Beocenter 2422 Repair

[sessylU]

A friend's father in law has an old Beocenter 2422.

He paid someone a stack of money years ago to "fix" it, but the guy sounds a bit dodgy. It went unused for a number of years, then when he went to use it, it didn't work. He took it back to the guy, and the guy wanted more again to "fix" it it again. He gave it to me to look at and told me that it was completely dead. The lamps had gone, so I replaced those and then I cleaned the stylus. Then it worked perfectly. There was basically a big cake of crud on it, and the stylus was fine underneath.

Now it was lighting up and sounding as good as these do. He was delighted.

A week later he phoned me aghast saying that it had stopped working and if I could look at it again. I was a bit worried because he'd given me £50 for "fixing" it and I thought maybe he was unhappy with the little work I'd done. Turns out he tripped over the power cable walking behind it and it fell onto the floor. I took it home again. There is now no stylus on the cartridge, but also the turntable didn't turn. I explained the situation with styli on these and that there is definitely a cheaper way to a better sound with less hassle down the line. But he is attached to this machine for sentimental reasons so wants to spend the money on a reconditioned stylus. I suggested we fix the mechanical issues before spaffing the money away. The platter was dislocated, so I relocated it, put the belt back on. Now it works... ish. There's a weird rubbing sound, as seen in the video below. There's a long lever that goes underneath the platter and is fouled by the platter once per turn. For the life of me, I can't see anything else out of place. I'm wondering if the platter isn't spinning true anymore. I've posted a video of the issue below.

Bit of a long shot, but anyone any ideas? Or anyone know of any good Beo focused forums?

I realise that it probably isn't financially sensible to spend a lot getting this going, but I'd like it of I could sort it for him for next to nothing and give it to him to enjoy now that the evenings are drawing in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W0Oe5OpZbc

[Barry]

A replacement stylus will be hard to find, and a (used) replacement MMC5 cartridge will cost about £140: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284518661281?hash=item423ea23ca1:g:KEMAAOSw-Dxhhlcu

As to repair of the turntable, our resident B&O expert might be able to help. His forum name is "Beobloke" and his given name is Adam. He certainly knows his stuff.


(Is it possible to bend the wire rod slightly so it clears the platter where it passes underneath?)

[sessylU]

Aye, we have a good cartridge (or it least it was good before the whole unit fell off the table...) but will need to get it retipped. I've tried to explain that this might not be the best bang for buck in terms of audio quality. They guy isn't an audiophile or anything, and I reckon he would probably get as much enjoyment out of this unit sitting in his living room as he would out of £200 worth of better sounding separates. So I suppose in that sense, it maybe does represent value. Thinking in terms of "enjoyment per pound spent" as opposed to "sound quality per pound spent."

Does Adam post/lurk regularly? I don't want to pester him with a PM if he's likely to happen across this thread anyway!

[sessylU]

(Is it possible to bend the wire rod slightly so it clears the platter where it passes underneath?)

Possibly, but I don't want to knacker the whole thing by doing so. To be honest, I'm not sure how audible it would be with all the panels back on and music playing (if it's a problem, fix it by simply cranking the amp!). But I don't want him spending the money then have this develop into a bigger problem in a couple of months time.

I'm wondering if even a smear of grease/vaseline on the underside of the platter isn't a terrible idea....

[Barry]

Since you have titled the thread "Beocentre 2422 Repair", I expect Adam will see this and respond, especially as he has just recently acquired some B&O.

[sessylU]

I managed to fix this. Across the course of the day, I tried a few things and I don't know if any one thing made the difference of whether it was a cumulative thing. I could feel the casting marks on the bottom of the sub platter, so I took this out and polished it so that there were no more high or rough spots. This was fairly labour intensive, probably ineffective, but kinda therapeutic to do. One of the three plastic retainer posts was also rubbing occasionally, so I shaved a mil or two of the plastic away with a very sharp knife. Probably the biggest (and simplest) "fix" though, was to do with that wire rod. I noticed there are two cables running over the top of it, and that these were retained by two posts. The rod runs underneath the cables between the two posts. One of the cables had some slack at the other side of one of the posts. I tugged a little of this slack so that it now hung between the posts, and then positioned it so that it gently relocates the rod just clear of the platter. No more noises.

I'm a bit annoyed with myself that I didn't spot such a simple fix sooner, but hey.

Now I just need recommendations on who to go to for a retip.

http://bestnetworx.com/uploader/files/740/beo1.jpeg

http://bestnetworx.com/uploader/files/740/beo2.jpeg

http://bestnetworx.com/uploader/files/740/beo3.jpeg

[Barry]

Regarding re-tipping, there are three outfits that can offer this service in the UK:

Expert Stylus Company (ESCo) - https://ashtead.cylex-uk.co.uk/company/expert-stylus---cartridge-co-14354067.html

Northwest Analogue - https://www.northwestanalogue.com/cartridge-repairs.html

and Goldring - https://www.goldring.co.uk/goldring-cartridge-repair-refurbishment

I suspect that none of them will be cheap and unfortunately the B&O pickup arm can only carry a B&O cartridge.

[sessylU]

I'm thinking it probably isn't cost effective to retip the current cartridge when Sound-smith offer the SMMC4 for about £180 shipped. Plus customs etc that could possibly go on top of that.

https://www.sound-smith.com/cartridges/bo/smmc4

There is also Scott Nangle or FJS who sell restored cartridges for a little more.

https://snvinyl.co.uk/Bang-Olufsen-MMC-4-Cartridge

https://www.tonabnehmerservice.de/en/B-O-MMC-Cartridge/

[Barry]

I was going to mention Soundsmith, but their offering is a replacement cartridge made by them in the USA and not a repaired design, so may sound different from the original B&O MMC5. But given the cost it is probably the best course of action to take.

[sessylU]

For the sake of clarity, I've since contacted Scott at snvinyl.co.uk and he has confirmed that their carts are brand new, not reconditioned/retipped.

A bit pricier at £242 delivered in the UK, but it also avoids any customs lottery. I haven't ordered anything from overseas since Brexit. Before that when I bought guitars and other gear from USA it would sometimes be fine, sometimes you'd be hit for customs, sometimes customs plus the handling fee.

[Beobloke]

Apologies for the late arrival on this one!

Firstly, you should not have had to do any machining bodgery on the underside of the platter or any of the plastic supports under the turntable. If I had to guess, I'd say that the impact of being dropped has knocked the suspension out of kilter or possibly damaged one or more of the supports. Still, if it's working now, that's the main thing.

As to cartridges, I'd personally go with a re-build in Germany - I'm really not a fan of the looks or sound of the SoundSmith versions. In addition, I realise that the unit has sentimental value but do think carefully before spending this sort of money on it. The Beocenter 2200 was a largely Japanese product with very little B&O DNA in it apart from the turntable mechanism. The amplifier has built-in loudness compensation that cannot be turned off and it has none of the normal Link system connectivity. What I'm trying to politely say is that B&O made some of the best music centres out there but, sadly, this wasn't one of them!

[sessylU]

Thanks for the advice. Very much appreciated!

I agree about the limitations of the system. I remember the last time I "fixed" it being disappointed with the sound.

I appreciate the advice that a rebuild in Germany would probably result in the best product, but I'm wondering if it's worth the extra money it would take or if it would be noticed. For that reason I'm sort of leaning towards the Sound-Smith.