install the long rod in the back first together with the little black slider that forks up the white plastic nut on the spindle that drives the carriage, while setting the spindle loosely on the rod:

Then the carriage can be tilted forward and the spindle be inserted into its 'bearings':

Once the spindle is settled the carriage can be fully put down and the short rod be installed.

The final step was installing a new carriage belt followed by re-inserting the carriage encoder PCB:

At this point it was time for a first test. I plugged the Beogram in and the tracking sensor LED lit up:

This shows it with cover re-installed:

Whenever work is done on the tracking sensor it needs to be re-calibrated. The feedback sensitivity can be adjusted with the screw that is on the right side of the sensor cabinet:

It needs to be adjusted that the platter turns about two times after the needle sets down before the carriage starts moving.

After this adjustment I replaced the output relay in the output jack assembly. This shows it turned around. The grey cover shields the relay:

It can be removed by simply pulling it off the relay:

I replaced the relay with a new Beolover Output Relay for Beogram 8000 (note that the 8002 uses a different relay footprint):

After the relay was exchanged I installed a (red) switch that allows connecting signal and system grounds:

Connecting the two grounds usually quenches hum issues, which can occur sometimes when receivers are not properly grounded or RCA adapters are used.

At this point I did a quick check of all functions of the Beogram. It seemed to work perfectly and so I decided to forge ahead and install the upgrades.

First came the Beolover Commander Remote Control for Beogram 8000 and 8002 which allows controlling the Beogram using a paired Apple TV remote control. 

This shows the back of the Commander board. The headers directly fit into the keypad PCB of the Beogram:

Installation requires removal of the PCB that is behind the keypad:

This shows it removed:

The next step is removal of the ribbon cable and the angled pin header:

They need to be transferred to the Commander board:

The next step is soldering the Commander board into the vacated solder points of the cable and pin header on the keypad PCB. It is important to trim the header pins after soldering it in:

Otherwise the PCB cannot be replaced behind the keypad.

This shows the commander board installed on the keypad PCB:

And after re-inserting the PCB:

The keypad connects exactly like before to the main PCB and microcontroller enclosure:

I tested the Commander and it was able to control the Beogram! Beolovely! 

Next came the installation of the Beolover internal RIAA pre-amp for Beogram 8000 and 8002. It solders directly to the output terminals at the end of the ribbon cable that connects the carriage. This shows the original setup:

I removed the mounting screw that connects the grounded solder lug and unsoldered the two shielded output cables that connect to the DIN connector:

After cleaning up the four round solder pads I placed the RIAA board so its round and hollow input connectors lined up perfectly with the vacated solder pads. Then I bolted the ground lug back through the orifice in the RIAA PCB:

The next step was soldering the four inputs to the RIAA board to the ribbon cable:

This was followed by re-connecting the output leads to the output terminals of the RIAA board (make sure the channels are not switched over):

The installation of the RIAA board requires routing a wire from the 15V regulator to the 15V solder pad of the RIAA board. This shows the red wire that I wove along the main harness that goes to the ribbon cable and DIN output assembly:

Care needs to be taken that the sub-platter does not chafe on the added wire. This shows the end of the wire soldered to the 15V terminal of the RIAA board:

This concluded the installation of the RIAA board.

Finally it was time for a first test spin. I carried the Lazy Susan platform over to my stereo and then connected the Beogram. I put one of my current favorite records on the platter, Deodato "2001"(CTI 7081), which is the 1977 re-release of an earlier Deodato record from 1972, which is called "Prelude" (CTI 6021). I really like the funky 1970s CTI cover of this re-release! 

The track "Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)" on this album is an awesome testament to Deodato's talent! 

The RIAA-amplified Beogram 8000 played very nicely into the Tuner input of my receiver.

I will now play this deck for a while until I get the restored dust cover back from co-beolover Beomazed. He figured out how to transfer the precious labeled black aluminum trim from an original hood to a new reproduction hood from the DKsoundparts store in Denmark. Very awesome! Stay tuned!