Bang & Olufsen Penta. No more foam new rubber surrounds! Ep.08

[@marcusjosefsson4998]

Brought home a pair of Pentas today and started the cleaning process before installing new surrounds. I've done it before on S55's, CX50's and CX100's and it's really tedious work. But worth it!

[@chrisbaker121924]

Pentas are the worst as there are 8 of them 🫣😅

[@marcusjosefsson4998]

@@chrisbaker121924 I finished refurbishing my Pentas last week. The really tedious work was of course removing the old foam and cleaning the drivers, but once that was done it was easy work. With that said I'm glad I went for the rubber surrounds, I prefer not having to do it again. They sound absolutely amazing...

[@AAgunner]

Did you also check the capacitors on the crossovers? Those are not part of the amp, they're hidden in the bottom part of the actual speaker enclosure. So basically above the amps.

[@chrisbaker121924]

Yeah they are passive stand alone speakers with an amplifier bolted to the bottom. Nope I left them alone as the speaker sounds fine. Something I may consider in the future to wake them up perhaps!

[@retropuce3153]

Thanks a lot for the video ! it's simple and clear! I jus acquired some penta and they need refoam !

[@chrisbaker121924]

Good luck! Just take your time with it and expect it to be a bit of a bind doing 8 of them. Lol!

[@Auto_Funk]

Great vid Chris :) I don't bother removing them from the housing when I refoam Pentas, I kind of do it production line style but your method is probably a better and less risky approach!

[@chrisbaker121924]

Ah cheers 🍻 I like to have them to hand to spin them around etc

[@michaelaarhus]

Thanks mate. Refoaming 4 Penta Mk3 this weekend😮

[@chrisbaker121924]

Enjoy! That’s 16 of em 😅

[@michaelaarhus]

@@chrisbaker121924 Thanks! All went fine. 2 speakers have been overhauled with new capasitors and 2 more will be done in a week or so.

[@chrisbaker121924]

@@michaelaarhus fantastic 😊

[@michaelmeisman4731]

The video is great places to get the foam kits would be awesome.

[@chrisbaker121924]

I got them from goodhifi. A shop online, also beoparts have a lot of parts :). Thanks !

[@mikeross5372]

Long shot but worth a try - I have a pair of Pentas, one of the clear plastic covers for the digital displays is missing. Do you know a source of spares, or maybe a design file to 3D print a replacement? Never seen one at Beoparts or anywhere else. Thanks!

[@chrisbaker121924]

@@mikeross5372 are you in the UK? Sorry I don’t know of a source of spares. I have read that people have made them from flat smoked plastic. If you know anyone in a school or university with one of them hot wire plastic bending machines something could be fashioned that could work! Either that or look out for a pair of pentas in poor condition and pinch their lenses, lots of heavily bashed up ones around that have been damaged moving.

[@mikeross5372]

@@chrisbaker121924 thanks - Brit in NZ here. It was worth a try!

[@enriquealvarez3157]

Good evening, my amplifier was damaged... What other amplifier can I adapt or connect to it?

[@DavidToth-re6zw]

High there ,great vid,this is a job I need to do on my Pentas,could you say where you got your surrounds from please

[@chrisbaker121924]

I got the surrounds from good hifi! Beoparts also supply them I believe. The rubber ones I guess are future proof and don’t seem to negatively affect the sound, the mid ranges don’t seem to be working all that hard in the travel in and out department.

[@DavidToth-re6zw]

@@chrisbaker121924 thank you

[@Crashpro89]

Great video! How long would you say it took to do each driver?

[@chrisbaker121924]

Doesn’t take that much time as such, a lot of the time is drying/waiting time… I spent a few 30 min sessions on it. Doing a couple at a time in stages… so one pair would be glueing inside edge, one pair I’d be scraping and one pair would outside edge… and they’d move along the production line like that. The speakers were out of action for 3-4 days ish.

[@enriquealvarez3157]

I decided to eliminate the amplifier that they come with at the bottom and connect them directly to a Sansui amplifier of 100 watts per channel... would it affect the Penta in any way?

[@chrisbaker121924]

They’ll be very happy connected to that. I bet they sound good! Just listen for distortion as now of course the protection system isn’t there.

[@FredB-wd7xb]

Hello, maybe strange question, but if I’m correct you have used standard rubber surrounds. That means that often the roll is too thick for the right replacement of foam. Also the dimensions seems to be not like original. Why did you not take for instance this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5SkY3xjqsaqfNk ? There are a lot of sites on the internet to confirm the story about changing foam to rubber. I’m very interested. Thanks in advance, best regards, Fred.

[@chrisbaker121924]

I got the surrounds from good hifi which specialise in B&O surrounds. They are specially made for pentas. They are really quite fine rubber and felt nothing like thick rubber surrounds. More similar in texture to BL6000 rubber surrounds. My personal experience was there was little to no difference in sound, the pentas sound great as always after the change. But tbh these mid ranges have very little throw on them anyway, since there are 4 of them, individually they aren’t working hard, even at higher volumes. The woofers and tweeter does all the heavy lifting on pentas. Many people around the world are probably running pentas with completely shot mid ranges and can’t even tell. 😅 I believe these Nokia drivers are not all that unusual and we’re used in a lot of automotive applications. Thankyou for your interest and if you have pentas and need to do new surrounds I wouldn’t hesitate doing them in rubber. 😊 let’s be honest pentas have never been the final word in accurate sound reproduction, but they do have a nice warm easy to listen to pleasant sound, what they excel at is flattering badly mixed music. My MS150s take no prisoners on the other hand and make a bad mix sound… as it is… but when it’s a good mix woah!

[@marcusjosefsson4998]

​@@chrisbaker121924I'm pretty sure the Nokia drivers were used in a lot of TV's too.

[@chrisbaker121924]

@@marcusjosefsson4998 I imagine they would have.

[@NhkNguyễn-g1b]

guide connect penta then display of speaker penta

[@Dr.reese_UBR3]

Where can I find replacement drivers? Or coils. My left speaker 4 mid range drivers are all reading a bit low or not at all. What would be considered a good replacement, I could change all 8 since they need refoaming or keep 4 original and put two on each speakers, and buy 4 non original. Best regards

[@chrisbaker121924]

Refoam them. (Or rubber them) from good hifi. It’s easy and the cheapest solution. I believe that they were available from B&O fairly recently… but not sure if they still are.

[@Dr.reese_UBR3]

@@chrisbaker121924 the drivers them selves?

[@Dr.reese_UBR3]

@@chrisbaker121924 the refoaming part isn’t much of a concern for me, as I’d be able to do that my self. But I’m still out on the look for 4 extra drivers

[@chrisbaker121924]

@@Dr.reese_UBR3 oh sorry I mis read that yesterday! I would try Dillen/Martin and beoworld… he has a spares shop called beoparts-shop.com I would imagine he would almost certainly have penta drivers, he has almost everything and he has good prices too :)! I have had a lot of spares from him, sometimes some really obscure small parts. If you can’t find them on the site email him through the site and he will do a special order link. I believe he posts worldwide.

[@Dr.reese_UBR3]

@@chrisbaker121924 okay thank you! So turns out the drivers are all reading great! I'll get to refoaming them. I'm probably going to bypass the amps in them and run them as passive speakers since my left speakers amp is broken. I can't wait to hear how they sound.

[@NhkNguyễn-g1b]

what doing power link 1 or power link 2 ?

[@enriquealvarez3157]

I see that each Penta is 150 watts and the amplifier that connects them is 100 watts per channel. Would it affect?

[@chrisbaker121924]

No a 100watt amp powering it is fine. Your speakers are fine unless you hear distortion. Thats what burns them out rather than an arbitrary number.

[@NhkNguyễn-g1b]

guide to connect with penta bang olufsen what doing?

[@chrisbaker121924]

Check out my other videos. One there!

[@NhkNguyễn-g1b]

what doing video and audio ?

[@overblood6813]

hello Chris thank you for the video it helps a lot, I have a question where can I buy the rubbers for the Nokia audio which are in the Penta, cordially thank you again.

[@chrisbaker121924]

If I remember correctly they are from good hifi… original foam or rubber is available. Since the mid range don’t throw in and out a lot I can’t imagine rubber or foam make much difference. Certainly doesn’t to my ears anyway. 🤣

[@chrisbaker121924]

If I remember correctly they are from good hifi… original foam or rubber is available. Since the mid range don’t throw in and out a lot I can’t imagine rubber or foam make much difference. Certainly doesn’t to my ears anyway. 🤣

[@ToddMurphy]

What kind of glue are you using? What came with the Simply Speakers kit dries way too fast and destroys the process.

[@chrisbaker121924]

I’m using speaker surround glue. It didn’t dry too fast for me and the process went perfectly but I guess it might depend on climates etc…

[@NhkNguyễn-g1b]

looking forward to your mail

[@lapolondi7577]

How can I save the audio setting on my beo 9500? They always come back again when I turn on my ampli

[@chrisbaker121924]

There is a way… set them as desired how you want them to boot up… then press programming, sound, store. This will save your balance, eq and volume start up levels. If that doesn’t work the little coin battery inside needs replacing.

[@enriquealvarez3157]

How many Ohms are these speakers and if I can connect them to an amplifier with 600 watts of output 150 watts per channel.?

[@chrisbaker121924]

These speakers have their own amps at the bottom… but if they were removed and passive pentas used instead then yeah 150-200watt peak. Tbh using an underpowered amp is more dangerous than an overpowered one. Cause the distortion in an underpowered amp can burn out tweeters. I believe they’re 8ohm… specs are available online. As I say, these connect with a line level.

[@enriquealvarez3157]

@@chrisbaker121924 Thank you. At the bottom it says 300 watts of power, are they real? Can you connect a player via cable to listen to some music? since I only have the pair of speakers

[@chrisbaker121924]

@@enriquealvarez3157 yes you can plug anything into them such as a mobile phone from a mini jack to phono connectors. The pentas will need to be set to “auto”. Don’t plug an amplified signal directly into the line in!!!

[@enriquealvarez3157]

@@chrisbaker121924 Hello, a question where would a cell phone or computer or television be connected? It has in the lower part LINE INPUT rca type Y AMP LEVEL INPUT to insert red and black stripped cable. Could you support me or if you have telegram

[@chrisbaker121924]

@@enriquealvarez3157 yeah no worries, first question is do you have penta mk1 mk2 or mk3s? They have slightly different inputs but they all have a phono connector which says “line level.” Line level means basically headphone level so the signal that comes out of a mobile phone or anything you can plug headphones into. Generally speaking. If you have penta 1s you’ll have line level and a speaker link connector and a bare wire grip type input… the speaker link are a 4 pin connector that’s kinda tricky to get these days. Steve at “sounds heavenly” does them I believe. And also the normal grip style inputs. Which all say amp level. For either amp level input (speaker link or wire grips from any amplifier manufacturer) you’ll need to set your input settings to be appropriate to the amp power. From memory (check the online manuals) MAX is for low powered amps 25W or less, MED is for medium powered amps such as 25W-50W and MIN is for the more powerful amps 50W+. That setting is just a basic volume control on the penta essentially. If you have mk2 or mk3 you’ll have a 8 pin power link connector. As well as speaker link and a line in. If you have either of these it is a bit tricker to connect say a different amplifier from a different manufacturer. They were really designed to work with B&O connectors. It is still possible and Steve at sounds heavenly would be able to make connectors no matter what you’ve got. Also… You’d need an appropriate B&O amplifier with either speaker link or power link (depending on what type of pentas you have) if you’d like to have the displays lit up. Which is a nice feature generally.

[@NhkNguyễn-g1b]

help me