B & O Beolit 707 advice please

[fiesata]

Purchased one of these lovely radios this week to add to my ever growing collection

Seller said it was in need of a good clean - he wasn't wrong I've spent about 5 hours cleaning it the last couple of days but it is looking much better now.

Used a bit of Servisol on the controls which now work much more freely and no crackles

Just a couple of questions if anyone can help - are spares available for these,the on/off and FM buttons have all but lost their print - and having compared it with my Hacker Sovereign III the sound quality is not as good.

Should ths be the case (as quoted specs are excellent) or is there anything to check which may improve this?

Thanks

Paul

[Steve_P]

I don't know about spares for them. But it's obviously been used....

Not as good as another set doesn't give me much to go on. Try getting a manual and setting the bias to the O/P up right. Try another speaker. Try cleaning out the speaker that's in there and the cabinet. Try brand new batteries.

Check the simple things first. B+O rarely go wrong!

Cheers,

Steve P.

[wireful3]

Hello Paul,
I have been collecting B&O portables for some time and have not yet found a source of spares so I think you will have difficulty there. I have just had a look at mine and it looks as if the buttons have silk screened legends so filling with paint is not an option. My best source of spares has been to get a basket case to scrap.

As for the performance, the Sovereign sets a very high standard. Without this comparison would you have been satisfied with the sound?

My experience with the modest priced B&Os I have collected is that performance varies. A good one is excellent and seems to give a cleaner sound, slightly better to my ears than the Sovereign but some are poor. The biggest problem seems to be distortion at high volume and my modest attempts have so far not resolved this. Maybe I should look at the bias on the transistors and also set up the output as Steve suggests. The components are after all 30 yrs old and may have drifted. I have also seen a comment that the foam round the speaker is very important. Looking at the speaker with the case side removed the cone certainly moves a lot so I am not surprised.

I don't know whether anyone else has comments on the performance because I can't separate my expectation of the sound from the solid chunky Sovereign and the more elegant B&O.

[fiesata]

Try getting a manual and setting the bias to the O/P up right. Try another speaker. Try cleaning out the speaker that's in there and the cabinet.

Good advice - I was thinking somewhat along these lines - I bow to the expert knowledge I see on this forum - Thanks

I'm not dissapointed with the B&O in fact it's a stylish and superbly made set, and in the swing of 30+ year old radios sounds superb - but I always like to try and make things better

not yet found a source of spares so I think you will have difficulty there

Thought so John but if you don't ask...

As with Steve's reply thanks for the 'sound' advice. It's been a good few years since I fixed radios for a living but have always enjoyed quality audio so my expectations are high I suppose,if I was new to all this I no doubt I would be impressed - I think it does need setting up correctly so I will do this now the cleaning is finally coming to an end

There are worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon

Thanks for all the advice

Paul

[fiesata]

With a few adjustments the B&O is now back to peak performance and it looks great as well - thanks for all the advice

Paul

[Synchrodyne]

Yes, the Beolit 707 is truly an excellent radio, particularly on FM. I have one that I bought new from Imhofs in 1977, when I was living in London; it cost the then princely sum of £65! It is still going strong. I recall that at the time I compared it with a Hacker – exact model not recalled – and thought that the B&O sounded a bit better.

Until a recent house move at the end of 2008, it served as my home office radio, permanently tuned to 92.9 MHz, ABC Classic FM (more-or-less the local equivalent of BBC Radio 3 and RNZ Concert FM). As we were just beneath the Gore Hill sender, perhaps not surprisingly signal strength was high enough to push the Beolit 707 bipolar front end into cross modulation during tuning, but with careful adjustment and then engagement of the AFC, it was “clean” on-station. The AM side is evidently oriented towards European conditions, with, I think, 4.5 kHz audio bandwidth. However, for listening to ABC Radio National on MF, I simply took a feed from the headphone output of my Sony SRF-A100 small portable (which has a wideband AM facility) into the line input of the Beolit. Similarly, one of my Sony ICF2010s provided a similar feed for occasional listening to BBC World Service.

Right now the said Beolit 707 is in its (original) box, awaiting a decision as to where it will live in the current house.

Buying at Imhofs was, as I recall, a very pleasant experience. I can recall looking at the very good B&O colour televisions on the same floor. I think that they were the last of the delta gun tube models with the 20AX models then known to be on the way.


Cheers,

[fiesata]

Right now the said Beolit 707 is in its (original) box, awaiting a decision as to where it will live in the current house.

If you are short of space I'd be more than happy too give it a good home lol

£65 new - I was only 14 then but that would be a lot of money for a radio of any kind woder what that equates to in todays money?

[Synchrodyne]

Originally Posted by fiesata

If you are short of space I'd be more than happy too give it a good home lol

£65 new - I was only 14 then but that would be a lot of money for a radio of any kind woder what that equates to in todays money?

Thanks much for your kind adoption offer, but I have meanwhile found a space for it!!!

Yes, £65 was a lot of money back then; more than a week's takehome pay as I recall. To put it into a perspective, as best I remember a pint of Ben Truman down at the local was 31 p (although in this case one usually dealt in multiples), weekly rent for a bedsit in Ealing Broadway was £12, and the weekly commuting Underground ticket (to/from Knightsbridge) was £4.20.

Still, I think that I've more than had my £65's worth out of the B&O.

LOL,