Beovox 5000

(1967-1969)

Type number: 6206

This speaker was designed for the Beolab 5000 system and was itself a development of the style first seen in the Type K loudspeaker. However, the Beolab 5000 amplifier produced considerably more power than this earlier speaker could handle. Beovox 5000 went through three incarnations during its six year life. The first of these was a seven unit speaker with a large 12” bass unit, two round midrange units and a vertically stacked array of four 2” tweeters. In addition, a connection was provided for the famous Beovox 2500 cube tweeter. This recognised the fact that the small cone tweeters were by their very nature extremely directional, so Beovox 2500 was designed to allow a broader sound stage. Plugging in the 2500 disconnected the tweeters in the 5000. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

There were two potentiometers mounted on the rear of the cabinet next to the plug for the tweeter which allowed manipulation of the frequency response for midrange and treble. Position 3 allowed an extremely flat response between 50Hz and 20,000Hz. The crossover was accessed by removing the bass driver which was held in place by four external brackets. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

A fairly solid perforated metal front panel was fitted with a cloth cover. Some idea may be given of the quality of the finish of the cabinet, available in rosewood, teak or oak, by the fact that the B&O badge was gold plated! The cabinet was supported by four short legs. The finish of the first incarnation of Beovox 5000 seemed to be the best of the three. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

(1970-1971)

Type number: 6216

For the MK II version of Beovox 5000, the vertical array of tweeters and the two midrange units were replaced by a single oval midrange unit, 12.5x18cm in size and two tweeters mounted on a bracket and angled at about 60 degrees to each other. On the back of the speaker, only the midrange adjustment remained. The rest of the cabinet was very similar to the previous type. The advantage of this later model should be that the dispersion of the higher frequencies produced by the tweeters covers a wider area. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

(1972-1974)

Type number: 6223

For the final type of Beovox 5000, the bass unit remained the same and the midrange oval unit was also retained. However the treble units were changed for two 2” dome units and one 1” dome tweeter. The adjustment of the frequency response of the loudspeakers now included the treble potentiometer again as well as the midrange unit. The connection for the now less important Beovox 2500 remained. Interestingly the finish of the rear panel was not as good in this last incarnation. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

For their time these were excellent speakers, with a powerful and extended bass. They were replaced by the similarly sized Beovox 5700 in the new B&O line up. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.