• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

B&O S45.2 with Beocenter 9000

J

Johnnz

New Member
Hi im currently running a mint pair of Beovox S45.2 speakers with stands and powered by a Beocenter 9000.

Wondering what your thoughts are about the setup and if anyone has had any experiences with it and how they rate compared to similar hifi speakers?

Also what the system is worth it is all in mint condition and have just added a Dali Concept 12 inch subwoofer as I cant find or afford a B&O subwoofer!

Looking at adding some rear speakers to the setup any suggestions? Was thinking of using some CELESTION DITTON 44 SPEAKERS for the front and the s45.2 speakers for the rear or is that going to be a waste of time? Maybe need to find some S60 or S75 B&O speakers?

Any comments/feedback is much appreciated thanks :)
 
Last edited:
Register to hide this ad
Speakers, always a matter of personal preference.

For B&O, if have an old set of M70, which sound quite neutral to me, I like them very much.

As the fronts were not easy to take off without damage I had no chance to visually inspect the drivers beforehand. I was lucky they are all still good.
Something to think about when buying old speakers, in general.
 
I can get a pair of beovox s120 speakers would they be better for my fronts then my current s45.2 speakers
 
Not a bad system, but you could probably get much better sound for about the same amount of money if aesthetics aren't terribly important to you. I find the B&O stuff to be generally overpriced now, just as it was when it was new.

I had a pair of S75 and M70 speakers along with a Beomaster 8000, Beocord 9000, and Beogram 8002. The 8002 sounded fantastic. Everything else: meh. The S75 and M70 were decent but not great speakers in my opinion. The M70 sounded better than the S75. I sold them for $200 a set. You can buy Polk SDA 2Bs for that price, which sound many levels better, for instance. But, I must admit, they had beautiful veneer.

With B&O, it seems you either get it or you don't. I don't get it. My advice would be to sell the speakers and take that money along with whatever you were going to spend on rears and invest in one good set for the fronts. The Polks are the best value in vintage speakers, but the 30 wpc Beocenter will explode trying to drive them. Maybe some Klipsch Forte or Chorus? Those are big speakers but easy to drive with low power. Or if you're not in love with B&O you could sell the whole thing and start fresh. Although you'd need to source another cassette deck and CD player if that's important to you.
 
I sold Bang & Olufsen for about a decade, and while some of this is newer than what I'm familiar with, I will say that the S-45.2's are a fine speaker. Big difference between the version one and twos. Surprised that you didn't like the Beomaster 8000. Every one I heard, and even sold a few, sounded very nice and it held it's own with most other bigger receivers we sold. B&O's have their issues. They are difficult, at best, to service for many models, reliability is not the greatest, and the cartridges today are priced above what many wish to pay, but there is still enough demand to make them.

B&O surely had a few dogs but so did Polk, which I also sold. Matt Polk always came across as an arrogant jerk, to me anyway, not that it means anything one way or the other. I highly doubt that a Beomaster will blow up trying to drive any of them unless your trying to drive SDA's with a Beomaster 1600 which would be the same issue as trying to drive them with any lower powered receiver.
 
The Beomaster 8000 is a nice unit. Interesting for sure. In fact I gave it to my brother who is quite pleased with it. I just didn't think it was anything special beyond its futuristic look, which I didn't particularly care for. Sound wise, I prefer the Marantz, Pioneer, and Kenwood units from the same era. And those, as you know, are far easier to service.

I don't think the Beomaster 8000 would blow up driving SDAs either. At 100 true watts per channel, it won't sound great, but it will play them. However, the OP says he has a Beocenter 9000 which I believe is only 35 wpc. I wouldn't trust that with SDAs.
 
Well, I think the 9000 is a nice piece, and that wattage will be OK as long as you do not want to crank it up.

First thing I'd look at is whether it will run 4 speakers well - I do not think it will unless they are BeoLabs (Labs have built in amps, Vox do not). Worth trying I guess. Remember - it use weird speaker cable connections, not off the shelf.

It is probably worth $400-500 depending on the market around you.
 
DIN speaker plugs are available in pretty much every online electronics store.

Beovox S45.2's are pretty great speakers for their size, and you will have issues with driving two pairs at higher volumes. The Beocenter 9000 is alright, but it is fairly certain that it wasn't designed to the higher standard of older B&O products. The Beomaster 8000 uses some pretty nice LM353 opamps in the preamplifier section, while the Beocenter 9000 uses bog standard 4558's. The Darlington output amplifier of the Beomaster 3400/4400/1500/6000/8000/5000 is also a much better design than the single chip solution of the Beocenter 9000, where damping factor is a bit compromised. Don't get me started on the power supply, where Beomaster 8000's big torodial can deliver peaks of 700W without sweat.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom