Posted on 10/09/2020 11:22:11 AM PDT by Red Badger
B&O has recovered and restored 95 original Beogram 4000 series turntables, added a few modern touches, and is now putting them up for sale B&O
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Though digital music consumption rules the roost, vinyl has been making a steady comeback over the past few years. But if you find that your vintage deck is no longer up to the task of spinning records, Bang & Olufsen could help with the limited release of a bunch of restored classics. If you can afford one.
Bang & Olufsen has sourced 95 Beogram 4000 series turntables originally launched in 1972, transported them to the same facility in Denmark where they were originally built and set about refurbishing them for a limited edition run under its newly launched Classics initiative.
"The Classics initiative was born out of Bang & Olufsen’s commitment to longevity, which ensures relevance for our customers many years after buying our products," said the company's Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, who leads the Classics program. "In a world of consumer electronics, most products are regarded as disposable commodities. At Bang & Olufsen, our products are built to stand the test of time. That is what differentiates us as a brand, what the Beogram 4000c so beautifully embodies and what we want to build on in the future."
The Beogram 4000c turntable is housed in a hand-crafted oak frame, and its aluminum surfaces have been treated to a splash of color B&O
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The decades-old turntables were first taken apart, inspected and thoroughly cleaned before being reassembled. Where necessary, fresh components were added and a few modern changes were made too.
The original Beogram 4000 turntables were the first from B&O to feature an automated tangential tonearm. Instead of being pivoted from somewhere to the side of the platter, the B&O mechanism moved along the back of the unit relative to the grooves in the vinyl. For this release, the company added a new high-performance stylus based on the original specifications.
The engineers also took advantage of the future-proofing space left inside by the original design team to install an RIAA phono pre-amp, so that users don't have to buy an external unit if their home hi-fi amps don't include a phono stage, or they have the option to cable the 4000c directly to powered speakers.
Other updates include polishing the aluminum and giving it an anodized champagne tone, encasing the turntable in a hand-crafted solid oak frame, refreshing the finish on the touch-enabled control panel, and providing a new dust cover.
The final stage in the process involved testing and tuning the turntable, numbering each unit and slapping a suggested retail price of US$11,000 on them, which would place these units firmly in the hi-fi collector marketplace. The Beogram 4000c Recreated Limited Edition turntables will go on sale from October 19. The video below has more.
VIDEO AT LINK..............
Product page: Beogram 4000c
$11,000. Yikes. I still have my Sansui turntable I got in Japan in 1971. $50.
I had not heard of Bang and Olufsen until in the mid 1980s, when I was on a friend’s motorboat. He literally brought his B&O speakers and turntable (and some albums) on the boat, you know, “for tunes.”
As we cruised around the lake at high speed, it literally did not miss a beat.
$11,000 wouldn’t even get you a midrange turntable in the high end audio world. Component prices are insane.
Sweet!
Bought the tangential tracker in the 70s for about $750. Loved it. I’ve tried to use it occasionally since 1985 but the stylus is a problem on well used albums. It’s mostly a show piece. I don’t think the audio of that age compares to today. Sorry. eBay sells them for Less than a $1000. I do use my Yamaha monitor speakers I bought at the same time every day. Thanks for the nostalgia.
I have one of these from the 1970’s, a lower model though.
Maybe you could trade it in!...................
Still not gettin’ the vinyl revival thing. I understand it supposed to be a more robust sound than digital but vinyl is still suseptibale to heat and wear no?
If the turntable weighs less than 100 pounds then it’s not worth having.
I still spin vinyl on a regular basis - my 19 year-old daughter gets a kick out of it (cave-man dad).
Suceptible
$398 on ebay, I'll keep mine.
They should make albums from Teflon....................
Funny this is posted today.
Good buddy years ago had b&o system to envy
Anyway, just got the call from local audio store that my speakers are built and ready to be delivered. I’ve wanted then since college but could never afford them.
Klipsch LaScala
If you’ve never heard these folded horns you’re missing sound like you’ve never heard!
Took eight weeks for then to be made for me and I’m so excited to get them next week. US manufactured and glad to support their company craftsmanship.
...then on to tuner, amp & turntable
Not a real audiofile here, but those speakers are AWESOME to behold.
Optical/laser stylus is probably the way to go.
Was that the one Clark W. Griswold damaged at the next door neighbors house with the ice from the gutter on “Christmas Vacation” ?
I was at a high-end audio boutique--an appointment-only place a friend knew about (guy hooked me up with a great deal on a pair of Danish bookshelf speakers and a British receiver that had been demo models for a weekend in a suite at CES). Anyway, he had this massive floor-standing turntable priced at over $100k. I said that that was pretty expensive for a turntable, and he said, "Sure, but it's cheap for a time machine."
I suspect to the cork sniffers in the audio world that ‘updates’ part is a deal breaker. It’s just a replica when they do that, and to high end audiophiles originality is important when talking about vintage components or even modern reissues of such. Some would prefer inferior but authentic tone over ‘new and improved’.
I’ll stick with my Bose.....................
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