Bang & Olufsen Beocord 5500 (1982)
The Beocord 5500 is a two-head, single-well cassette deck from 1982. It was built to sit free-standing or as the tape component in a Beosystem 5500 stack. By B&O standards it's a straightforward, no-frills design. According to Beocentral, that made it "more reliable and robust than some of its bigger brothers." A small flip-up lid covers the cassette well, and the top of the machine is flat when the lid is closed.
It has Dolby B and C noise reduction, HX Pro headroom extension, and Automatic Music Search (AMS). The transport is a two-motor, belt-drive unit. Beocentral criticized the record level meters. With most tapes the indicators didn't stay in the green-plus-red zone for long, so normal recording levels are tricky to set by eye.
HiFi-Stereo (May 1988, p.84) listed the 5500 among current cassette decks, noting its full-logic controls, record cancel, and gold-plated RCA jacks — features that placed it comfortably in the upper tier of consumer decks of its era.
Known specs:
- 4-track, 2-channel stereo; 4.75 cm/s tape speed
- Type I, II, and IV tape compatibility
- Wow and flutter: 0.08%
- Frequency response: 30-16,000 Hz ±3dB (metal position)
- S/N ratio: 68dB (Dolby B, metal tape)
- Inputs: 2x microphone, 2x line; Outputs: 1x line, 1x headphone
- Dimensions: 425 x 106 x 255 mm; weight approximately 4.2-4.6kg
- Power consumption: 14W
- Original price: £349.50 in 1982
The spec sheet mentions remote control capability, but surviving documentation doesn't detail it. A current listing at Retro Audio (retroaudio.se) prices one at 1,500 SEK (roughly £129).
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