B&O Beogram 4004/4002 turntable

Is anybody familiar with the Beogram 4004 or the 4002 linear tracking turntables? circa '78-80.

I have come across the 4004 recently. The owner says it was used for quad setups. I have read a few things online, and was wondering if this is a gem, or nothing special.
I am looking for a turntable to round out my quad setup. Of course I am open to any other ideas.
Is linear tracking always the best way to go??

Thanks,
Chris

Don't bother with anything made by Bang and Oluffson. Their stuff looks nice (award-winning, even), but it's flimsily made, undurable, and expensive to fix. B & O only sends parts to authorized dealers shops directly from Denmark, they maintain no US warehouse. Unless you like the frustration.

Quadwreck is right about the expense of repairing B&O stuff, plus you have to send the cartridge to them to get the stylus replaced (you cannot do it yourself), and you should be prepared to pay about $200 or more for the replacement which will take about 4-6 weeks. As for reliability, a friend of mine has a 4004 which he purchased in 1978 that is still going strong, and he has only had to replace the drive belt. Of course that is only one sample, but I have always been impressed with the sound of the unit. My friend does baby his electronics though, so perhaps with extreme care even flimsy stuff will last. The major problem with linear tracking turntables is that they don't generally tolerate warped records very well, so you should also keep that in mind. For a good classic turntable made for quad, I would go for a re-conditioned Dual 1229Q, they are built like tanks, they have excellent tone arms (even by today's standards), and they have good wow/flutter specs. Expect to pay about $400.00

Does the Dual have CD-4 compatible wiring? I know some of their models didn't.

The Quadfather

Yes, the Dual 1229Q has the proper wiring, as well as anti-skating calibration for Shibata type stylii. That is why Dual designated the model number with a Q, the 1229 doesn't have the calibration, and may not have the wiring. I seem to recall that during a short time in the '70s, most turntable manufacturers outfitted their equipment with 100k ohm wiring to accommodate CD-4. I owned a Pioneer PL-10 turntable which I used for CD-4 for a number of years, and it had the proper wiring.

That's right. Most of the finer turntables made in the late seventies were equipped with CD-4 compatible wiring. It was easier to make them all compatible than just to have a certain model in a line compatible. It added nothing hardly to the expense. You can tell a compatible turntable by the thick cables. They're almost as thick as a video line. If you ever have to put a plug on one, you will usually find a single thin strand of wire for the center conductor. You have to be sure that any pull strain will fall on the shield and not this wire.

The Quadfather

Peeking at the trusty database I see a lot of blank space for the Beogram turntable. However, I do see mention of an "optional plug-in" CD-4 demodulator board.

If this info is accurate and there IS an option board then ensure it is present before buying the TT and expecting to demodulate CD-4.

No info on the quality of the demodulator. Of course, if the board is missing one can use an outboard demodulator.

I bet that CD-4 board is as scarce as chicken teeth.

The Quadfather

The Beogram 400x is the sibling to the European market Beogram 6000, which included the CD-4 demodulator and MMC 6000 CD-4 cartridge as standard equipment. This unit in turn was coupled with the Beomaster 6000 quad receiver, which featured an SQ non-logic decoder. Its FM tuner only went up to 104, making it not suitable for the U.S. market.

I have both of these units. While I think they are the most beautiful quad components ever made, they are indeed high maintenance.

Read more about them at:

www.beoworld.co.uk/beosystem6000a.htm

b&o may be expensive to fix, but i've been quite happy with the one i just got for christmas. i found my parents old beogram 4002 record player with a beomaster 2400 control panel and beovox cx 50 speakers. we had it fixed up with a friend of ours and i can honestly say that the sound quality is better than any cd player i've ever had.

You want the best audiophile linear tracking turntable, then just look at this:
cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI...egory=3283
I have an ST-7 and I can honestly say it is the best sounding turntable I've ever heard. It is beautiful in design as well.