This section contains a collection of articles by Anthony Garza. Anthony used to run B&O repair shop in Texas, called Beomuse. His site at www.beomuse.com contained a collection of interesting and well-written articles, but as he explains on his current home page, that site has now been shut down, and his articles are inaccessible.

We have retrieved what we can from the Internet Archive, so now Anthony’s articles are accessible again. We hope you enjoy them.

Why Bar Ditch? According to Anthony: Texas slang for a roadside ditch less than 6 feet in depth to collect excessive rain usually found on farmroads near cotton fields. If your vehicle gets caught in one, you usually just sit and think for awhile until a friendly tractor comes along to pull you out. The term “bar” may suggest a good time to enjoy a beer as you wait!

Sixteen Years Old and Not Your Average Teenager

Britney and her father Ralph (I like that name Ralph!) called me at home about a month ago concerning a possible repair on a Beomaster 1900. Britney picked up that machine for $15 at a Disabled American Veterans Thrift Store in Wyoming. (Hey, don’t knock it! I picked up an ADS C2 cassette machine at a DAV for $38 just to compare it to my Beocord 5000. The 5000 won.) She said that Bang and Olufsen was a name she was not familiar with and dug through the internet looking for information about how to get the 1900 fixed since no one in her area was willing to take it in for repair. Even if it couldn’t be fixed she told me that it was a beautiful stereo and would look great “just sitting somewhere”.

In a cautious manner I attempted to qualify a 16 year old as a B&O owner. “After all,” I told her. “A 1900 can only produce about 25 watts of power on a good day.” This didn’t ring in her head but Ralph interjected by mentioning that Britney is a calm, cool and collected kid. She’s just not the sort of teenager to run 25 watts for all its worth. Charlotte Church, YoYo Ma, Enya and Enya’s sister Moire Brennan were just a few of the artists she enjoys listening to. Well, maybe this 16 year old WAS a good candidate for a teeny-tiny and beautiful 1900.

I quoted a price of $200 for a complete refurbishment and test of the machine. Ralph said that he would pick up any amount that Britney was short on. They sent it in to Beomuse.

Wow. Not bad on the outside. Veneer in excellent shape and the aluminum panels were almost pristine. The protective film on the lighting fascia was about to come apart but that was of no concern. A strip of clear shipping tape was pressed against the fascia and a fast pull removed most of the film. Denatured alcohol removed the remnants of film and a smooth polishing finished the fascia to a near perfect finish.

And how lucky this young woman is! The 1900 was of a later model with the 128 step volume board! Can’t get much luckier! Bringing the 1900 up on a Variac transformer didn’t show a sign of any direct shorts in standby mode but when P5 was selected the unit went directly into standby. Hmmmm. Problems here.

An hour of troubleshooting ascertained that one of the output Darlingtons was slightly resistive allowing a tiny amount of DC current to trigger the protection circuit. Less than $10 in Darlingtons cured that problem. Now to replace all of the front panel light bulbs. The Bass, Treble and Balance controls were of a later design which rarely show any sort of failure and they sounded very clean with no trace of “scratchiness”. Beomuse included a pair of DIN plugs with 10 feet of speaker wire just to make the transition to B&O easier for Britney and Ralph.

Forty-Eight hours later and Beomuse certified Britney’s 1900 as “Ready for Music”. Ralph told me that Britney worked her tail off at her part-time job in a women’s clothing store. He didn’t have to shell out a single cent to help pay for the refurbishment but he wanted to invest in return-shipping regardless.

Britney has a very nice 1900 with a Two-Year Warranty somewhere in her parents’ home. I know because Ralph says he likes that machine as much as his daughter does. The wife also thinks its kinda neat, too. Right now he’s thinking about a pair of small B&O speakers to go with the 1900. I recommended that he keep his eye out for a pair of S 45s and when the time came a Beomaster 8000 might be in his den’s future.

One last thing. I sent Britney a Christmas Gift yesterday… a custom cable to connect her CD player to the 1900. That was one minor concern she had. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone had a daughter like Britney? And then again, I wonder what the CD player won’t be connected to any more?

© Copyright Anthony Garza, used with permission.

Beomuse received a call from Mr. King of Santa Fe in mid October of 2001. For three years his CD 50 was considered industrial art, and that’s about all. A bad laser pickup was keeping it from operating and the part was not available.

The chance that a CD 50 has a bad pickup is rather rare. The laser block in a CD 50 can be described in two words… RO-BUST. Any heat from the laser diode itself is sinked directly to the laser block itself which is a huge, tough block of solid metal. Laser diode wear is minimalized over many years. Unless a CD 50 is operated 8 hours a day for 10 years the chance of a bad laser block is quite rare. It is a well thought-out machine, that CD 50. Admittedly, it has undergone many modifications from the factory… versions A, B and C that we know of. This is of no consequence. The CD 50 was truly improved as time went on until the CD 5500 took over as the B&O flagship CD player.

When Beomuse received the CD 50 from Mr. King we noticed a traditional “click click click” noise coming from the laser block as it tried to find info about the compact disc we asked it to play. Using an oscilloscope to monitor the “eye pattern” of the laser coming off of the block proved that the laser diode was operative to some extent. Moving the oscilloscope sample to the Focus Circuit showed a smooth signal hovering around 0 volts which is normal. When we placed the oscilloscope probe on the Radial Circuit we saw where the main problem was… the signal was shooting heavily toward negative. It should hover around 0 volts just as the focus circuit.

The CD 50 uses a traditional Philips/Sony approach to catching the laser off of the CD except that the CD 50 is more Japanese in its thinking by using a 3-beam system. Many folks believe that a laser signal reflects off of the CD in a “black and mirror” style. In reality, the “pits” on a CD are actually tiny “valleys” as deep as one-half of the wavelength of the laser. When a valley is sensed the laser returns an out-of-phase condition which nulls the signal to the target system in the laser block. The target system contains 6 photodiodes sensitive to the laser wavelength.

Four of those diodes are placed in a 2×2 matrix and they handle the actual laser signal to the digital processor in the CD player. It is also used as the focus error reference to tell the laser lens to move in-and-out at an extremely accurate rate so that the pits are read with reliability. The reason the focus error is necessary is due to the fact that no CD is ever perfectly flat.

The other two diodes are placed on the outer sides of the 2×2 matrix… one on each side. Because a CD is also never perfectly round where the pits are concerned, the laser objective lens must also move from side-to-side in order to track the pits. Imagine an automobile being driven directly over the white lines of a road. As the road turns left and right the car must be steered in order to stay over the white lines. The radial tracking system does the same thing as the car over the white lines. Since the radial circuit was shooting negative, this could be compared to a car which will only steer straight or to the left but never to the right. Can’t really do any serious driving this way!

Beomuse measured the junctions of the 6 photodiodes from the PC board itself in the CD 50. Only five of them were responding. Truly, this would tell us that the laser block was “bad”. However, we decided to measure the 6 photodiodes DIRECTLY as the laser block target. We found 6 good ones. The problem was obvious. There was a bad wire or cable between the laser block and the PC board.

It turned out to be a bad flex cable on the laser block. We located the bad connection and jumpered with silver-plated insulated wire. The wire was cut to an exact length to allow for any delay between the two radial sensing diodes since the laser wavelength is extremely short.

After the wire was installed we inserted a CD. Voilà! What a CD 50! All it needed was a full alignment of all the circuits and it worked very well.

As a matter of fact, the Eye Pattern of the laser was superb! Much better than the one in our Beomuse Collection!

Mr. King told us that we made his day when we called to say that the CD 50 was resurrected. Before we shipped the unit back to him we prepared a test CD to show how well his machine tracked and played. We called to see how he liked the repair. He was quite pleased to be listening to CDs on his 5000 system once again.

(As always, use a TrippLite Isobar or an equivalent device on your AC lines. This will help to protect the very rare microcontroller in the CD 50.)

© Copyright Anthony Garza, used with permission.

“Performance doesn’t last so put your money in beauty. Just look at your grandma.” – Arthur Rogers Garza (Anthony’s late grandfather)

I have never made it a point to churn out scuttle about products in the audio marketplace with only a few exceptions. Although Nakamichi is out of business at the time of this writing I have great respect for a certain element of their repair business which sticks with me to this day. As a matter of fact I have original documentation of this issue in my Keepsake Krate concerning a “bad” machine out of the box back in 1980 or so. I have the first sentence of that documentation committed to memory… “This is a very difficult letter for us to write.”

I have much respect for a company which admits to certain problems and Nakamichi was definitely the champion of prim-and-proper public relations in the audio field. But enough about Naka. I have a story to tell here.

Just as any other run of the mill Texan I enjoy hitting garage sales (rummage sales for you folks on the East Coast and Canada) in my spare time hoping to find that special B&O unit that someone’s grandfather brought back from Europe on his military tour of duty. On one special garage sale endeavor I came across something fascinating outside of my B&O interests and I couldn’t understand why this machine was in such an offering. According to the owner this particular CD player would not work and he didn’t want it anymore. I knew darned well that the original list price of this machine was well over $3000 and the price tag was a measly $50. I bought it after “talking audio” with the seller for about an hour over a cup of coffee. I was offered a real coffee mug and not a styrofoam cup. You see, I was a special buyer since no one earlier in the day cared to give the $50 tag a second look.

When I opened the machine for inspection the following week it was determined that the seller was correct. This CD player wouldn’t do a single thing. After a couple of hours of prodding the circuitry without a manual I decided to use common sense and replaced two capacitors which appeared to be “good” when measured out of circuit but for some crazy reason they would fail when asked to be charged. This machine fired up immediately and began to create some very nice sound. I tested the machine continuously for a week and then packed it into the car to be returned to the original owner. The owner was hesitant about my report since the machine had been sent to the factory on two occasions and had eventually been written off by him as citric fruit. I offered the owner a special deal since I didn’t care for the general “look and feel” of this machine. If he was not satisfied with the machine after 30 days I would come back and take the machine. If he decided to take the machine back then I would ask for my $50 plus $100 for my time. The owner agreed to my terms which basically took no money out of his pocket but he added a Texas-style stipulation to our oral contract… if I took it back I had to treat him to dinner at a restaurant of my choice. In the end I didn’t have to buy him dinner and he increased my wallet by $300! He told me that $300 was a very cheap investment to have this machine back in good working order.

Two years have gone by and his machine still performs well although I believe it is one of the most homely CD players I’ve ever seen. I should know.. I’m rather homely myself! However, $3000+ gives anything a certain attraction, I suppose. This fellow is now a B&O owner as well. He has heard stories about B&O being too expensive for what you get. Well, experience is worth a lot of moolah and he is wiser for not listening to Scuttlebutt talk of late. He is convinced that the refurbished Beogram CD 6500 he purchased from Beomuse can perform as well as his esoteric ugly duckling for about the same original bucks.

A friend of mine passed away in February 2003 and most of his esoteric audio gear was up for sale by the surviving family. Naturally all the audiophiles in the area showed up to see what was available for sale. One of the audiophiles was a local non-B&O dealer who trashed my B&O interest when I brought up the issue. My late friend believed that B&O was “too pretty” for his tastes but was good stuff in any event. I didn’t want to bring up the issue of the $3000+ CD player since I wasn’t interested in starting an argument in a grieving house.

So, remember… Grandpa married Grandma because he thought she was beautiful. I have always thought so, too. I have heard stories from the family that Grandpa also thought Grandma had a great clod-chunking arm as a child. Yeah, those red haired Irish gals can pop a tin can at 20 yards easy.

© Copyright Anthony Garza, used with permission.

“Don’t let these clothes fool you! I’ve got money!” – Paul R. Beane, famed Lubbock Broadcaster

Occasionally on the internet B&O collectors are miffed at certain comments made toward various B&O products. In particular, the CD X. The CD X has been accused of being a “shadow” of the Philips CD100. Take a look for yourself.

Well, the basics are there. Indeed the CD X is a much prettier box. If we go further we can say the famous ReVox B225 CD player uses the same transport as the CD100. I know because I have seen it after tearing down a ReVox for comparison. As for the Philips CD100, where in the United States will I be able to see one? Probably the same place I might find Danish Chilli.

So, how far should we complain about such issues? Philips is indeed a very strong company and manufactures machines with a high percentage of parts manufactured from their own resources. It is impossible to begin a short discussion on shadows in the audio world… the discussion would last well into the next daybreak if not the next decade. And I really need more sleep!

If we look at the automotive world we can see such variations on themes. When a particularly nice car comes out (Mazda Miata/MX-5, for instance) the first owners in any community stand out. After more of these cars are found on the street the excitement dwindles down until the Miata MegaForce Option is released. Then the original trendsetters become passe motorists. Further, specialty custom shops are willing to turn any passe automobile into a “one of a kind”. Once the passe automobile begins to bounce at the flip of a button under the dashboard supreme shadowing is a reality. With my Hyperbo 5CD I am as guilty as sin but I would NEVER do such a thing to a CD X unless performance improvements or parts problems are an issue. I hope when I am dead and gone that my CD X does not become a boat anchor. It would look nice just sitting there somewhere.

You can tell how good a bad joke is by the number of moans it produces. Let me hit you with a really good moaner… “What do you call a Chinese woman who works for the postal service?… Mai Ling”. You can also tell how good a custom automobile is by how many speeding/acceleration tickets a 17 year old mook has to the car’s credit.

I recall reading an article about an automotive executive who had a very nice classic vehicle in storage. On one occasion he took a friend to see the car. The executive was not aware that some of his engineers had toyed with the car and turned it into a real Los Angeles Barrio Wagon as a joke! Talk about the shadows and laughs over that Curtain of Charity! Weird to say the least!

The CD X is just plain weird and beautiful. The PLAY button is actually a Power button. The Play command is truly a Play command. Weird… two play functions! The Stop command is actually a Pause command. The servo board is alien and very discrete. The decoder board is what we usually like to see in a CD player… lots of CD specific chips. Unlike the CD 3300 which can be tested via software commands and individualization of PC boards the CD X must be tested as a complete unit. For goodness sake, the front control panel microprocessor sends a reset pulse to the slave microprocessor! This makes for a very difficult machine to troubleshoot at times. This is particularly annoying when an untrained technician accidentally installs the I2C command lines into an empty adjacent slot without thinking. The result? A burned out front panel microprocessor due to 12 volts DC being sent directly into one of the I2C lines. Ouch. Usually the LED display and LED driver chip may survive such catastrophe so the final cash investment is under $100. If the LED display and the MM driver chip go we can add up to $150 for a full repair of this accident. I recall the first time I saw the “empty slot” and it threw me for a loop. Thank goodness I questioned the CD X on this point at that time. I didn’t charge my client for the extra 30 minutes it required to understand the empty slot issue.

All in all the CD X is a pretty keen machine. If Carroll Shelby doesn’t own one then he might not know anything about Mustangs! He sure knows his chilli, though!

© Copyright Anthony Garza, used with permission.

If you look it up in your Funk and Wagnalls the word “engineer” has many meanings. One meaning that is only common to Star Trek fans is “someone who is always changing things”. This famous line comes from Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in the first Star Trek movie which is definitely NOT one of my favorites.

(I guess I should explain… V-Ger is nothing more than a rehashing of the old “Changeling” episode from the 60s. Gene Roddenberry was not an engineer. Didn’t change things, rest his soul.)

I noticed today that our garbage bins did not have any plastic liners in them. I thought that perhaps our housekeeper was getting a bit lazy but I learned later that she couldn’t find the liners. Turned out my wife Lauri had moved them from under the kitchen sink into the drawer where we keep our coffee filters and oven mitts. The sad thing here is that when I called our housekeeper she thought that maybe we were in financial straits and couldn’t afford to buy liners. This of course causes undue concern with our housekeeper. If the liners are first to go will she be the next to go? Nope. Things just change when you’re married so its a perfectly engineered situation.

Ford and many other carmakers do the same thing every year. I recall when the first “depress brake pedal in order to leave Park” units were first made. It took me a good 10 minutes to figure that one out even though there was a tiny label on the dashboard which stated the obvious. I would have felt more comfortable if the label had read “Familiarize yourself with this vehicle’s owner’s manual. Engineers have been at work.” No wonder I enjoy those lazy Sundays when I can zoom along country farm roads in my 1977 Lancia Montecarlo Scorpion. No engineering in that car. Everything is as normal as normal can get.

B&O is no exception. Service manuals regularly have their quirks but B&O is one of the best companies to let technicians know about changes in circuitry. One of our clients, Roger Kaufman, sent in a Beomaster 5000 for refurbishment which had an unusual circuit which I couldn’t find in the manual or any of the attached bulletins. Dave Kmiec at B&O answered the question after a little research into his files. A small change had been made to the 5 volt regulator circuit in order to correct problems associated with bad service from power companies. Wow. What a great group of engineers B&O has! Making corrections to correct a problem which is completely out of their control! Engineering to the max, here. My wife would be proud to have engineers over for dinner to discuss the benefits of moving ice cream dippers into the cabinet which houses salt, pepper, sugar, coffee, Ovaltine, canned cat food, etc. The idea here is that the ice cream is in the refrigerator and the cabinet is closest to the refrigerator. Can’t argue with that one. I should mention that Lauri has moved two bowls into this cabinet. At least she’s thinking of her husband. If she only moved one bowl I would feel that I was not invited to have ice cream.

Keep your wife out of your toolbox, particularly the tools which are used for business use. Buy her a toolbox of her own and make sure she doesn’t have access to tools which are the bread and ice cream of your business! And never, never, never borrow her nail polish remover as an emergency solvent for Loctite. You will NEVER hear the end of it.

(My wife’s toolbox has a butter knife in it. Would someone PLEASE explain that one to me. I am afraid to ask.)

© Copyright Anthony Garza, used with permission.

“There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service, that would turn it into work and then they would resign. The boy mused awhile…” Mark Twain, from Chapter 2 of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”

It’s no secret that some of the webpages on Beomuse.com have caused good and bad feelings among B&O collectors and B&O professionals. Most of those comments are directed toward the stories presented in the Bar Ditch section and it doesn’t surprise me!

It is important to understand that many technicians and engineers can be absolutely loony at times and it is a natural thing. One of my bedtime leisures is to work a crossword puzzle (diagramless, preferably) immediately following a rerun of Star Trek Voyager. I allot 30 minutes of puzzle time and then off to dreamland by midnight. Trying to come up with a simple word via an obscure definition is mind wrenching at times and I never look for the answers in the back of the book. Why? Because many B&O units don’t offer the same luxury. Answers and solutions have to be found thus working on B&O units is quite similar to the enjoyment of the crossword puzzle. Challenging.

But more challenging has been my past particularly at Hi-Fidelity in Lubbock back in the early 1980s. I can say without any discussion that any remnants of a hairbrush that have found their way into a piece of electronic gear should NEVER be mentioned to a client particularly to the gentle ladies in the audience. I had to learn this the hard way after being told by Hi-Fidelity’s manager that any remnant particle (coins, Matchbox toys, paper clips, etc.) must be returned to the owner since it is their property. Not so for human hair. Just place it in the trash bin and no-one is the wiser.

I recall a client who walked into Hi-Fidelity making a comment about my necktie. He said with a grin, “Is that Mickey Mouse tie representative of your quality of service?”. I negated and claimed that the tie was representative of my quality of life. Before this fellow passed into eternal rewards in 1988 we had become very good friends and I regularly snookered him out of a few bucks and dinners at fine restaurants via the local golf course. You see, I’m not a good golfer when money’s on the line but when a steak dinner is challenged, well look out Birdland! Thanks for the memories, Charles!

My favorite customer was Susan Klingler, an avid collector of live snakes and a woman with a Beovox passion. Back in the days two pair of S45 speakers connected to a Yamaha receiver wasn’t a good idea and I eventually had to be the mediator for this issue. Salespeople didn’t know these little problems at the time. When I finally completed repairs on the receiver Miss Klingler brought a wonderful gift… homemade cookies. I will never forget this wonderful woman and her persistence in arguing with audio salespeople. I haven’t seen her in over 20 years but hopefully she is doing well and is very happy. I’ll never forget her snakes, that’s for sure!

Carl Isett is currently a big time State Politician from our area. Heck of a nice guy and really liked him. Not many people are aware that Carl loved Harley-Davidsons and one of his favorite comedians was Al Franken. Carl’s a good guy although he used to refer to me as “my technician”. It used to bug me when he said that to clients but I will let him call me as such for as long as he wants. Carl was instrumental in my general approach to dealing with people.

Standing behind Carl with the classic bunny joke is Vanessa “Saunshi” Leach. Vanessa taught me to count up to “10″ in Japanese. She also was a major source of inspiration where matters of management are concerned. Each morning Vanessa would report on our shop’s status. When I began work at Hi-Fidelity there were many machines in “store stock” which needed repair for our demo sales area. Vanessa made it her conquest to arrange repair and alignment for each and every one of these machines. I didn’t know it at the time but she needed a place to keep her purse and the shelves were all full! Vanessa also practiced the latest dance crazes in the parts room where no one could see her! All I can say is that she was a very good dancer. After Vanessa’s 90-day employment period she arranged to visit with management about her performance. The meeting lasted only 30 seconds. Apparently, management had waived her 90-day checkup without any official notice. She was an excellent employee and eventually moved to Whitson-King Food Brokers in Lubbock. Vanessa taught me a great lesson in electronic life… if you don’t enjoy it, get out of it.

Keld Hanssen of Bang and Olufsen passed through Lubbock one day and I spent some time working on a Beomaster 8000 with him. We eventually found a renegade staple which had lodged in the FM section. I liked the way Keld spoke when we measured digital signals. “Do it go low? It DO go low.” Keld taught me something very important. Only use a schematic as a general guide because a loose staple from a customer’s residence isn’t in the service manual. I know that the staple was not a problem on the B&O assembly line because of the size of the staple. Danish staples are completely different including the ones that Martin Olsen uses when he sends me parts from Denmark!

I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the many lessons I learned at Hi-Fidelity. It is very important to remember that if the boss pats you on the back there can be a double meaning intended. But, never ask what the backpat is about! I also learned to stay away from car stereo installers. Luckily the car stereo installer at Hi-Fidelity didn’t have a hammer in his toolbox. I also learned that the best way to get points with the boss is on a very snowy day when no-one is out on the streets and just about every business is shut down. I lived only a mile from Hi-Fidelity and I walked to work in some very thick snow after finding a Volkswagen stuck in the exit ramp from underground parking. Good thing I did. A fellow in a huge (and very expensive) 4-wheeler drove up and spent much cash with us that fateful wintery day.

Probably the greatest lesson I learned at Hi-Fidelity was a simple one… overhead exists but don’t let it get over your head.

© Copyright Anthony Garza, used with permission.

One of the strangest Bang and Olufsen units ever made. Suggested by the design team of Passer and Petersen, only 25 of these units were produced in 1989 primarily based on the CDX-2 chassis. Incorporating a well known external design from the 1930s, the Hyperbo 5CD was an unusual beast to say the least. Standing at only near 20 inches tall the 5CD was best used as a nightstand although it was impractical as such due to the installation of the upper mounted CD mechanism. It would probably be best to describe the 5CD as a “nightstand alarm clock with CD player” since the microprocessor was a very powerful device with up to 99 different timer modes. With AM and FM capability the 5CD should have given Sharper Image something to sweat about but it was never to be realized as such.

The original Hyperbo 5RG Steel from the 1930s was obviously a mono unit whereas the modern 5CD was fitted with stereo speakers which were quite unusual in placement. It didn’t sound bad at all when the listener was lying down. A drawer on the bottom left could house up to 5 CDs in their cases and had a special space reserved for an optional Beocom telephone. On the right side of the unit DIN connectors were added for external speakers along with an additional plug for an electric razor. The DIN speaker connectors were of the “three pin type” traditionally seen on Datalink capable B&O units but the 5CD had no Datalink capability. On the left side of the unit a recessed carrying handle was installed thus suggesting that the 5CD was easily transportable for use on automotive trips or picnics.

Handheld remote control was not available for the 5CD but for some strange reason the “Sound” button on a Beolink 1000 would cause the CD to begin playing if the CD tray was in the loading position.

The most unique contraption in the 5CD is in how a CD is loaded. A touch sensor on the control panel is activated and the hinged top moved to the left while the CD tray lifted upwards. Once a CD was placed on the tray and “Play CD” pressed the tray would descend while the hinged top would close. Clamping of the CD onto the spindle was unbelievably incredible. Two tractor belts would slide a hidden CD clamp from the left of the cabinet into place over the CD and once the hinged cover was completely closed it would cause pressure against the clamp. It worked well and was a very smooth and quiet operation.

An internal power supply was not designed into the Hyperbo 5CD so the use of an external “wall wart” was necessary. The unit could also be powered by 24 “D” size batteries.

With a cost of over $5500 the Hyperbo 5CD was a tough hot-dog to peddle. Serial Number 5 was purchased in 1990 by the late Victor Borge. Only 3 of these units are accounted for and the whereabouts of Borge’s #5 is completely unknown. Rumor has it that Serial Number 7 is in the MOMA but records verifying this fact do not exist. Those fortunate enough to own a Hyperbo 5CD are lucky, lucky, lucky. You won’t find these babies on eBay anytime soon.

(The unit shown is Serial Number 13 and comes from the Martin Olsen Collection on loan to Beomuse for a length of time to be determined at a later date.)

© Copyright Anthony Garza, used with permission.

We’ve just completed a tally of our repair statistics for 2002 and out of 48 “microprocessor problems” only 1 machine required a new micro. The other 47 only had reset circuit problems. Just last week Dr. Gil Stein sent in a Beomaster 5000 with no response from the front panel. Turns out this machine had a 33ufd capacitor collapse and the reset pulse wasn’t being sent to the micro.

A fellow in Seattle contacted us in March 2003 about the possibility of Beomuse having a micro for sale in regard to the Beomaster 6000. We did but we felt that it would be a good idea for his machine to come in for service and verify the need for a micro. Nope… reset circuit, and very common in the Beomaster 6000. The adjusting pot can get dirty and the reset pulse won’t be seen.

I suppose the lesson here is very clear. Just because data pulses aren’t there doesn’t necessarily mean that a micro is bad. Our experience has shown that B&O micros are very tough. The reset circuitry, just as in many other brands of equipment, is prone to failure.

What is a reset circuit? Just about any microprocessor requires a “suspended operation” mode when 5 volt logic signals are building up when a machine is first plugged into the AC. It takes a tiny fraction of a second for a proper 5 volt system to get stable. If the micro is booted up during this charging period strange things can happen. The reset pin of the micro is basically a “hold your horses” command for a predetermined amount of time so that the 5 volt system can stabilize. After this period the reset pin is activated and bootup is started. There are many ways to create a reset circuit and B&O has quite a few different means to achieve this for any given machine.

Capacitors will always be an issue here. Capacitors get old and they start to “leak”, either literally or figuratively. A pot in a reset circuit is no different than those in amplifier offset and idle adjusting circuits… they’ll go bad someway or another down the road.

Of grave concern is the 5 volt power system itself. A bad 5 volt system can wreak havoc with a micro. That’s why any machine coming into Beomuse for repair (if it has a micro) gets a full test of the 5 volt system. Micros are getting rare for various machines.

As always, use a TrippLite Isobar or equivalent device to protect your fine Danish investment!

© Copyright Anthony Garza, used with permission.

You just can’t beat the CD 50 when it comes to quality equipment. I really like the spindle motor in the CD 50. Why? Because it is tough and well built!

The motor is a Hall Element controlled device and the stationary coils are quite hefty. The outer magnetic ring is fastened to the rotor which in turn is attached to a solid steel shaft and then on to the CD spindle.

One tiny problem with this motor… dried oil which turns into grease. I have seen quite a few motors with dried oil and although the rotor appears to spin freely upon examination it just doesn’t spin freely enough.

Getting into the motor for cleaning and relubrication is a small problem without the proper tools. Using a hammer or soft mallet to force the shaft from the snug brass locking ring is not recommended. When the magnetic ring breaks or chips from such impact it’s “goodbye motor”. The best solution is to remove the spindle and then the entire motor assembly. A special jig can be built which will allow proper pressing of the shaft from the brass locking ring. Its a force fit so smooth pressing will do the job with ease.

Once the brass ring is cleared the shaft/rotor can slide out from the brass bushings. A good cleanup with naphtha gently applied with a wooden swab will free the system from dried oil. A small thrust washer on the shaft can be removed and cleaned separately. A small dot of machine oil on the washer and then inside the brass bushing carrier will be plenty for many more years of service.

The improvement of free-spin on this motor is quite evident. Focus and radial adjustments are much different! The CD spins and holds well. All it takes is a wee bit more spin thanks to new oil.

When the lower clamping system hits the CD to the spindle the entire rotor will raise slightly and then fall back down to normal height. This small rise is critical on the brass locking ring which can’t be too close to the motor and not too far away which will interfere with the proper 4.9mm clearance between spindle and chassis. I have a CD 50 which has been running for three years now after a good spindle motor cleanup. My wife uses it daily for at least an hour.

Our CD 50 clients have been treated to this “impossible to service” motor refurb. After all, if the motor’s bushings and shaft are in good shape, why buy a new expensive motor which probably has dried oil from sitting on a parts shelf for a few years?

On many occasions I have seen CD 50s come into our shop with this problem being the only cause of annoyance. Sometimes a tiny bit of tweaking is required, but not often.

© Copyright Anthony Garza, used with permission.