Beogram 3000 (Thorens)

This was the turntable used in the professional Beolab 5000 system. It was an undisguised Thorens TD124 Mk II motor unit (it still had Thorens written by the speed control) with a B&O ST/L tone arm mounted on a removable arm board. An SP 9 pickup was fitted and the unit was capable of 4 speeds. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

The motor unit followed the usual Thorens layout with a clutch mechanism which lifted the upper platter and allowed the motor unit to carry on spinning whilst records were changed. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

This was a heavy and high specified unit with no suspension for the platter and isolation for the motor being provided by rubber grommets. The sound quality was excellent with a particularly extended bass and the quality was probably limited by the B&O arm and cartridge. Some owners would replace the arm with the SME 3009 which was in fashion at the time though this rather removed any possible reason for labelling the deck as a B&O. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

The deck was not available for very long, though the Beogram 3000 name was to appear later as the top of the range radial deck in the 1970s and as a tangential deck in the 1980s. These were however all of B&O origin and unlike this version were fully automatic. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

An interesting footnote to this deck was the existence of the Beogram 3000 (Acoustical), bearing the type number 5211. It was similar but had a motor unit supplied by Acoustical of Holland, the B&O importers into that country. This was sold in those markets where Thorens had restricted the sales of their version of the Beogram 3000. The UK market at the time was somewhat less well organised than it is now and although the Acoustical model was the official deck, the Thorens model was also imported. Neither is very common!