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What Have I Got Here Folks? B & O Beogram RX2

I just picked up one of these myself for free this morning. The posting on OfferUp said that it needed work. I figured that meant it needed a new belt or a new cartridge, which I was afraid I would never be able to afford, but as it turns out everything worked. The guy listed it as broken because when he would start it the tonearm would not move to the platter. He must have never tried it with an actual record on it because it works perfectly and has a good cartridge. Score!
 
You may know, they are designed to not drop the needle without an LP in place as a safety precaution.
That's great! A new belt is around $10.
 
As it was, the guy knew that it was a high-end turntable but he had never actually tried putting a record on it because all he could say was that the tonearm wouldn't move to the platter. I brought her home and sure enough it worked like a charm. Makes me a very happy camper!
 
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Nice find! A Beogram RX2 was one of my first 'real' turntables ever. I found it at a local yard sale in 2000 for $5; the MMC5 cartridge had a snapped cantilever, but it was in good shape otherwise. Trying to find a replacement cartridge on eBay, I put in a bid on another MMC5 which ended up going for $150. :eek:

Knowing that my broke college student budget wasn't gonna support that, I asked the owner of the sadly-now-defunct BeoMuse repair shop for help. He said that he'd try and repair my cartridge for me gratis if I sent it to him. I mailed it to Texas, and a few weeks later, he mailed it back, having splinted the cantilever back together. Apart from a bit of sibilance, it actually sounded quite good! Sadly, the suspension in the cartridge gave out several years later, but I'd found a replacement in the meantime. I still have the RX2, though I'm currently using a TX2 in its place.
-Adam
 
Do you mean the tech in Germany? I read about him but I think I'm okay. I looked at the stylus tip with a Jewelers microscope last night and it looks brand new if not a little Dusty. Thank you!
 
Sethbramwell said:
Do you mean the tech in Germany? I read about him but I think I'm okay. I looked at the stylus tip with a Jewelers microscope last night and it looks brand new if not a little Dusty. Thank you!
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It's not always about the stylus tip itself. The main failure of these MMCx cartridges (the older, larger MMCx000 and MMC20x carts don't seem to be as prone to this) is the internal suspension behind the cantilever, within the cartridge itself. Not sure what material it's made of, but it tends to break down over the years, resulting in a cartridge which doesn't track correctly, and/or seems to have lost a channel.

Both the German retipper (and a more local one in Amina Audio, though I haven't heard many reviews of their retips) can remove the old cantilever with its degraded suspension, and replace it with brand new parts to make them work good as new (as long as the coils are still OK, see an Amina page for a testing method to make sure).
-Adam
 
Thanks for the information. I had not known about the problem with the cantilever. I will definitely explore this further.
 
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