Passions: If you like old hi-fi, once unaffordable stuff is more within reach

Old school and elegant - the Bang & Olufsen 7002

When I was growing up, we never had a music centre. No matter how practical they were, my dad wouldn’t contemplate one. It was separates only. He wasn’t a huge hi-fi buff, but knew you could get a better sound from individual turntable, amp and speakers.

My first record player was one of his cast-offs and I followed his mantra, buying and selling second hand gear and slowly got to the point when I had some pretty good kit.

So, when lockdown began and I started working from home, thoughts turned to picking up a second system to play some of my old vinyl in my home office.

Which is when I spotted the most beautiful music centre ever made and the only one I could make an exception for. Enter a Bang & Olufsen Beocenter.

This is the 7002 and was made between 1981 and 1983. The Danish company brought a level of design to hi-fi that was absent elsewhere. Apple brought a similar aesthetic to computers and later mobile phones.

They were always very covetable but eye-wateringly expensive. This would have cost around £1000, excluding speakers. That’s a lot of cash now, let alone in 1981.

When iconic industrial designer Jacob Jensen was perfecting his vision, with tape player (remember those) and radio hidden under a brushed stainless steel panel and turntable, all controlled at a touch of a button on the remote control, he wasn’t to know the whole thing was going to be almost obsolete within a couple of years of its launch as CD players decimated both albums and tapes.

Once I started looking, I discovered that B&O systems do come up second hand and often in pretty good condition. Helpfully there is a whole internet world of fans with blogs and advice which was a pleasant enough rabbit hole to disappear down during Covid.

I learned enough that if you do get one, make sure the turntable has a stylus as they are rare and expensive. B&O made their own so none of the standard ones used throughout the rest of the hi-fi world will work. In the end I got this from a business that renovates and sells old B&O gear for £400. We’ll put it in the lockdown splurge column, but it looks and sounds great.