At the base of the BeoLab Penta column was the BeoLab 150 amplifier with a power output of 175 watts DIN/IEC. This could give your music a tremendous boost, both to the quality and the actual power output. It was ideal if you loved to party but had a relatively small music system. Big power needs careful control – so the amplifier was equipped with Bang & Olufsen’s Dynamic Soft Clipping system. This was a circuit that prevented both distortion and damage to the speaker units by softly rounding off signals that were too powerful. Another circuit prevented damage due to prolonged overloading.
BeoLab 150: Controlled overdrive
On the amplifier itself were buttons for adjusting bass and the level of sensitivity. This meant that you could arrive at a permanent adjustment that matched the room exactly.
BeoLab Penta turned on automatically when it received a signal and also turned itself off three minutes after receiving the last signal. BeoLab Penta had a light display that indicated the volume level and which sound source the music was coming from. This was especially useful with Beosystem 5500 and Beocenter 9500.
BeoLab 150 and 200 were used as part of the BeoLab Penta active loudspeakers range.
Connections:
At the bottom of BeoLab 150 were two clip-sockets and a four pole DIN socket for connecting speakers, a line input phono socket and a mains cable.
A featherlight touch on the glass control panel brought up an illuminated display of numbers which corresponded to the tracks on the disc. You could select tracks in any order; you could see how long a track lasted and a motorised dust cover and automatic light were among the features that this stand-alone CD player possessed.
The CD player was based around the Philips CD104, built in Belgium.
As a standalone player, it lacked the Datalink and remote control facilities that its predecessor, the Beogram CD50, possessed. A good-looking CD player which performed well, it was later superceded by the Beogram CDX-2 in 1987.
Bang & Olufsen Sales Training System
Beogram CDX
Beogram CDX is a Compact Disc player in a classical Bang & Olufsen design
Features:
Top operation
Motor driven dust cover
Sensi-touch operation
ADVANCE and RETURN functions
Replay up to 4 times
Display with indication of playing time of individual tracks, elapsed time and index
Analogue and digital filter (176.4 KHz over sampling)
Connection with Phono plugs
Operation
If Beogram CDX is in standby position and there is a compact disc on the platter, one push at the PLAY button will start the playback.
If there isn’t a compact disc inserted, you push the EJECT button and the motor driven dust cover will open, the platter will lift and the compact disc can be inserted.
Apart from the above-mentioned PLAY and EJECT buttons, all operations are sensi-touch fields, which are operated with a slight touch.
When pushing the field PLAY, the dust cover closes automatically and playback starts.
The display indicates the individual tracks on the inserted Compact Disc. If it has more than 20 tracks, the two first digits in the time display will show the total.
The time display has 3 main functions, which can be ordered by pressing DISPLAY, namely the time of the individual tracks, the elapsed playing time and index, which is a sub-division of the time of the individual tracks.
ADVANCE and RETURN are used for jumping to the next or the previous track and are indicated with a flashing of the selected track on the display.
With the digits 1 to 0, a track can be selected at random and the jump is marked on the display.
With STORE and CLEAR you can select or leave out up to 40 tracks on the Disc.
REPEAT replays the Disc up to 4 times.
One push at STOP gives pause, and by keeping the finger on the field till the Disc stops, you get actual STOP. << and >> are used for fast search within the individual tracks.
When activating it once, you search in jumps of 1 second
By keeping the finger on the field you search in jumps of 10 seconds and after 10 seconds the jumps are 1 minute
Connection
Beogram CDX is provided with a fixed signal cable with Phono plugs and can be connected to all LINE inputs. For amplifiers with TAPE inputs which are already being used, we can deliver a CD/TAPE adaptor, type 8950060 (accessory at additional price)
1985 Magazine Review
” The CDX is one of two ‘Beograms’ which have been promised by B & O for some considerable time. It would seem that to a large extent B & O have edged, their bets, for the CDX is a Philips-based machine while the alternative model uses Sony-sourced assemblies. The CDX is an extraordinarily beautiful machine yet, as we shall learn, is based entirely upon the ever so humble Philips CD?101 (the same player as used by Meridian for the MCD conversion). The styling is obviously intended as match the other B & O units and so the company has an untapped market of existing owners who have been patiently waiting for a CD player. But it is a player well worth considering in its own right as a separate purchase.
Unusually the CDX is a top loader but the lid assembly is powered and in response to the eject button the lid assembly smoothly folds back to allow the disc to be loaded. With the exception of the Eject and Power switches, all the controls are touch sensitive (using a type of capacitive sensing) a choice which I found far from reassuring since I kept wanting to use extra finger pressure to ensure a good contact! My overall lack of confidence was further encouraged by the all black control panel which reveals nothing until the power is applied. Perhaps it’s too much like computer screen ‘soft keys’ for me for I kept wondering if the Play switch would be still in the same place every time I went back to this player!
Two types of display are provided; a digital readout to show track time, total elapsed play time, and track numbers up to 99; and a bar scale of 20 LEDs to show the status of the first 20 tracks. A reasonable range of facilities is offered with both track skipping and fast searching (both backwards and forwards). Tracks can be pre-selected for playback and programming is possible for combinations of up to 40 tracks stored in the memory. Finally a Repeat mode allows continuous playback of the whole disc or of individual tracks.
Once the CDX is opened some idea of B & O’s inventiveness can be gained. Into the plastic casing has been dropped a Philips CD101 player complete down to the signal and mains supply cables but less the Switch/Display board. Instead B & O plug in wires from their own front panel and wire connections to their Eject and Power switches. The whole conversion is very neat and since the Philips player is left unmodified all the standard parts fit thus ensuring ease of service.
It has to be said that providing the last word in performance is not needed; the Philips CD?101 is an excellent choice with the CDM mechanism being recognised for its good build quality and reliable operation (it is also to be found in the expensive Revox B225 player). The electronics design largely follows the familiar Philips circuit with 4 times oversampling conversion using a separate 14-bit DAC for each channel.
In the laboratory the performance was much as expected with a generally flat frequency response except for a mild dip of 0.25dB around 7kHz; very low noise (?104dB); low crosstalk between channels and quite reasonable linearity. No problems were experienced when using the error testing discs and this player did very well in playing back some of my badly scratched discs with very few garbled passages.
Auditioning was conducted through my usual system of passive control unit and Krell power amplifier with LC connecting cables. Essentially in terms of sound quality this was very much a case of re-reviewing a Philips CD101 (or Marantz CD63) and the expected high standards were
achieved. The sound can be characterised as open, exciting with a fine sensation of space and depth, and good stereo focus. The weaknesses were primarily at the extremes of the audio band with a warm, stodgy bass and a degree of harshness at high frequencies. However within the context of the B & O system the sound quality of this player would be considered quite excellent.
VERDICT: A beautiful model which will appeal to a wider market than just the traditional
B & O owner. The overall performance of the CDX is excellent and this player can be considered as good value
PROS: Good sound quality. Very good value for money. Beautiful looks
CONS: Rather fiddly to use. Old fashioned top loading ”
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.
It’s a fact that not all compact disc players are ideal for all types of music. Some of them seem to highlight certain parts of the frequency range. But you can be confident that Bang & Olufsen’s CD players never discriminate between rock and roll and classical. They smooth over faults in the CD very cleverly too, because not all compact discs are perfect. So it’s just as well that Bang & Olufsen CD players are!
Beogram CD 3300 was part of Beosystem 3300 although it could have been used as a stand-alone item.
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.
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.
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
This tangential record player was a classic example of Bang & Olufsen’s attention to detail. It had automatic registration of record size and speed, and seven repeat functions. The turntable was based on Beogram 5005.
There was also the benefit of Bang & Olufsen’s patented chassis suspension and special tone arm design, which prevented vibrations from reaching the cartridge during play thus enhancing your pleasure and protecting your records.
The US TX2 had a 110V transformer but had no switching for other electrical voltages. As a comparison, most European models had an inbuilt transformer to allow for switching between other voltages.
This fully-featured radial record player brought an extra dimension to all kinds of music systems.
It was ideal for those who love partying, with automatic anti-skating to prevent distortion, and Bang & Olufsen’s special chassis suspension which made the record player virtually ‘dance-proof’.
There was also automatic registration of record size and speed. Fine quality sound reproduction was provided by the lightweight tone-arm.
This deck was the last of the B&O radial tracking decks and was closely related to the excellent Beogram 5000. This is an excellent choice as a source for vinyl in a modern system requiring very little in the way of set up yet offering good audio performance.
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.
