u/RyansRetroArchive

The system came with a pair of smaller S45 speakers, which I plan to keep to replace my S30s so I may sell those. It also included a pair of S75s which, despite being absolutely massive, look and sound really impressive. I’ll probably give those a light restoration before selling them on just a bit too big for my space.

The Beosystem 5000 itself is in pretty lovely condition. For some reason it came with two Beomaster receiver/amplifiers and two Master Control Panels—not really sure why, but I’m not complaining! 😂

I’ll test everything over the next day or so and decide which Beomaster and Master Control Panel to keep, then sell the duplicates.

One slightly frustrating issue is that, even though the transit screws on the turntable were locked down for transport, the tonearm drive belt has come off, and the string that pulls the tonearm along its tracking rail has also slipped off inside. That means it’ll need stripping down to put everything back where it belongs, hopefully it still works. I have a Beogram 3300 I could take apart to work out how this one goes if needs be I suppose.

The system came with a pair of smaller S45 speakers, which I plan to keep to replace my S30s so I may sell those. It also included a pair of S75s which, despite being absolutely massive, look and sound really impressive. I’ll probably give those a light restoration before selling them on just a bit too big for my space.

The Beosystem 5000 itself is in pretty lovely condition. For some reason it came with two Beomaster receiver/amplifiers and two Master Control Panels—not really sure why, but I’m not complaining! 😂

I’ll test everything over the next day or so and decide which Beomaster and Master Control Panel to keep, then sell the duplicates.

One slightly frustrating issue is that, even though the transit screws on the turntable were locked down for transport, the tonearm drive belt has come off, and the string that pulls the tonearm along its tracking rail has also slipped off inside. That means it’ll need stripping down to put everything back where it belongs, hopefully it still works. I have a Beogram 3300 I could take apart to work out how this one goes if needs be I suppose.

My Land Rover, Lilibet, built up a small following on TikTok under rynick4x4. A few years ago I picked up an Audio-Technica Sound Burger to use inside at when parked up at classic car shows. I’d plug it into the auxiliary input to play albums. It always ended up being a great conversation starter.

The audio system is upgraded over standard it has a wireless CarPlay screen, a Blaupunkt SQR 46 DAB head unit, Kenwood front speakers, a slim Kenwood low profile subwoofer, Alpine rear speakers, and, for good measure, a 1970s Pioneer cassette deck mounted under the dash.

I really enjoyed owning the Sound Burger, but when I bought my first house in 2024, I sold it along with a few other bits to help fund the move. Looking back, it’s one of those quirky pieces of kit I sometimes wish I’d kept though lol.

I would look to maybe take my Open Real 10.5 Inch Teac A3300SX out to a future show and amp it up in the back of my 90 LOL that would probably also be a good conversation starter too.

The system is paired to a set of Beovox CX100 Speakers on my computer desk and a Pair of RL1000 Speakers on the floor which give it a little bit of extra oomph. It runs the sound for my gaming PC Audio, as well as the sound for my Alexa and I can listen to CD and cassette tape while working from home so it's overall a real nice system. I have quite a lot of B&O in the house, but always liked the all-in-one Beocenter range

I’ve got a lot of WWI photos of my great-grandad, Arthur, which we found in an old hat box in my parents’ loft. I went through them all back in 2020. Running his own bakery he was part of the British Army logistics corps.

I know AI colourisation is sorta frowned upon. I did try manually colourising some of these photos myself six or seven years ago, but the results were pretty disappointing & rather mixed.

I think the main issue for me with AI is when it tries to fill in missing details and ends up creating what looks like a completely different person. However, with the latest GPT updates, it does seem to be much better, especially when there’s already plenty of detail in the original image for it to work with. With this colourisation it doesn't seem to have made my grandads face any different. Just tided things up and added colour. I really do quite like it.

I’ve got a lot of WWI photos of my great-grandad, Arthur, which we found in an old hat box in my parents’ loft. I went through them all back in 2020. Running his own bakery he was part of the British Army logistics corps.

I know AI colourisation is sorta frowned upon. I did try manually colourising some of these photos myself six or seven years ago, but the results were pretty disappointing & rather mixed.

I think the main issue for me with AI is when it tries to fill in missing details and ends up creating what looks like a completely different person. However, with the latest GPT updates, it does seem to be much better, especially when there’s already plenty of detail in the original image for it to work with. With this colourisation it doesn't seem to have made my grandads face any different. Just tided things up and added colour.

She runs a 300 Tdi engine with an R380 gearbox, paired to an LT230 transfer box.

A few months ago, I also filmed this little video for my 4x4 YouTube channel, sharing my thoughts after five years of ownership. So, if anyone’s interested in hearing what a bloke from Yorkshire has to say about living with one of these, it’s up above! 😄

Shot at the Annual East Coast Classic Car run between Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire & Bridlington on the Coast. I took my red Defender 90 CSW

I bought my first piece of Bang & Olufsen back in 2015 (a Beocord 8000 cassette deck). At the time I loved it, but living with my parents meant space was always limited so I only ever had a few bits and pieces.

Fast forward to buying my own house in late 2024, it has let me go a little wild with the hobby. Every time I spot a bargain, I somehow manage to convince myself I need it lol.

Some of the best deals I’ve had recently were a Beocenter 2 that I got free, and a 46” Beovision 11 for £140. I ended up giving the seller a bit extra—about £400 all in—and he threw in a Beolab 2 subwoofer and a pair of Beolab 3s on floor stands too. The sound is absolutely incredible, and I still can’t believe what a bargain it turned out to be that system when new in about 2015 or so would have cost the original owner about £13,000. Safe to say the B&O collection has grown quite a bit since that first Beocord 8000 11 years ago.

The Beosound Century in the kitchen was also a bargain £40 on FB Market place.

So this is my little home office setup at home.

When I bought my first house in November 2024, I decided to turn the smallest of the three bedrooms into a recreation of my old bedroom at my parents’ house. I always loved my old setup, so I wanted to capture a bit of that same feeling in my own place.

The hi-fi system is a fairly recent addition that I picked up towards the end of last year. It’s a Bang & Olufsen Beocenter 8000 from around 1992. It was B&O’s more affordable Beocenter compared to the 8500, 9000 and 9500 series, but I’ve always been a fan of the dark gunmetal-grey finish on these its the same unit just with lesser features compared to the higher end models.

It’s paired with a set of Beovox CX100 speakers on the desk, and for a little extra punch I’ve also got a pair of Beovox RL1000s on the floor. For a compact setup, it sounds surprisingly good and makes for a great place to relax, work, and enjoy some music. It is linked into the PC, Alexa and also has a built in radio, CD and tape deck

I’ve always admired the Cube. This particular example was given to me by a friend a few years ago in exchange for photographing his wedding. He now lives in Japan, so unfortunately I don’t get to see him very often these days.

Over the years I’ve carried out a few upgrades to keep it running well, including fitting a more powerful graphics card from a Power Mac G4 Quicksilver, installing an SSD, and adding a small cooling fan to help keep temperatures under control. Given the age of the machine now, I think those modifications are well worth doing to help preserve it.

The only real downside is that the display seems to have become noticeably dimmer over the last couple of years compared to how I remember it. It’s still usable, but I don't know how much longer it will last sadly.

My little home office setup.

I bought my own house in late 2024 and decided to turn the smallest of the three bedrooms into a dedicated home office. This is the result.

The PC I’m still using is the original rig I built back in 2016. It’s probably due an upgrade at some point, but with RAM prices being what they are and other priorities taking precedence when you’re running a house on your own, it just hasn’t been high on the list. That said, the GTX 1080 is still holding its own remarkably well. It runs most of the games I play without any major issues, including Dead Island 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, Farming Simulator and GTA V.

In truth, I don’t use the PC as much as I once did. Since buying a new MacBook Air, a lot of my photography work, video editing and day-to-day computing is now done on that instead. The PC is still there for gaming, but the MacBook has become my go-to machine for most things.

My little home office setup.

I bought my own house in late 2024 and decided to turn the smallest of the three bedrooms into a dedicated home office. This is the result.

The PC I’m still using is the original rig I built back in 2016. It’s probably due an upgrade at some point, but with RAM prices being what they are and other priorities taking precedence when you’re running a house on your own, it just hasn’t been high on the list. That said, the GTX 1080 is still holding its own remarkably well. It runs most of the games I play without any major issues, including Dead Island 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, Farming Simulator and GTA V.

In truth, I don’t use the PC as much as I once did. Since buying a new MacBook Air, a lot of my photography work, video editing and day-to-day computing is now done on that instead. The PC is still there for gaming, but the MacBook has become my go-to machine for most things.

Painted it a couple of weeks ago now and pleased with the results. Tidied it up for another couple of years. Lilibet (my Landy) turned 28 back on 21st April and she is my daily driver. I bought her on 137k now she has done 186,000 five years later.

Shot a little bit of Sample Footage Here

It was captured on my Sony EV-S700UB Video8 VCR as the M8 has no ability to play backs its own tapes. It is a record-only camcorder.

Picked up this camera during Covid and really enjoyed shooting with it.

I used to shoot with an XL1S during my college days so when I got it in 2020 it brought it all back again lol.

Here’s a selection of vintage Walkmans and portable players I’ve owned over the last ten years or so.

I got my first one back around 2016/2017 and, over time, ended up building quite a collection. In the end though, I sold most of them on and just kept the Walkman WM-D6C, which I had fully specced up by the talented Debbie Billham.

In photo order:

• Walkman DC2 with boxes and accessories
• Walkman DDII
• Walkman WM-D6C
• Walkman WM-EX670 20th Anniversary Edition
• Walkman WM-EX90 – one of my absolute favourite designs, although hopelessly unreliable, yet to ever see a working one come up for sale lol.

On the non Sony portable front I also had a Technics RS-M1 co-deck from Japan, which I absolutely loved. I ended up selling it when I was moving into my first house as it raised a decent bit of money to put towards something else.

I also had a Walkman WM-8, which I picked up for around £20 long before the Stranger Things craze. Once the show took off, because it was the same model used in it, I saw some selling for £500–£800, which was pretty ridiculous really, especially considering it sounded absolutely dreadful. Easily the worst sounding Walkman I’ve ever owned. I think I sold it maybe a year after owning it for maybe £50 or £60, but now they go for a lot more than that lol.

Shot this a few weeks back at the abandoned peat works near me. She’s running a full stainless-steel exhaust system lol.

The main reason was to spend time with the camera and get a better feel for how it works. For an analogue SD format, I’m actually really pleased with how the transfer turned out.