Release Date: 1984

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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 RX

Bang & Olufsen Beogram RX

A basic radial armed turntable which replaced the Beogram 1800 in the range.

It was designed for use with other makes of amplifier and hence was fitted with phono plugs instead of the more usual, for B&O, Din plug. It came without a MMC pick up though most would be fitted with a MMC5.

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BeoGram 5000

Bang & Olufsen 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

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BeoGram 1800 (1984)

Bang & Olufsen BeoGram 1800

This radial-tracking deck combined ease of operation with superb performance specifications. It featured a new, advanced type of tone arm carrying the remarkable MMC5 pick-up with its unframed, elliptical diamond stylus. The platter was of a lightweight design (400 grams) to reduce torque at starting.

Its carefully milled profile, with large metal surfaces set between slim bands of Nextell, ensured high electrical capacitance between the record and the metal, effectively earthing static charges without actual contact. It was driven by a flat rubber belt from a tacho-controlled DC motor. The belt’s compliance acted as a mechanical filter, preventing motor vibrations from reaching the record and stylus.

To complement this improved arm/cartridge combination Beogram 1800 had a new faster-acting movement control system with separate cam wheels for vertical and horizontal arm movement, so that automatic operation gave you music within a very few seconds. So cueing was really fast, but still careful of your records.

For improved record safety, you could operate normal PLAY and STOP functions while the lid was closed. Just one touch – the rest was automatic. Record size and speed was identified by the Beogram’s logic circuits. Beogram 1800’s slim plinth had a brushed aluminium finish.

Opening the lid gave access to three further function controls: CUE, 33 and 45 speed overrides (for non-standard discs).

Beogram 1800 was designed by Jacob Jensen and at the 1969 Hanover Fair Bang & Olufsen and Jacob Jensen were presented with the iF award for no less than 4 products for ‘outstanding industrial design’ including Beogram 1800.

Types: 5811 (1984 – Aug 1984); USA 5813 (1984 – Feb 1986)

These are probably the slimmest looking record player available. Quite a bit of this is down to clever visual tricks and surprisingly, the decks related to this model all looked thicker. It sold well and may were bought to work with non B&O systems. It shared the excellent suspension of its predecessors and had the new cartridge mounting. Now available for little money, this is a superb sounding deck. Highly recommended.

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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.