u/RyansRetroArchive

I do really love the design of the PS2 slims. I know they get hate for not having a hard drive or even the option to add one, but I think the form factor is great.

At the moment, mine is being used as a DVD player, as all my games are still at my parents’ house and I haven’t got around to collecting them yet. The picture is incredibly sharp over RGB SCART into the telly though.

I recently got it out of storage after quite a while to play some DVDs on my new toy, a Bang & Olufsen LX4500 TV, which I bought to complement my Beosystem 5000 Hifi which sits next to it.

I’ve been wanting to do something with my spare bedroom for a while and finally started transforming it into a dedicated listening room at the end of August.

Really pleased with how it’s all come together. Can’t wait to get some of my old games back from my parents’ house. Definitely need to play GTA Vice City again for that Soundtrack.

Acting as the temp DVD player until an online buddy of mines sends me the B&O DVD-1

So after turning the spare bedroom into a dedicated listening room, I thought I’d share a few snaps of all the hi-fi setups currently around the house. Pretty much every room has something in it apart from the bathrooms… for now, lol. I think you will pick up a bit of a theme as to the brand I am most loyal to LOL.

Pictures 1–3: The living room is the main event, powered by a Marantz 2225. I love this thing. It’s paired with a set of Wharfedale 80th Anniversary Edition speakers, sitting on stands I made out of swivel chairs. I also love really quirky formats so have an Elcaset deck, open real, 8track deck, Minidisc deck anything a bit unusual really. Also have a few different VCR's for analog capture into my Mac mini.

Picture 4: The master bedroom has a B&O Beosystem 3500. I picked this system up in February 2025, brand new in its box and never used sounds fantastic. One of my favourite B&O systems even though the 3500 was the entry level system by Jacob Jensen.

Pictures 5–6: The office setup. I’m also into WWII and Cold War history, so there’s a small collection of related bits and pieces in here too. The system powering the office is a B&O Beocenter 8000 running a pair of Beovox CX100s, with some RL1000s on the floor for a bit more added oomph. I love the integrated Beocenters they really are well build and pleasant to use. Even though the 8000 is the baby of the range, it’s still a lovely system, with HX Pro and Dolby C on the tape deck. I picked this one up last November from a bit of a house clearence job.

Pictures 7–8: My newest creation, the dedicated listening room in the second spare bedroom. This space was a bit unloved before and mostly housed just my wardrobe and Concept2 rower. I’ve rearranged and redecorated it to give my Beosystem 5000 stack a proper home where I can enjoy it. It’s paired with some lovely-sounding Beovox S45-2 speakers on the matching floor stands.

Picture 9: The kitchen, featuring the £40 Beosound Century I picked up on Facebook Marketplace last August. I love these systems. They sound incredible for such a compact, all-in-one hi-fi having tape, radio, cd and aux I, a great system for casual listening when I have a BBQ in the garden for example and will pair to my Alexa so guests can link up via bluetooth if they wish

System is a B&O Beosystem 5000 from around 1984 paired to a set of Beovox S45-2 Speakers on Genuine B&O Floor stands.

Just waiting for the arrival of my CD50 into the stack and this setup is complete

New recent additions include…

• A small 1960s chest of drawers given to me by a friend a couple of months back. I lightly sanded it down and gave it a good oil, and it’s come out great.
• A 1970s White Mac floor lamp, designed by Sir Terence Conran and originally sold through Habitat stores around the UK.
• A 1970s British Home Stores chrome and wood ceiling lamp that I found on eBay. I do really like it, although the wood is a little dark for my taste. My eventual plan, when I have a bit more time, is to strip it back and try to give it more of a lighter teak appearance.
• I also picked up what I believe is a late 1960s or early 1970s vinyl swivel chair for the listening space. This was a bit of a bargain at just £18 from Facebook Marketplace.
• Finally, I added a Pierre Koenig Stahl House at Night print, which I loved as soon as I saw it and just had to buy. I thought the striking colours in the image would work particularly well against the ochre coloured wall.

So far, I’m really pleased with how the spare room has turned out. There are still a few little tweaks to be made here and there, but overall I love it

Bought the house back in late 2024 and the spare room (3 bed house) had ended up being a junk room basically (the last photo shows what it looked like a week ago). Very cluttered and a mash of styles and random tat

I am still tweaking and adjusting stuff up and a few bits more to go on the wall, but so far this is the result. I wanted a dedicated space to really showcase my B&O Beosystem 5000 stack system and the Beovision MX2000 Television.

Kinda did a retro futuristic late 70s early 80s design. I do kinda like the white shelving stack, but feel I really need to declutter it. ATM is full of old 8-track tapes, reel to reel tapes. Think a display for my west German pottery might look more interesting.

I think the chair is one of my favourite things a 1970s ones I picked up off market place for £18, super light weight too so is easy to move.

Spent a few weeks coming up with the design, this is the result. I wanted something a bit different and unique LOL. I stripped out the room and painted it in five days on my own while also working full-time, so quite pleased

I love this Hi-Fi system and always felt like it needed a proper space to really show it off at its best.

There are still lots and lots of tweaks and adjustments to do, literally did this solo and finished it about half an hour before I took this photo.

I spent quite a while coming up with different ideas for the room, as my second bedroom has pretty much just been a junk room since I moved into my house back in late 2024. There are still quite a few little tweaks to do here and there, but overall I’m really happy with how the layout has turned out.

I’m often quite bold with my colour choices, and obviously the mustard was no exception lol. I wasn’t actually sure if I’d like it when I first started painting it on, but once it dried it looked so much better and I’m really pleased with the end result.

The room is painted in Golden Ochre and Natural Hessian cream. I still need to add a few bits of wall art as the walls are looking a little empty at the moment, but that will change soon.

It’s still my dressing room too, so I’ve kept my wardrobe and chest of drawers in there, but compared to what it looked like just a week ago, I think I’ve done a decent job, especially doing it all solo lol.

The last photo shows what the room looked like a week ago. It was basically just a junk room full of random stuff, so I think its quite a transformation!

I am buying a Beogram CD50 off a guy local (just in the process of overhauling it) then the stack is complete

Just finished decorating today so still a few teaks to do this is the result though so far.

Bought my three-bed new build here in Yorkshire in late 2024, and the second bedroom was the last room to get decorated, which I’ve just finished putting back together today.

It was a bit of an unloved space before, really. It mainly housed my wardrobe, Concept2 and all the other random crap I didn’t have room for elsewhere in the house.

I’ve managed to free up quite a bit of space elsewhere and get a lot of stuff packed away into storage boxes, so I decided to give this room a proper purpose and turn it into a late ’70s/early ’80s inspired listening space.

The main bit of kit is my B&O Beosystem 5000 stack system with a Beogram 5005, paired with a set of Beovox S45-2 speakers. I’ve also got a Beovision MX2000 TV and recently picked up a Beovision 8 32-inch for the grand total of £10, so at that price I had to have it!

An online buddy of mine is also sending me a B&O DVD-1, so it’ll soon double up as a nice little space for watching DVDs as well as sitting back and listening to music.

I know the colour probably won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I wanted to go for something a bit different and something that had a proper retro feel to it. I wasn’t completely sure about it when I first started painting, but now it’s all dried and the room is back together, I really like it lol.

Bought my 3 bed new build here in Yorkshire in late 2024, and the second bedroom was the last room to get decorated, which I’ve just finished putting back together today.

It was a bit of an unloved space before, really. It mainly housed my wardrobe, Concept2 and all the other random crap I didn’t have room for elsewhere in the house.

I’ve managed to free up quite a bit of space elsewhere and get a lot of stuff packed away into storage, so I decided to give this room a proper purpose and turn it into a late ’70s/early ’80s listening space.

The main bit of kit is my B&O Beosystem 5000 stack system with a Beogram 5005, paired with a set of Beovox S45-2 speakers. I’ve also got a Beovision MX2000 TV and recently picked up a Beovision 8 32-inch for the grand total of £10, so at that price I had to have it even though it is a more modern LCD TV.

An online buddy of mine is also sending me a B&O DVD-1, so it’ll soon double up as a nice little space for watching DVD movies as well as sitting back and listening to music.

I know the colour probably won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I wanted to go for something a bit different and something that had a proper 70s feel to it. I wasn’t completely sure about it when I first started painting it on (it looked quite awful wet), but now it’s all dried and the room is back together, I really like it lol.

System is paired to a set of Beovox S45-2 Speakers on B&O floor stands. The last photo is a quick before what it looked like just over a week ago.

Still a few tweaks I really need to get some more wall art and a few more indoor plants, but feel like I have made good progress so far.

It looks really striking in white imo and is going to look nice in my spare room when I overhaul it over the coming weeks

Second Pic is the Mac Lamp range found in an online 1977 Catalog

Unsure of the maker, but from the photos it seemed to be in pretty nice condition, so for £18 I thought it was worth it.

I gave it a once over with some disinfectant wipes and then treated it with some leather/vinyl conditioner. Picture 2 shows it after conditioning and it came up really well.

The plan is to use it in my spare bedroom, which at the moment is a little underwhelming, but I’m hoping to change that. I’ve already got some decent 60s and 70s furniture in there, including my wardrobe, chest of drawers and a little dark wood sideboard-type thing, but the accessories are currently a bit of a hodgepodge of stuff that’s ended up in there for storage more than anything else, not really to showcase.

I think I’m going to have a proper declutter and box up a lot of the stuff that doesn’t really match or work with the room. I’m also completely open to changing the artwork on the walls for something that fits the overall look a bit better.

Style-wise, I’m still not 100% sure which direction to go in. The last image shows some of the overflow from my Bang & Olufsen collection, so I’d quite like to do something that enhances the B&O equipment rather than having it all surrounded by random bits and pieces. The reason for getting the chair was so I can play retro games on my B&O televisions really.

The walls need repainting as well, so I’m open to colour ideas. I’ve also just bought a rather large white shag-pile furry rug for the middle of the room, which arrives today. I thought that might add a bit of texture and give a nice contrast against the brown carpet.

Picked this up at my local car boot last Sunday for £10 and it was in an extremely sorry state.

It’s one of those car boots where a lot of sellers have permanent pitches, and this looked like it had been sat outside baking in the sun for at least a couple of weeks. The soft-touch rubber coating had completely broken down into a horrible sticky, gooey mess covering my hands.

Given the state of it, I wasn’t expecting it to work. I mainly bought it because it came with an immaculate Beo4 remote, which had been kept inside a plastic sleeve and genuinely feels brand new.

Got it home, plugged it in and it fired straight up.

I stripped the failed rubber coating off using a combination of IPA, petrol, engine degreaser and plastic scrapers, then sanded the casing down and repainted it satin black. It’s come up far better than I expected and the screen itself is in excellent condition, so thankfully all the problems seem to have been cosmetic.

It’s currently living in my spare room. A friend is hopefully sending me a B&O DVD 1, so I’m planning on turning it into a little DVD setup once I find a small sofas or lounge chair for the spare room.

It sounds excellent too. Tonight I’ve got my old Fire Stick hooked up to it for a bit of YouTube Music.

I honestly really can't believe it's the same TV, but it is.

Picked this up at my local car boot last Sunday for £10 and it was in an extremely sorry state.

It’s one of those car boots where a lot of sellers have permanent pitches, and this looked like it had been sat outside baking in the sun for at least a couple of weeks. The soft-touch rubber coating had completely broken down into a horrible sticky, gooey mess covering my hands.

Given the state of it, I wasn’t expecting it to work. I mainly bought it because it came with an immaculate Beo4 remote, which had been kept inside a plastic sleeve and genuinely feels brand new.

Got it home, plugged it in and it fired straight up.

I stripped the failed rubber coating off using a combination of IPA, petrol, engine degreaser and plastic scrapers, then sanded the casing down and repainted it satin black. It’s come up far better than I expected and the screen itself is in excellent condition, so thankfully all the problems seem to have been cosmetic.

It’s currently living in my spare room. A friend is hopefully sending me a B&O DVD 1, so I’m planning on turning it into a little DVD setup once I find a small sofas or lounge chair for the spare room.

It sounds excellent too. Tonight I’ve got my old Fire Stick hooked up to it for a bit of YouTube Music.

I honestly really can't believe it's the same TV, but it is.

Recently picked up the Beosystem 5000 maybe a month or so ago and it's working great in my bedroom so far. It's paired into some Beovox S75 speakers.

At the moment it needs a Beogram CD50 to complete the stack, unusually the original owner never bothered adding a CD50 to it (this unit is the CD player to match the stack) but it came out several years later.

The 5000 is quite unusual in that it's a draw loading tape deck. You press a button and a draw slides out to reveal the cassette mechanism

So, that makes three BeoSound 9000s I’ve missed at great prices.

• First one I saw was £750 back in 2024
• Second one £900 late last year
• And now this third one: £200. Admittedly it needs some work, but still… that’s an incredible price for a 9000. Even spares machines often go for a grand or more.

I’ve even got the perfect space above my MCM G-Plan sofa waiting for one to wall mount. 😅

A friend of mine actually owned a BeoSound 9000 years ago. Before I knew him, he left it behind in his old farmhouse when they moved. He said if we’d known each other back then, I could have just had it and speakers because he knows how much I love Bang & Olufsen.

I just know I’m going to end up paying top money for one eventually just to to add it to my collection. It really does feel like me owning one isn't meant to be for now lol. Having just took on a full 3 bedroom house on my own on a single income I can't really justify about £2,500 on what is essentially a very fancy CD Player, but one day lol.

That said, I can’t complain too much because I’ve had some incredible B&O bargains over the last couple of years. I picked up a BeoVision 11 (46”), BeoLab 2 subwoofer, and a pair of BeoLab 3 speakers for around £400 all in, which is now my main lounge setup. I also managed to buy a brand new, boxed BeoSystem 3500 for £300 last February, and I got a BeoCenter 2 completely free. I just had to remove it from a lady’s house. It’s now connected up to the BeoVision and gets plenty of use.