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BeoGram 8000

Bang & Olufsen BeoGram 8000

In 1973, Bang & Olufsen launched the world’s first record player with an electronically controlled tangential arm. It was dubbed a state-of-the-art product by the industry, and revered and appreciated by music lovers all over the world.

Beogram 8000 was Bang & Olufsen’s third generation of tangential arm decks.

The special benefit of the tangential arm is that it helped to secure the most authentic reproduction of sound from records because it tracked records in the same way they were cut. But the tangential arm was only one of the features that contributed to the achievement of the company’s goal. For Beogram 8000 also benefited from B&O’s unique approach to turntable design: integration, in which all components of the gramophone were carefully matched from the product’s earliest design stage.

To secure constantly accurate rotary speed a Tangential Drive system was developed. It incorporated a quartz-controlled electronic flywheel, similar to the system used in electricity meters. Like your domestic meter, the system is highly reliable and extremely accurate. It works all day, everyday, and never needs repair. You never needed to make corrections in the Beogram’s rotary speed. A digital display kept you informed of speed during play. Because the conventional motor has been discarded, there were no motor vibrations to distort the sound. A unique pendulum suspension system prevented external shocks and vibrations from affecting sound reproduction.

Beogram 8000 was fitted with the widely acclaimed MMC 20 CL pickup cartridge, which guaranteed excellent tracking and minimum record wear, thanks to its low effective tip mass and optimum groove contact. A stylus brush, mounted inside the tangential arm compartment, kept the diamond free from dust and micro-particles, thereby enhancing the gentle treatment of records.

Beogram 8000 could be used as part of a full stereo system – the Beosystem 6000 or 8000

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BeoGram 8002

Bang & Olufsen BeoGram 8500

Beogram 8002 was a ‘state-of-the-art- product with a performance capability as near ideal as anyone had up till then devised. The platter was driven not by a conventional motor, but by a unique tangential-drive system that had no moving parts and no physical contact with the turntable.

Tangential drive works on the same principle as the ordinary domestic electricity meter (a form of electric ‘motor’ which you have probably always lived with yet been totally unaware of, since its disc continues rotating, silently and accurately, year after year without any maintenance whatever). It is based upon a law of physics by which any current-carrying body placed within a magnetic field experiences a force which will cause it to move.

Bang & Olufsen took full advantage of this simple law by placing the edge of the Beogram’s under-platter between two fixed coils. When current was applied to these coils a magnetic field was created in the gap between them, thus moving the under-platter without physical contact of any sort. The speed of rotation was dependant on the amount of current passing through the coils and B&O’s use of a quartz-controlled electronic servo-circuit to govern current flow keeping the turntable speed constant and highly accurate.

The tangential-tracking arm was made of hard-drawn brass. It carried the pickup in a straight line from the edge of the record to its centre – the same geometry used in cutting the original master-disc – so skating effect did not occur and vertical tracking error was barely measurable. The tone arm was preceded by a detector arm carrying a photodiode which could ‘see’ the surface below it. If the PLAY button was pressed when there was no record on the turntable, this magic eye ‘saw’ the broken pattern of the platter’s black ribs rotating and a safety circuit blocked any user command to lower the pickup. So Beogram 8002 was safe as well as extremely sophisticated.

The pickup arm used the latest type of cartridge – MMC2 – weighing a mere 1,6 grams. Its unframed diamond stylus had a multi-faceted (contact line) profile which could follow every last detail of the groove modulations.

Beogram 8002 had a computerised control system that made operation so easy that you didn’t even have to think about it. Just press PLAY. Machine intelligence identified the size and playing speed of the record. If you wanted to hear the same disc more than once, it was necessary to just press PLAY for each time you want to listen – up to 9 times. The number of repeats you ordered would appear as the last digit on the speed read-out panel.

You could scan the arm – inwards or outwards – to any track on the record in fast or slow motion. Manual override buttons were provided for playing non-standard discs and the pause control made it easy to resume play after an interruption.

Beogram 8002 could be used as part of the Beosystem 6000 or Beosystem 8000

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BeoGram 2404

Bang & Olufsen BeoGram 2404

An updated 2402 but with the revised lightweight arm designed to take the MMC5 cartridge.

Rather an afterthought, the 2404 was designed to work with the Beomaster 2400-2 and was fitted with the 7 pin DIN plug to allow control by remote. This was not compatible with Datalink. The last UK model of this design and interesting simply because it had the new cartridge but the old remote control software unlike the Beogram 6000 which boasted the new software and old cartridge.

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BeoGram 1700

Bang & Olufsen BeoGram 1700

Beogram 1700 combined ease of operation and advanced technology in a simple, matter-of-fact way. To play a record, all you had to do was press ’33’ or ’45’ and let the Beogram do the rest. At the end of play the pickup arm returned to its resting position and the motor switched off.

The anti-skating device worked automatically. Another advantage of the simple, integrated design was immunity to external shock and vibrations. The electronic servo drive system ensured correct rotary speed at all time.

The low mass, low inertia pick-up arm with its plug-in MMC 20S cartridge made it virtually impossible to scratch records.

Beogram 1700 could be made up as part of the Beosystem 1700 or Beosystem 2600, when linked together with other compatible Bang & Olufsen products.

This is quite possibly the best value Beogram made. It has excellent sound and vibration isolation, a very simple and lightweight arm, easy to use and understand controls and is elegant both in looks and operation.

Blindfold, the sound quality is quite frankly indistinguishable from the higher models and it is far more likely to work. Weak spots are few but record support would probably be the main issue. A felt mat suitably cut could well improve record support qualities.

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BeoGram 1600

Bang & Olufsen BeoGram 1600

Beogram 1600 was manufactured primarily for the US and French markets; therefore in the overall scheme of things, there weren’t many of these around.  A fairly basic machine, Beogram 1600 was designed for use within the Beomaster 1600 and Beocord 1600 system when it complemented these other products nicely.  It fitted with the MMC 20E combined cartridge/stylus.