Aluminium Archives

Posted on May 13, 2024October 26, 2025 by Multicare

BeoLab 8000

As easy on the eye as they are on the ear, BeoLab 8000 loudspeakers defy conventional thinking in delivering the maximum sound from the minimum of space.

There’s not much point in thinking about BeoLab 8000 in terms of watts, woofers or tweeters. There has never been loudspeakers that look like this – or so clear and rich a sound produced from such slender cabinets. BeoLab 8000 represents both the engineering skills as well as the design capabilities from Bang & Olufsen. Nobody has ever built a speaker with such little net volume, only 5,3 litres, with such an impressive sound.

As with all modern B&O speakers, the 8000s are active, meaning that each element has its own amplifier. In fact, each speaker holds two amplifier units. The biggest advantage in separating the amplifiers is that it enables the loudspeakers the ability to obtain maximum sound pressure from each element without distortion. The 8000s use the same reflective finish as the BeoLab Penta allowing them to blend well into their surroundings. By 2001 BeoLab 8000 became the most popular active speaker to date.

” When it comes to sound reproduction we believe there’s only one relevant parameter: How close can we come to the originally recorded sound. We feel an obligation not to disturb the intentions of the artist by adding unnatural elements to the acoustic image. Therefore all Bang & Olufsen loudspeakers share the same goal. They differ in size and shape and in terms of sound pressure level. But they are all developed to reproduce the natural, unaltered sound as closely as possible ” – Bang & Olufsen catalogue 2001 – 2002

There’s no great secret to creating good speakers – but they do (normally) have to be big. When it comes to speakers, one of the driving forces behind Bang & Olufsen’s product development is combining the most modern of technology with good aesthetics. The result is that the company avoids filling people’s houses with speakers the size of phone boxes; instead replacing them with elegant pillars or beautifully-designed wall-mounted units. Formed from a single piece of aluminium that eliminates the distortion problems of traditional speakers, BeoLab 8000 is mounted on a solid, cast iron base and will create the perfect effect wherever you choose to place it.

Placing the amplifiers directly into BeoLab 8000 not only improves its overall sound performance, it also makes it possible to reduce its size by up to a third. This active loudspeaker technology gives B&O the freedom to combine the purest of sounds with the simplest of shapes. A slim 132cm tall and just 10cm in diameter the graceful column of BeoLab 8000 will never dictate any furniture arrangements.

Why build amplifiers into the loudspeakers instead of keeping them separate?

Because you can reduce the size of the cabinet volume to one-third of the size of a conventional loudspeaker with the same sound capacity. The principle is called Active Loudspeakers, and what you get is a compact loudspeaker that can play at high volume without distortion or damage to its drive units.

Furthermore, when amplifier, treble and bass units are paired for the same task, they can be tailored to compensate for each other’s shortcomings. What you hear is music that sounds exactly like the instrument it originally came from (See active speakers).

Deep bass: how to make deep bass with a shallow cabinet

All loudspeakers, regardless of brand, size or construction, make sound by converting electric energy into acoustic energy. They push air in waves, which is what our ears pick up. To get high sound pressure, you need to move a lot of air.

You can use a very large diameter loudspeaker membrane, which moves a very short distance. Or (as Bang & Olufsen prefer), you can make the membrane “deeper”, in other words, make it move a greater distance with a smaller diameter. Imagine two balloons, one round and shaped like a ball, the other long and tubular. Both contain the same amount of air; it’s simply their shapes that are different. A side benefit to the deeper membrane is that it allows a smaller cabinet, with greater freedom as far as form and function are concerned. Since no two loudspeaker units have exactly the same physical characteristics, Bang & Olufsen calibrate them individually to make certain that the sound of each and every loudspeaker leaving our factory is identical.

By employing an active electronic crossover network with equalization, we’re able to adjust frequencies before they’re amplified. The signal from the sound source is shaped before distribution to the separate power amplifiers for bass and treble. In this way, the performance of the various components is “fine-tuned”, until they produce an ideal, harmonised output, which will be the same, no matter which BeoLab loudspeaker you feast your eyes upon.

The custom made driver units of a BeoLab loudspeaker feature extra-heavy membranes with longer movement, which help produce a deeper bass.

Adaptive Bass Linearisation

Adaptive Bass Linearisation (ABL) is a process patented by B&O and is incorporated in BeoLab loudspeakers. The idea is to use the surplus capacity in amplifiers and driver units, arising by normal listening levels, for a bass extension – a sound reproduction with more bass, than the loudspeaker otherwise would be able to produce.

The function is adaptive. This means that the loudspeaker adapts to the signal it receives. Loudspeaker drivers are therefore fully exploited, without suffering mechanical or electronic abuse, and the built in amplifiers are not subjected to signals would otherwise create an overload situation.

ABL gives stunning bass reproduction considering the size of the loudspeaker in which it is incorporated, under normal listening levels.

BeoLab 8000: active loudspeaker, 2 power amplifier modules, adaptive bass linearisation, aluminium cabinet and solid iron (11kg) base.

News: From January 2003, BeoLab 8000 was obtainable with new driver units giving extra bass at low levels. While not delivering as much as a BeoLab 2 (dedicated sub-woofer) the bass drivers with the newer BeoLab 8000 have a marked improvement over their predecessors. The upgrade involved new frequency equalization and improved ABL system. These improvements are mostly apparent at high volume levels. The changes are implemented form serial 16992475 onwards.

Posted on May 13, 2024October 26, 2025 by Multicare

BeoGram CD 5500

The quality of the Beogram CD 5500 CD player took time to fully appreciate. For example, the elegant disc tray with its completely smooth and silent drive. Or the way that the disc drive system was mounted to isolate it from vibrations. Perhaps you were most impressed by the way that a built-in circuit in the player compensated for the tiniest faults on the disc itself (contrary to popular belief they’re not always perfect!). Finding tracks was both fast and easy – it was necessary to just ask the Master Control Panel for the track number you wanted. You could programme tracks to be played in any order, or sample each track briefly. There was a light display which showed you the length of the track you were playing and the remaining time on the disc – invaluable for recording.

Though very similar to look at to Beogram CD 50, this all-new Philips-based machine was a radical departure, both in manufacturing and technical terms. Beogram CD 5500 was the first CD player to be entirely designed by Bang & Olufsen and with the exception of the optical deck, it was entirely made by the company too. The performance and reliability of the Beogram CDX models probably influenced the choice of the Philips radial single beam pickup system and brushless DC spindle motor.

Externally, a slim aluminium plate machined out to the size of a compact disc replaced the Beogram CD 50 door and drawer loading system and it moved quickly and silently, again in marked contrast to its predecessor. The deck was on the right-hand side side of the fascia as opposed to Beogram CD 50 left-hand side arrangement, so that the loading of a cassette into the new Beocord 5500 tape recorder, which you had the option of placing below, was not obstructed. Later versions had a concentric 8cm circular recess machined into the loading plate, to accept CD singles.

With the Beogram CD 5500 there was no infra-red sensor option, and the front panel controls were even more basic, so at very least a Beomaster 5500 and Beolink 1000 terminal were needed to use it properly. On the back panel, there was a 7-pin Datalink socket for Beomaster 5500, and a single phono digital output connection, for which there was never a use within the B&O range.

The performance of this outstanding machine was never bettered, and with the exception of minor styling and software revisions, it remained virtually unchanged until the end of the separates system range with the Beogram CD 7000.

Beogram CD 5500 could be controlled via the two-way Master Control Panel MCP 5500 as part of Beosystem 5500.

Posted on May 13, 2024October 26, 2025 by Multicare

BeoGram CD 50

Beogram CD 50 was Bang & Olufsen’s very first CD player designed to be part of a stacking system and first featured in the 1983/84 product catalogue and allowed Beosystem 5000 owners to use all the buttons on the Master Control Panel 5000. Beogram CD 50 was a front-loading CD player.

The disc was placed in the motorised drawer which opened at a touch and closed either by light finger-tip pressure or by operating the PLAY control. If the disc was inserted incorrectly (upside down as compared to most other CD players of the time) the drawer opened automatically to allow the user to replace it.

Although the CD50 is quite limited in operation from the front panel as a stand-alone unit, it is a very nice sounding and very functional machine utilising Burr-Brown decoders and a large array of RAM buffering. RCA outputs are available as well as the traditional DIN connection.

Since Beogram CD 50 was designed as a component of Beosystem 5000, it had a Datalink connection to allow remote control of all functions via the Beomaster’s Master Control Panel. Two phono output sockets and a 7-pin Datalink connection were provided for this purpose. However, since it was the only CD player in the B&O range in 1984, it was chosen for use with other Beosystems. An optional remote keypad – Terminal CD 50 – that could transmit commands to an infra-red sensor on the Beogram’s display fascia was provided to allow remote control of the unit when not used with Beosystem 5000. The optional Terminal was also recommended for those wishing to combine Beogram CD 50 with non-Bang & Olufsen hi-fi systems.

Strengths: the laser device is very beefy with plenty of heat sinking. Lots of shielding and grounding. Burr-Brown IC decoders utilised.

Weaknesses: without the remote control the unit will only carry out a few operations from the front panel: Open, Close, Display options, Play, Skip to selection, and Standby/Off. The CD must be inserted upside down as in some older Pioneer-type CD players.

The SCAN function was a feature unique to Beogram CD 50. You could sample the first 12 seconds of each track and either reject it from your programme or STORE its location for inclusion in a later playing sequence. A comprehensive display capability meant that you always knew what was happening, what CD track was playing or due to be played, elapsed and remaining time of each track, and so on.

Bang & Olufsen CD50 review

” This review was approached with more than the usual interest. B&O announced the fact that they were to introduce a CD player to match their 5000 system in the region of two years ago. For a long time however the promised player was not forthcoming, the main reason according to B&O being that they didn’t think the medium sounded good enough.

A few months back, B&O released first player, the CDX, and just before this went to press the CD50 designed to match the 5000 system was finally announced. The sample sent was a prototype and guaranteed to be ‘in accordance with specifications’. The usual warnings apply with such products and detail findings should be treated as tentative.

The CD?50 is one of the most impressively finished players in group; arguably the most impressive with its acres of brushed aluminium and immaculately moulded plastic parts The machine operates with utmost decorum, but allows the user plenty of thumb twiddling time whilst it laboriously retracts the drawer, reads the contents and initiates play. Tracking performance was good through to exceptional and immunity from shocks even better.

Description

A physically large player, the CD50 is an aesthetic match for B&O’s 5000 system and can be operated by the system remote control, which allows access to the play and programming features – the latter accepting sequences up to 36 tracks long. But it an also be used in foreign, non-B&O systems, either as is, or with an optional remote control. This is the £34 Terminal CD50, which is also advantageous even for 5000 system owners as many functions are not available without its help. System 5000 owners will therefore find themselves in the uncomfortable position of requiring two remote controls. I spoke to the company about this, who tell me that this will be taken into account (whatever that means) in a revamp due probably late 1986.

As a standalone item, the only facilities available to the user (unless I’ve missed something – there are no instructions) are play from the beginning or any other track, but the search is strictly sequential and in the forward direction only. The controls are micro switches behind the front panel: hit the right-hand edge and play starts, hit it again and the track count increases by one, though this can only be done with the disc loaded and table of contents in memory. The middle section toggles the excellent display between various time and track/index indications. The remote control, which was not ready in time for the review, adds the following: intro scan (which plays the first few seconds of each track), cueing (presumably with an audible output), index search, programming controls and a numeric keypad for direct track selection.

The Technical Bit

The CD?50 is based on an Aiwa transport, a fact betrayed by the upside down disc loading requirement. Even for a prototype the insides are a bit of a mess, the unit being crowded with wires everywhere and modifications by the bucket load. Decoding is 16 with 2x oversampling using a Yamaha chip and steep L-C aliasing filters. Component quality is just average. Measured performance is about average too. The frequency response is a bit wayward: there’s a small dip between above 1kHz, recovering to peak at 16kHz before slowly rolling away. Other figures were about average, but the low level waveform was better than usual.

Listening

B&O have accomplished in the CD-50 something which they may not have set out to do: to make a player that emulates much of the euphony and openness of good analogue sources e.g. records and combines it with typical digital strengths – low noise, convenience and the rest. There is a certain consistency, despite the 16KHz output peak, and the overall impression is one of pleasantness and clarity. However, the bass end is not ideally controlled and there was also some masking of fine detail.

Verdict

An excellent but costly player, sound quality is better than average and facilities pretty comprehensive if purchased with the remote control.

Pros…

A very pleasant sounding player that clearly benefits from the change that Bang & Olufsen have wrought to the off-the-shelf components used inside. Styling is excellent if you like this kind of thing – the player will suit those allergic to the knob-bedecked run of the mill.

… and Cons

Good as the B&O sounds, it’s a doubtful proposition in value for money terms ? the price is definitely on the high side. B&O also seem to have got their knickers in a twist with the control system and the 5000 system remote control, which controls every other part of the system, only accesses the most basic of facilities on the CD player. ”

‘Compact Disc Review’, January 1986

Posted on May 13, 2024October 26, 2025 by Multicare

BeoGram 5005

This good-looking tangential record player had a unique tone arm suspension system among its many outstanding features. Optimum Pivot Point (OPP) was designed by Bang & Olufsen to give you the most faithful possible sound reproduction. The pendulum suspension isolated all vibration at the back of the tone arm so that the sensitive stylus tip was completely unaffected. It also had electronic Servo-drive and was fitted with the MMC 4 cartridge. The stylus pressure was 1,2g.

Facilities: search function – backwards and forwards; repeat playing of records; Datalink for connection to Beosystems.

This was the first of the lightweight tangential decks which were to become the mainstay of the Beogram range. The expensive tangential drive system of the 8000 was dropped and even the tangential arm mechanism was considerably simplified. They did however look the part and allowed far more control using a remote than the earlier radial 5000. Many owners of Beomaster 5000s ‘upgraded’ their systems with this deck but would miss the overhead light built into the lid of the 5000 and, dare one say it, possibly lose some sound quality.

Posted on May 13, 2024October 26, 2025 by Multicare

BeoGram 5500

If you wanted to treasure your record collection, you couldn’t do it better than with Beogram 5500.

The electronically-controlled tangential arm played the record at the exact angle that the original master was cut. This allowed the ultra-sensitive MMC 4 pick-up to give the most precise possible reading of the signals in the groove. And with a stylus pressure of only 1,2g, this extraordinarily gentle touch added years to the life of your precious records.

Beogram 5500 was a tough customer though; dancing feet wouldn’t shake it up, courtesy of the special chassis suspension and short, rigid tone arm. You also could enjoy features such as the automatic registration of record size and speed; plus full track search and record repeat facilities, via the Master Control Panel.

Beogram 5500 was aesthetically balanced to match the rest of the components within Beosystem 5500 and could be controlled with the rest of the system through Master Control Panel 5500.

The 5500 was essentially exactly the same as the 5005 but re-badged to match the Beosystem 5500. As befitted what was regarded at this time as the midrange system, it sported an MMC4 cartridge.

Posted on May 13, 2024October 26, 2025 by Multicare

BeoGram 5000

Beogram 5000’s radial-tracking record deck was the perfect match for Beomaster 5000. Operation was entirely automatic. One touch on the PLAY control started the motor and activated the deck’s logic circuits which assessed the size and correct speed of the record and instructed the arm to lower the stylus into the run-in groove.

This was a very fast-acting yet highly accurate control system which gave you music within about 8 seconds – far more quickly and gently than the human hand could guarantee. This system was also error-proof; for example, it was impossible to lower the stylus unless there was a record on the turntable, so expensive mistakes and accidents just couldn’t happen.

At the end of the record the motor automatically switched itself off and the arm returned to its rest position. If you wished, you could hear the same record over and over again automatically; it was necessary to just press PLAY once for each repeat required. Up to 7 consecutive performances could be pre-programmed in this way.

Beogram 5000’s sound quality was everything you would expect from so sophisticated a unit. The ultra-lightweight arm had built-in anti-skating and tracking weight adjustment. It carried the MMC 4 pickup with a framed elliptical diamond stylus that tracked the record groove accurately and with minimum wear.

As a final grace note there was also an interior light that switched itself on automatically when the lid was opened and stayed alight while the unit was in play.

When connected to Beomaster 5000, Beogram 5000 offered the added convenience of full infra-red remote control. The record deck could also be used as part of the Beosystem 5000.

Finish: brushed aluminium, dark grey translucent dust cover

Posted on May 13, 2024October 26, 2025 by Multicare

BeoCenter 9000

In the BeoCenter 9000 Jensen radicalised the basic ideas that had asserted themselves in the BeoMaster 1900. It was given two ‘angles’ but it is close to being merely a horizontal, floating, blank surface. The flush concept was taken a step further: now everything is entirely flat, nothing projects. Not even the lids on the CD player and the tape recorder rise at any time above their own level, but slip quickly and noiselessly to one side. Communication with the apparatus is reduced to two black glass sheets, one for input and one for output.

The cool, clean design – at once both peaceful and effective in appearance – reflects the rational operation, which is carried out via microprocessors. With the Beomaster 1900’s division into primary and secondary operation facilities, Jensen had anticipated the computer interface of the IT age, in which priority is given to the potential of the function selector.

The Beocenter 9000 is electronic through and through: the operating instructions for the relatively complicated apparatus with its many functions are built into the control equipment. Only the entirely everyday basic functions are visible in standby. When they are touched gently, the upper glass sheet – the ‘magic mirror’ – lights up. Several possible choices emerge only when they are needed.

The best and most consummate Jensen make the user feel like a magician. It was really Jensen’s wish that the lids on the BeoCenter 9000 should slide aside entirely without being touched when a hand came close to them, but that visionary idea was difficult to realise because it would mean the lids would open, for instance, when you merely wanted to change the volume. The designer David Lewis solved that problem when he designed B&O’s next breakthrough product, the upright BeoCenter 2500 (1991). He hid all buttons behind the lids. Lewis took his further development of Jensen’s B&O audio design profile in other directions when Jensen cease designing for the company in about 1990. By then, Jensen had designed more than 100 products for B&O. The reason for B&O’s success in the 1970′ and 1980s was the management’s willingness to aim at and realise risk-filled, pioneering strategy.

Open Beocenter 9000

The lid of the Beocenter 9000 disappears into the side of the apparatus and makes the user feel like the hero of a science fiction film. The plus values of products cannot be created on the background of qualitative or quantitative marketing surveys. Jensen’s role as the man who reads the trends of the time and uses his intuition to fulfil consumers’ unconscious wishes gives him a special role as an artist in product development.

Forming the Immaterial

The BeoCenter 9000 was to be Jensen’s last major breakthrough for B&O – an unadulterated operating surface. What enables Jensen to design products that are in advance of their time is his understanding of technological developments towards less bulk and greater complexity and abstraction. With the advent of microelectronics, the equipment loses its character as a tactile tool and its functions are beyond people’s immediate understanding.

The designer’s artistic freedom becomes greater – everything is possible. “Form follows function”, the idea that design should reflect the construction becomes an impossibility for most component designers. Jensen fights tooth and nail to maintain the modernist concept of honesty. He wants to avoid endowing the apparatus with familiar symbolical appearances and shapes, something that many of his contemporary, post-modern colleagues otherwise do.

Jensen’s design admits that form is on the way to being dissipated, on the way to immateriality, and so he goes from three-dimensional to two-dimensional operating services. He shows that the design of the future is about considering the man-machine relationship, communication with the apparatus, and that this is all that is left. Hardware design disappears to be replaced with software design. Jensen illustrates that technology is on its way towards invisibility and increased abstract. He chooses modernism’s abstract and reductionist idiom partly in order to bring clarity to the present-day ceaseless torrent of information and to make it comprehensible and accessible on all levels, and partly because technology in itself is abstraction.

“Less is more” is presented in concrete terms in Jensen’s reductionist designing because the cleansed surfaces and the simple and well-considered operation conceal the inconceivable complexity that is microelectronics. The modernist idiom in Jensen also reflects the abstraction to which modern man must subject himself if he wants to cope with the everyday articles of the present day, pieces of equipment. Although present-day technology is rooted in a long-standing Western tradition of rationality, rational engineering science has become so complex that it is beyond the immediate ability of our sense to imagine it. There is a need for designers who will give rational consideration to the way in which we communicate the engineers’ magic boxes and make the magic spells clear and comprehensible.

Our physical contact with the surrounding world is disappearing and being replaced with digitised virtual reality. Jensen does not try to pretend that his pieces of equipment are anything more than cool communication with technology, although he does not hesitate to turn our control of it into an experience. The functionality of the blank sensor-touch surfaces cannot be understood in the same way as an old-fashioned on-off switch. The possibilities of choice do not resemble push-buttons, but are merely abstract words that light up when we need them. They do not exist as material manifestations when we turn off the Beocenter 9000. Although Jensen’s modern domestic alters are quite profane, his design places him in art history’s long tradition of representing the immaterial as truly and beautifully as possible. ” – taken from ‘Jacob Jensen’ by Christain Holmsted Olesen.

Beocenter 9000 was designed by Jacob Jensen especially for music lovers who wanted the finest sound quality without having to bother with a mass of technical details. It became one of Bang & Olufsen’s outstanding modern classics. Beautiful to look at, with its sculptured design in glass and brushed aluminium; and pure pleasure to use and listen to.

At the time leading up to its design, Bang & Olufsen’s manager of long-range planning – Jens Bang – had just been to Japan and had bought back a strange-looking box called a ‘CD player’, the newest in technical miracles.

The ‘idea group’ at Bang & Olufsen – which included Timothy Jacob Jensen (the son of Jacob Jensen) – then began a long period of development which was to create a new Beocenter and which included a flat-screened TV, radio, CD player, tape recorder, loudspeakers, telephone and remote control, including a wristwatch with built in remote. However, after having seen around one hundred different ideas for the new hi-fi the idea group decided that the new Beocenter would just have a radio, tape recorder and CD player incorporated within it.

The new unit became an integrated system solution with amplifier, radio, cassette tape deck and CD player. By uniting all functions in one cabinet it was possible to simplify operation giving also its cabinet a simple and uniform appearance. ‘Function creates design and design creates function’. Its finish of aluminium and dark plastic gave the system an exclusive and distinct look which paralleled B&O’s other product designs. Beocenter 9000 was a direct descendant of Jacob Jensen’s famous Beogram 4000 record player and was contribution to the ID Classic Prize that B&O was awarded by the Danish Design Centre in 1990.

Simplicity itself

Two illuminated displays gave you all the information you needed. The upper display showed what was going on at the moment; the lower display gave you all the options at your disposal. Let’s say that the upper display showed ‘Radio’. If you pressed ‘3’ on the lower display you got the radio programme you preset as number 3. The same goes for records, tapes or CDs.

You could carry out most of the day-to-day operations using the Beolink 1000 remote control. For programming however, you operated the control panel directly, and again, it was very straight-forward. You could programme concerts or shows to record when you were out and then enjoy them at your leisure. You soon found yourself wondering how you ever did without the elegance and flexibility of this exceptional music centre!

The fine art of control of Beocenter 9000

The unfailing sensi-touch control of the Beocenter 9000 works through a condenser effect. A graphite area is printed on the underside of the glass panel and charged with a high frequency current. Even the lightest touch of a finger will spark a reaction.

Beocenter 9000 won the Japanese Good Design award in 1987 and the German Design Auswahl in 1986.

The tape recorder of the Beocenter 9000’s was almost fully automatic. You no longer needed to think of a cassette tape as having two sides. Auto Reverse reversed the sound head automatically so that in practice you had just one long tape at your disposal. This was of course, particularly useful for longer recordings.

Another useful feature was the automatic adjustment of the recording level, giving you total consistency throughout a number of different recordings. For noise reduction during recordings you could choose between Dolby B or C and then forget it; when you played the tape back, the recorder automatically switched to the system you used for recordings. It was also clever enough to identify whether you were using a standard, chrome or metal tape – and adjust itself accordingly.

You also had the benefit of Bang & Olufsen’s HX-Pro recording system, giving you considerably superior reproduction of the upper ranges, regardless of the type of tape. And with the automatic track search system you could quickly find a particular piece of music quickly and easily.

The radio

Just as easy to use as the rest of the music centre, the radio could be preset for up to 20 AM or FM stations. All searching and tuning was fully automatic. Just key in the frequency you want – for example ‘ FM 100.9’ – and the radio did the rest. You had plenty of choice where programming was concerned. If there was a daily programme you didn’t want to miss, you could programme it to come on at a specific time, or to record when you were out. You could have your favourite music to wake you up during the week, and cancel it to lie-in at the weekends.

The Compact Disc player

The very latest innovations were used to give this CD player truly outstanding sound quality. It was also superbly flexible to use. You could find a particular track in seconds, repeat tracks at will, and programme the playing order virtually any way you liked. The choice was all yours.

The fine art of control of Beocenter 9000

The unfailing sensi-touch control of the Beocenter 9300 worked through a condenser effect. A graphite area was printed on the underside of the glass panel and charged with a high frequency current. Even the lightest touch of a finger sparked the reaction.

If you wished to use a record deck with the Beocenter, then Beogram 9000 was made to complement the rest of the hi-fi.

Posted on May 13, 2024October 26, 2025 by Multicare

BeoCenter 9300

Beocenter 9300 really defined the word ‘classic’. It was for those who preferred to enjoy the music rather than to pore over the product manual. The design of the 9300 was around for many years before production ceased in the late 1990’s. It was available in many different versions; for example 8000, 9000, 9500 and the this last version: Beocenter 9300.

The differences between the 9500 and the 9300 was that the 9300 had a new and improved CD mechanism fitted which was faster than the previous versions. Some minor differences were that the 9300 lacked two-way remote communication and an equalizer loop-through. However, the 9300 still is still among the Bang & Olufsen greats!

BeoCenter 9300 could operate with active as well as passive loudspeakers. A mere touch activated BeoCenter 9300 and a line of sensi-touch options glowed on the lower glass display. The 9300 was a complete music system for people who prefer to enjoy music rather than poring over a product manual.

Features:

2 x 80 watt amplifier, CD player with programming, tape recorder with auto reverse, FM/AM radio with 30 preset stations, finger touch control, optional Beo4 remote control operation, connections for Beolink® and headphones, Master Control Link. There was also the option of using the BeoCenter with or without active speakers, such as BeoLab 4000 (shown above). A stand could also be bought as a separate item

Posted on May 13, 2024October 26, 2025 by Multicare

BeoCenter 9500

The mirrored exterior of aluminium and smoked glass gave no hint of the power hidden beneath the surface of Beosystem 9500. Central to the concept was the AM/FM receiver. On the flanks, CD player and cassette recorder awaited their turn in the spotlight. When they were needed, a light touch on the display panel was all that was required to make lids glide to the side giving immediate access to disc or cassette. The Beocenter was designed by Jacob Jensen and was the direct descendant of Beocenter 9000. The two models features here were superceded in 1994 by Beocenter 9300.

Simple logical operation

A light touch directly on Beocenter 9500 was all you needed to access its operation. The illuminated display led you logically through the programming and other functions always showing you what to do next. This ease and simplicity of use was the first impression you obtained of the music system. And equally easy to use was the optional remote control Beolink 1000 terminal.

Entertainment and information from three reliable sources

You could preset up to 20 FM and AM stations on the Beocenter 9500 receiver. And when you made your choice, search and fine tuning were completely automatic. Also, you could preset the receiver to switch on automatically to catch the news, or perhaps a favourite serial at just the right time. If you were out, the cassette recorder could be programmed to record and you could play back at your leisure.

You could also use the Beocenter 9500 receiver as a guaranteed alarm. In the event of a power failure during the night, the clock instantly switched to its own built-in batteries to ensure that you awoke at just the right time.

The CD player which accommodated both 12cm and 8cm compact discs was also ready for your commands. It gave you instant access to a specific track anywhere on the disc and allowed you to change the order in which the tracks were played, or to simply choose only those tracks you wished to listen to. Technology at its most convenient best. When used with Beogram 9500 the music system was known as Beosystem 9500.

Posted on May 11, 2024October 26, 2025 by Multicare

Beo1

” Absence can be the most expressive form of presence. Especially when it comes to designing a truly user-friendly remote control. Beo1 works together with Beocenter 1 and Beovision 1 to give you maximum freedom from a minimal number of buttons. The succinct Beo1 works in all directions and will lead you directly to a personalised on-screen menu holding all your favourite programmes. The perfect balance enhances usability, and polished aluminium completes the experience ” (B&O catalogue 2001 – 2002)

Beo1 remote control: ‘Aesthetically yours’

Beo1 is especially for the Beovision 1 and Beocenter 1 televisions. It is made from one piece of aluminium and is a natural aluminium colour. The main functions of both these TV receivers can be controlled using the unit; a display button can be stepped through in order to control the radio, DVD or TV in Beocenter 1. The Setup options for both TVs may be controlled using this remote control, too… the smaller brother of Beo4.

” Standard remote controls are unsightly plastic objects with too many buttons. Bang & Olufsen took the hard and the outstanding new way of shaping a modern material. Aluminium plates and profiles give new experiences to the consumer and high challenges for the designers and engineers. The functionality in combination with light weight, elegant design, durability and recyclability is of a very high standard. The machining of the basis, a hemispherical formed plate, was done on a lathe and attached to the rotating fixture by a film of frozen water.

Using the modern hydroforming technique for the organic cabinet part and sophisticated surface treatments as anodizing and grinding, gives the Beo 1 the modern but almost timeless look. Fitting the parts together, modern structural bonding techniques where used. The human experience is the centre of all efforts to ensure the fit between design and technology. The goal to realize a very friendly and a easy to use remote control in combination with a functional and elegant design was reached. “

Beo1 (with only 11 buttons) and banana-shaped cordless telephone – BeoCom 2 – are made of 100-percent polished aluminium. “We polish the round shapes with a 5-axis robot arm,” says B&O spokesman Mr. Mortensen. “We want the naked aluminium because that makes the visual difference. Bare aluminium is very touch-sensitive: if a part has a fingerprint on the surface it cannot be anodized and cannot be used (in that case, it’s recycled). And to achieve the colours we want, our designers had to acquire special anodizing knowledge.”

Plastic-free surface on remote control units

“Surface treatment is very important to Bang & Olufsen. It affects not only the appearance but also the feel of a piece of equipment” states Technology Director Peter Petersen. “A product is created to be used, and you can’t do that without touching it.”

“A Bang & Olufsen terminal – or remote control – must sit nicely and comfortably in the hand. So we don’t coat it with plastic. A plastic terminal somehow doesn’t feel as genuine as ours. And gets hot and sweaty, too. After a great deal of work on the choice of materials we have selected zinc for all our terminals. It sits well in the hand and is pleasant to touch. The heat from the hand is conducted away, so the terminal never feels clammy. In design terms, this choice represents an extra form of quality.”

Bang & Olufsen terminals, of course, are not just attractive to the eye and pleasing to the hand. User interface is in fact one of Bang & Olufsen’s main concerns, where technology is really put in the service of humankind. Through logic operations, in fact, B&O’s remote control units make life with the product a pleasant experience.

Beo1 was discontinued in the autumn of 2002 when Beo4 was used for Beovision 1 and Beocenter 1 in place of its smaller brother.

Beo1 wins top aluminium award

On 21 September 2000 in Essen, Germany, the Beo1 remote control won first prize at the Aluminium 2000 Conference.

Beo1 captured the title within the Consumer Products division up against a sea of other entries, including our own BeoLab 1 and BeoCom 2. Grounds for the selection of our newest remote control include utilising technology with innovative twists to ensure that the human experience is optimised. Never compromised.

These innovative processes include structural bonding by freezing, lightning-quick milling and flawless hydroforming – all of which yield a smooth, seamless cabinet.

The Aluminium 2000 conference was organised by The European Aluminium Association, with the goal of recognising outstanding competencies in aluminium processing.

Beo1 is the concept dedicated remote control for the Beovision 1 concept and was launched at the end of 1999.”

Handing it intuitively to Bang & Olufsen: a history of remote controls

Bang & Olufsen’s first remote control came on the market in 1974. That year, Bang & Olufsen launched two products, each with a remote control of the same design. It was the size of a small cigar case and had a steel top plate. These two remote controls, which were not integrated, were the Beovision 6000 Commander and the Beomaster 6000 Commander. The TV remote control allowed the user to select programmes and picture quality from the comfort of an armchair. The remote control for the stereo enabled the user to control a four-channel sound system.

Before too long remote controls became smaller, in the form of Beovision 6002’s Beovision Control Module. The buttons on its surface were designed so that you could use the remote control without looking at it. Those for turning down a setting were shaped to curve downwards, while the buttons for turning up a setting curved upwards.

The following Video Terminal was cast in zinc so that heat was conducted away from the palm of the hand. This remote control, which used an infrared beam, was launched in 1980. It was quite narrow, with a keypad that both resembled and functioned the same way as the buttons on a telephone. This was another way of helping the user to operate the remote control without looking at it. This version introduced additional buttons for operating Teletext TV.

The following year, Bang & Olufsen added functions for operating video recorders and a new version of the Beovision Control Module. System integration had advanced to the point of sharing a remote control between the Beovision 8800 and Beocord 8800 Video.

The next generation of remote controls arrived when it became necessary to transfer more operating information that, for purely technical reasons, could not be incorporated into a single remote control. Now sound could be transferred between the television and the stereo system. This became possible with the combination of a video terminal and an audio terminal into an AV Terminal – the forerunner of Beolink 1000 – in 1985.

In 1987, all audio, video and audio/video remote controls were integrated into one unit with the Beolink 1000. Since then, Bang & Olufsen has pursued a strategy of only having one remote control for all products – most recently with Beo4, which is capable of operating all products. Beo1 is a minor exception to the strategy. It only operated Beocenter 1 and Beovision 1 and was intended for a new customer segment, which it did not completely succeed in capturing. For this reason, it was replaced by the Beo4 from autumn 2002.

In general, Bang & Olufsen’s development of remote controls can be summed up in a simple concept: Intuitive use. It is important to be able to adjust sound and picture from wherever you may be in the home. Accordingly, Bang & Olufsen has chosen simple functions – and that, of course, also has implications for the design of the remote control. It’s easy enough to pack a lot of buttons and functions into a remote control, but Bang & Olufsen has chosen a simple operational philosophy for the customer.

Beo4 has relatively few buttons, but it can retrieve a lot of information if required. That is what you call quality. Since the development of the first remote control cast in zinc, the company’s remote controls have had a certain intrinsic weight. This helps to give a sense of quality. Last but not least, the remote control is renowned for having a long range. You don’t have to get into a special position to communicate with the system. Once you have the remote control in your hand, you are ‘in total command’.