Masterpiece alert! In honour of its 95th anniversary, Bang & Olufsen has restored 95 original units of its legendary vinyl turntable from the 1970s, the Beogram 4000c. SoBARNES takes you on a pilgrimage to Struer (Denmark), in a perfectly executed nostalgic journey.
I'm talking about a time that only those over 45 would recall. Remember back in the 80s? We were all convinced that the tidal wave of the CD would drown the vinyl disk forever. Then things looked even bleaker two decades later with the arrival of music online. Digital was destined to relegate turntables to the dusty shelves of forgotten memories in unvisited museums. Wrong! In 2019, worldwide sales for vinyl records surpassed those for CDs!
And who better than Bang & Olufsen to ride the crest of this comeback? The Danish company is revisiting it’s iconic turntable from the 70s, the Beogram 4000c, as a Recreated Limited Edition. Their goal is as ambitious as it is inspired: to demonstrate the timelessness of the brand’s capabilities in terms of sound, design and expertise, whilst updating new principles that will allow them to extend the life of future products. It’s a sustainable luxury approach we can only applaud. “While most products are considered disposable, at Bang & Olufsen, they’re designed to withstand the test of time”, says Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, the man behind the B&O initiative. This is what sets us apart, what the Beogram 4000c embodies so well and what we want to build on in the future. We've applied the same care to this restoration as you would to any masterpiece”.
Bang & Olufsen's bloodhounds found 95 Beogram 4000s still in their original condition and brought them back to the brand's headquarters in Struer. Like salmon swimming upstream back to their spawning grounds, these turntables have returned to where they were created almost 50 years ago. Disassembled and meticulously inspected by a team of highly skilled engineers honoured by the task, these historic Hi-Fi monuments have been rebuilt with as many of their original components as possible, from the drive belt down to the smallest ball bearing.
The Beogram 4000c Recreated Limited Edition has been given a facelift: the aluminium has been polished and anodised in a warmer champagne tone than it originally had. It is also surrounded by a new hand-crafted solid oak frame and a new dust cover protects it when not in use.
But where we enter into the sublime, mind you, is that when the Beogram 4000 was created, the design team wanted to counter its obsolescence by leaving room for possible future technological updates. Today’s engineers have taken advantage of this foresight and have added a built-in RIAA phono preamplifier, so the turntable can be connected to contemporary speakers! Incidentally, Bang & Olufsen added a new high-performance stylus to the tonearm, based on the original specifications, further enhancing the listening experience.
Each restored turntable is numbered and has a five-year warranty. The price is as high as this marvel is exclusive: €10,000
Info at Bang-Olufsen.com
For you, all that’s left is to answer THE question: which of your beloved vinyls would you listen to first on such a machine? Send us your suggestions at [email protected]
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