This could be regarded as the standard cartridge in the range and was fitted to many decks as standard.
In many ways a replacement for the MMC20E, it offered good performance at a most reasonable price
This could be regarded as the standard cartridge in the range and was fitted to many decks as standard.
In many ways a replacement for the MMC20E, it offered good performance at a most reasonable price
The most basic of the range, this cartridge was available to be specified for those decks not fitted with a cartridge as standard such as the Beogram RX.
It could be differentiated by its cantilever which was a straight non tapered aluminium tube.
If you want superior sound, but not the size, and a full array of functions but without the complication – then take a look at the BeoSound Century. Designed by David Lewis, it has a very slim depth and brings together CD, tape and FM radio into a slim-line form that can stand by itself or hang from a wall. Everything is operated by buttons that light up to guide you quickly through the various playing options.
BeoSound Century is a clever combination of excellent performance and ease-of-use. This system is known in fact by two different names – BeoSound Century in Europe and BeoSound 2000 in North America. With everything built in, this is the perfect stereo for those who with a limited space as it’s only 11cm deep. It’s for those who don’t want Beolink® capabilities and can be equipped with a handle with a built-in active antenna making it very portable. The speakers use the active construction as that of all BeoLab speakers. In the late nineties the Century was released in a special limited series with polished aluminium instead of the black plastic on the CD holder. This became so popular that it became the standard! There are two different stands available: a wall stand and a special table stand. The unit may also be controlled by the optional Beo4 remote control.
Deep bass
BeoSound Century integrates a powerful sound reproduction system: two active loudspeakers with electronic crossover network and Adaptive Bass Linearisation, for the optimum relationship between bass reproduction and sound pressure level. The very small two-way bass reflex loudspeakers comprise a net volume of only 1,1 litres, but the large front grille gives room for fairly large woofer membrane diameters.
Bass and treble have separate power amplifiers, which means that they can be tailored to compensate for one another’s shortcomings and deliver a sound spectrum as close to reality as possible. On top of that, BeoSound Century can play at high volume, but cuts out before it has an opportunity to burn out its units.
The fine art of control of BeoSound Century
The backlit push buttons of the BeoSound Century are cast in opalescent plastic, painted black on the inside and the text is then burnt away with a laser. The light of a diode behind each button is muted for even distribution, and the button is hinged in four places. A sturdy and relatively inexpensive construction, but it takes just a bit more work!
Operation of BeoSound Century
How do you make operation easy when there are 26 buttons to push? On BeoSound Century, only the buttons you need for the specific function will light up and guide you step by step through operations.
BeoSound Century was awarded the Danish Design Centre’s IP Prize in 1994.
Mounting Options
Supplied with a table mount foot for mounting on top of a cabinet. The optional wall mount bracket allowed for wall mounting.
If you want superior sound, but not the size, and a full array of functions but without the complication – then take a look at the BeoSound Century. Designed by David Lewis, it has a very slim depth and brings together CD, tape and FM radio into a slim-line form that can stand by itself or hang from a wall. Everything is operated by buttons that light up to guide you quickly through the various playing options.
BeoSound Century is a clever combination of excellent performance and ease-of-use. This system is known in fact by two different names – BeoSound Century in Europe and BeoSound 2000 in North America. With everything built in, this is the perfect stereo for those who with a limited space as it’s only 11cm deep. It’s for those who don’t want Beolink® capabilities and can be equipped with a handle with a built-in active antenna making it very portable. The speakers use the active construction as that of all BeoLab speakers. In the late nineties the Century was released in a special limited series with polished aluminium instead of the black plastic on the CD holder. This became so popular that it became the standard! There are two different stands available: a wall stand and a special table stand. The unit may also be controlled by the optional Beo4 remote control.
Deep bass
BeoSound Century integrates a powerful sound reproduction system: two active loudspeakers with electronic crossover network and Adaptive Bass Linearisation, for the optimum relationship between bass reproduction and sound pressure level. The very small two-way bass reflex loudspeakers comprise a net volume of only 1,1 litres, but the large front grille gives room for fairly large woofer membrane diameters.
Bass and treble have separate power amplifiers, which means that they can be tailored to compensate for one another’s shortcomings and deliver a sound spectrum as close to reality as possible. On top of that, BeoSound Century can play at high volume, but cuts out before it has an opportunity to burn out its units.
The fine art of control of BeoSound Century
The backlit push buttons of the BeoSound Century are cast in opalescent plastic, painted black on the inside and the text is then burnt away with a laser. The light of a diode behind each button is muted for even distribution, and the button is hinged in four places. A sturdy and relatively inexpensive construction, but it takes just a bit more work!
Operation of BeoSound Century
How do you make operation easy when there are 26 buttons to push? On BeoSound Century, only the buttons you need for the specific function will light up and guide you step by step through operations.
BeoSound Century was awarded the Danish Design Centre’s IP Prize in 1994.
Mounting Options
Supplied with a table mount foot for mounting on top of a cabinet. The optional wall mount bracket allowed for wall mounting.
” Picture this. The perfect picture “
BeoCenter AV5 was, at first glance, merely a television set. However, what you saw was just half the picture. The AV5 was in fact a fully integrated, compact digital home entertainment system, comprising a CD player, FM radio and powerful loudspeakers… as well as a television!
On top of the AV5 a CD player elegantly lifted open to allow you to drop in your CD and listen.
BeoCenter AV5 therefore offered the best of both worlds and allowed you decide. At the touch of a button, two motor-drive loudspeakers stretched silently out to each side of the TV set. It was a simple, welcoming gesture but one that also ensures a special performance every time you switch on. The extra width allowed the loudspeakers to combine with the ear-shattering centre bass to produce optimal stereo sound in its full perspective. It was something you could hear – and feel – every time you watched a movie or listened to the in-built radio or played a CD. Indeed, BeoCenter AV5 was so versatile that at the time of its introduction, it could also play CD-i discs.
Devoting efforts in creating the perfect sound didn’t mean that Bang & Olufsen had forgotten what they knew about creating the perfect picture. On the contrary. The AV5’s 63cm super flat picture tube, combined with the contrast screen’s anti-reflective coating, delivered a sharper picture, with more depth and perspective, than you had ever seen before. So when the AV5’s electronic curtains glided open you could be sure that what lay behind them was pure entertainment.
Another original Bang & Olufsen feature added to daylight viewing comfort. It was a small electronic sensor that registered the prevailing light conditions in the room and adjusted the picture, so that it was always sharp, no matter whether a reading lamp was lit or sunlight suddenly poured through the window.
Touch CD on the Beo4 remote control and the AV5 moved on its motorised stand to face the viewer’s favourite viewing position. And active speaker stretched out from each side. On top, a CD player elegantly lifted open to allow you to drop in your CD and listen. The superior sound of the AV5 was made possible by the creation of a ‘soundscape’ that widened the perspective of the sound to make each individual instrument clear and distinct. Combined with an inbuilt, ear-shattering centre bass, the AV5 delivered a sound so rich and true that the effect was remarkably similar to a dedicated surround system.
Like every other Bang & Olufsen product, Beovision AV5 was designed and crafted with the greatest care. To ensure that the powerful centre bass unit didn’t interfere with the steadiness of the picture, it was mounted on an intricate suspension system, which in turn was anchored to a special aluminium chassis. The CD unit was perhaps the most robust then, on the market, to allow it to cope with the demanding environment – electronic noise, hot air and interference – in which it had to perform. And on top of all that, the entire unit was ‘torture tested’ hundreds of thousands of times to make sure that it could cope with the rigours of daily use!
The rear of the AV5 is removed by undoing four screws. It may have taken some 150 tools and six construction engineers to make the parts and components, but as far as possible, one size of screw was used to assemble the AV5. The result was, up to 1999, the most advanced piece of electronic design ever to leave the Struer assembly line. Yet everything follows a strictly modular pattern, making maintenance and servicing logical and straightforward.
How can 15 centimetres make a world of difference if you’re already sitting in front of the television, ideally positioned between the stereo loudspeakers?
If you want the full perspective of, say a symphony and you want to be able to identify each instrument in the orchestra, a distance of 80 centimetres is the absolute minimum. You must also make sure that the loudspeakers deliver exactly the same performance and have the same harmonic balance. This can only be obtained by the painstaking measurement, trimming, and pairing of every single tweeter and baffle that goes into the AV5 (or into any other Bang & Olufsen loudspeaker for that matter). Some manufacturers obtain “spatial effect” by reversing the signal phase on one side. This creates a broader perspective, but makes it impossible to locate voices or single instruments.
The picture tube was a new 25″ ‘super-flat state-of-the-art’ tube. It delivered excellent focus, which, combined with the anti-reflective coating of the contrast screen, was experienced as a sharper picture with more depth and better resolution.
The fact the loudspeakers disappeared into the front wall, calls for a special bearing structure. In the AV5, the heaviest component was the picture tube, which was fixed to a set of aluminium “antlers”, a moulded aluminium space-frame which also carried the loudspeakers and most of the wiring. Cast in two pieces, it was custom-designed to hold wiring and fixtures that traditionally, would have been mounted with additional clamps and screws. Aluminium has the advantage of being light, but rigid and non-vibrating. It will not conduct sound or allow oscillations that could affect sound or picture reproduction.
‘Dance steady’ is a term that B&O takes dead seriously. It refers to a product’s ability to perform effortlessly, no matter how animated the surroundings. The company’s secret remedy is rubber suspension. Inside the AV5, almost every vital unit was isolated from the bearing structure by little rubber sleeves. The transformer, the CD print card, the CD drive and last but not least, the centre bass, since it was the source of a sizeable proportion of the vibration pattern. Dance steadiness is measured on a vibrating table to determine the design of each individual rubber sleeve.
Imagine that you’d turn the AV5 on and off maybe 10 times a day over the next ten years and multiply that by 5 for safety. That’s equivalent to turning it on and off 180,000 times over 10 years. In B&O’s torture chambers in the dungeons in Struer, the loudspeakers on the guinea pig AV5 were stretched well beyond the first 500,000 times!
Buffers, shielded cables and a couple of brave hearts went into one of the most challenging technical solutions in the AV5. To make room for the CD player in the upper corner, it was necessary to separate the drive from the control unit. In an environment as compact and loaded with “electronic noise” as the AV5, a lot of sources could create interference and laser is a fragile technology. Servo signals have to travel a longer distance and streams of hot air will not make working conditions any more stable. As a result, the AV5’s CD player was one of the most robust on the market at the time of the AV5’s production.
Telephones are for speaking into and for listening to, but why stop at that? When Bang & Olufsen developed their own, they were built on the accumulated knowledge of natural sound, the durability of materials and of logical operation and function.
BeoCom 9600 was a GSM mobile phone in a class of its own as far as materials, manufacture and function were concerned. In spite of its unassuming appearance, it gave the user a loud and clear connection, even in noisy environments and with a card for fax and PC, it gave total mobility.
BeoCom 9600 could be charged with the table-top BeoCharger designed by Henrik Sørig Thomsen, designer of other Bang & Olufsen products such as BeoTalk 1100/1200, BeoCom 6000 and BeoCom 9800.
One of B&O’s first mobile telephones was created in partnership with Ericsson. The basic design was Ericsson’s while B&O contributed its expertise within sound reproduction. Technically identical to Ericsson’s own model, the B&O version had its own special design feature in the shape of its inclining buttons.
” Always there for you but never a burden – BeoCom 9500. Because of its extremely small size and low weight, you could easily forget that you were carrying around an extremely powerful communication tool in your pocket. The pressure chamber loudspeaker gave an extremely clean sound when you received calls.”
Designed for GSM systems the BeoCom 9500 had a pressure chamber loudspeaker; display, including status indication, a high number of numbers in memory dependant on the SIM card, redial function, volume control, microphone mute, adjustable tone ringer, keypad lock, phone lock, intelligent security lock, battery low warning, SMS, call hold/wait function, CLI (Caller Line Identification), call forwarding and DTMF tones.
Batteries: Standard battery giving 100 minutes talk time or 20 hours stand-by. Plus battery giving 180 minutes talk time or 30 hours stand-by. Light battery giving 80minutes talk time or 15 hours stand-by. Charging time: 1 – 2 hours depending on battery types
Weight: approximately 225g depending on battery types
BeoCom 600, the classic telephone from Bang & Olufsen… what else is there to say?
A well-equipped telephone with superb sound quality. The design is truly timeless. BeoCom 600 is a simplified version of the BeoCom 2000 and lacks the extensive display and memory facilities but has the same sound quality. In addition to high sound quality and ergonomic design, it has a display, short number memory, call waiting loudspeakers, listening-in function and volume control.
The ergonomically arranged keypad with large easy touch buttons makes using BeoCom 600 a delight from the very start. With a bass reflex speaker in the handset, 10 numbers in memory, 3 quick call keys, last number redial, volume control, microphone mute (for secrecy), tone ringer with 2 settings plus off.
With BeoCom 2500 means of communication couldn’t be simpler. The display on the phone allows you see the caller’s number, the time of the call and even the caller’s name if it’s listed in the 121-number memory. And if you can’t get to the telephone, or just don’t want to be disturbed, BeoCom 2500 can act as a passive answering machine registering the numbers of the last 24 callers.
BeoCom 2500 also has optional volume control for recent B&O AV equipment and is available in a good choice of bright and bold colours.
At the time of its introduction, BeoCom 2400 was a completely new concept from the company. Since it was first released, it has become a classic – one of many from Bang & Olufsen’s design studios.
The telephone was really more than just a phone, featuring a 121-memory alpha-numeric phonebook which built up as new numbers were dialled. It also had redial for the last nine numbers. Searching through the BeoCom’s phonebook was extremely easy due to integrated search functions. When found, the phone dialled the number by itself after obtaining confirmation from the user.
All primary functions were available directly on the keypad, and secondary functions are accessed via a simple menu system. As with all other Bang & Olufsen telephones, BeoCom 2400 was equipped with a bass reflex speaker giving clear and easy recognisable voices. An infra-red module was available as an optional extra, giving the user the ability to control the volume on other Bang & Olufsen products.