9300 & Pentas

4 replies
Hi all, just looking for a straw pole on how people use their equipment. I have a BC9300 with two Penta 3s connected. (Who doesn’t love a good Penta!) Who leaves the BC and Pentas plugged into the power and in standby mode while not in use? I normally unplug it all but have been thinking of only unplugging the Pentas to give the amp power supplies a rest? As an aside and which may be of interest I have an apple AirPort Express plugged into the Aux socket and stream tunes from my phone. That nearly brings things up to date and lets me choose from a world of music and give those Pentas a workout. cheers Nick

Location: Lincolnshire UK

Hi Nick, I cannot salute your match-up enough. Penta 3 love the BC 9300 and I like the sound of your streamer connection with Apple Express too! Regarding the stand-by opton it's something B&O designed into their products from this era, so it should be the best way. But I too go for periods where I shut down everything for a few days (Penta 2 and BS6500), often midweek, to allow components to cool off. Whether it's right or not I don't know, but it feels like I'm giving the boards and caps a break. I've no idea whether it's effective or not though. Cue the next responder....

Location: Kent, UK

My B&O Icons:

BeoCenter-9500.png BeoCenter-9500.png
Beoremote-Beo4.png Beoremote-Beo4.png
Beosound.png Beosound.png
Beoplay-H3.png Beoplay-H3.png
Beomaster.png Beomaster.png
Beofan for many years with a penchant for 1990s audio systems.
Great set up, as pepps said!  I also use Airport Express, although currently plugged into a BeoSound 1 (older CD/radio type).
Although I currently have the BC and Speakers on the same plug I will change that so I can leave the BC on standby to maintain the saved settings, although it does needs the battery changing now.  I will put the Pentas on a remote switch so I can rest the power supply when not being used.   I am working through re-capping and foaming my other Penta set and then in turn this set, to refresh them for another 30 years.  So I want to give them as easy life as possible hence turning them off.  Encouragingly, after 30 years of use the pair I have re-capped showed no signs of significant degradation, the max was 20% variation on the nominal capacitance of some of the capacitors, but no bulging, weeping or heating.  What I have seen though is the mid range L3 coil on the crossover degrading by possibly getting hot, so I have ordered some new ones and will change them too.

Location: Lincolnshire UK

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