“If you already own a hi-fi music system or a good radio set with a tape socket – in other words, if you have an amplifier system capable of replacing that provided in a tape recorder you may prefer this 2-track recording machine. Technical specifications are equal to those of the Beocord 2000de Luxe K, but there is no mixer section or output amplifier.

The Beocord 1500 de Luxe has built-in playback pre-amplifiers and is sold complete with gramophone/radio record pre-amplifier. This recording pre-amplifier may be exchanged for a microphone pre-amplifier if direct microphone recordings are required.

Dimensions: 205mm high, 450mm wide, 335mm deep. Choice of teak or Brazilian rosewood finish” – taken from the 1967 – 1968 Bang & Olufsen product catalogue.

Beocord 1500 DL was a stereo tape recorder which you could use with an existing stereo system. There was no built-in amplifier or microphone – the unit’s raison d’être was a means to make really good recordings from records or the radio. A single stereo input channel of standard DIN level was the only source, but two outputs were provided: one of a fixed DIN level, and the other (Line) of a variable level controlled by a concentric (L,R) knob on the control panel. With a special lead and the correct Beomaster, it was possible to do off-tape monitoring during recordings (although by using standard DIN connection through the ‘radio’ socket this function was not available).

Accessories for the 1967 range of Beocord Tape Recorders:

An elegant steel undercarriage on smooth-running castors was separately available for the Beocord models at that time. It was available in two versions: for Beocord 1100/Beocord 2000 de Luxe T, and Beocord 1500 de Luxe/Beocord 2000 de Luxe K, respectively.

Beocord 1500 DL was replaced by Beocord 1800 in 1970, which looked very similar but included several detail improvements, such as a die-cast chassis and optical automatic stop. Mechanically, Beocord 1500 DL was the same as Beocord 2000 DL and was offered in the same way in either 2 track + 4 track replay and 4 track only models. The Beomaster 900 RG Compact radiogram featured a recess of the exact size to fit Beocord 1500 DL which made it into a complete audio system.

While Bang & Olufsen made wire recorders in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s they did not start to produce open reel tape recorders until the early 1960’s. However, as with all B&O products these were considered excellent quality and many are still in use today.

Beocord 1000 was introduced in 1966 – and the Beocord 1100 that replaced it in 1967 – were the budget models of the range. They were stereo machines but had only mono monitoring.

Beocord 1500 and Beocord 1800 eventually superceded these two models; Beocord 1800 featured a mixer as in more expensive machines and also incorporated both sound-on-sound and overdubbing capabilities. Beocord 2000 was the best-selling and the best-loved machine that the company produced; this was manufactured from 1965 to 1968 and was drowning in features many not seen on anything but professional machines until the late 1970’s.

In 1969 the company introduced Beocord 1200, Beocord 1600 and Beocord 2400.

Beocord 2000 de Luxe T is almost a recording studio in a case. Compact, transistorised circuitry allowed a previously impossible amount of facilities to be offered by a portable machine. Independent stereo recording preamplifiers for microphones, a turntable, a radio or second recorder and line/off tape recording allowed huge flexibility.

Recording and playback amplifiers were completely separate, as were the heads, expanding the possibilities even further, to include off-tape monitoring, track to track copying and echo functions. A built in power amplifier, similar to that fitted to Beogram 1500, made the Beocord 2000 Deluxe a complete stand alone unit, even a pair of quality loudspeakers, which doubled as a hard protective lid, were included.

Internally, the electronics were built on 8 plug in cards, the radio and phono amplifier ones having switches to alter the input level that they could use. A single large synchronous motor, supplied by Papst of Germany, drove the mechanism via a series of rubber wheels. The motor pulley had a number of different radiused sections, including three precision machined surfaces for speed selection. These were selected with a stepped cam, lifting an idler wheel into the correct position to drive the large cast flywheel at the desired speed. Included on the same shaft as the cam were switches to automatically correct the equalisation settings of the recording and playback amplifiers for the speed being used.

Beneath the die-cast head cover, one could see the four head stacks, they were, from left to right, a stereo erase head, a stereo playback head set for replay of half tape stereo or four track recordings, a full width stereo record head and a full width stereo playback head. Also visible were sensing posts for both mechanical and electrical automatic stop, a brake pad linked to the pause control, a large rubber pressure roller and a thick, heavily chromed capstan spindle.

The control panel contained two simple levers to operate the tape transport, but was dominated by a stereo mixing section with 4 channels. The versatile switching functions, controlled by eight small grey buttons on the left of the panel, allowed the user to record either on the full width in stereo (so only allowing one “side” of the tape to be used), or two independent parallel tracks in mono, making two passes of the same side of the tape, or two tracks in mono, running to the end of the tape for the first one, them turning the tape over to record the second.

This, coupled with a choice of three speeds and a deck large enough to take spools up to 18cm in diameter, gave the user the chance to, at one end of the scale, record 45 minutes of music in stereo at as good as studio quality, or at the other extreme, store over 8 hours of speech quality material on a single spool of tape. Recordings from four-track recorders could be played, be they two tracks of stereo or four tracks of mono, though it was not possible to record in the four track format.

A well specified microphone amplifier made this machine ideal for live recordings, and there was space in the cover to store the microphones, such as a pair of Beomic 2000s, while not in use. B&O also made an excellent range of ribbon microphones which could be used with the Beocord 2000 Deluxe.