I was gifted this set last week by my mate Mick, His mate Steve worked for a B&O dealer many years ago and bought this set new as a bedroom set. It is low hours and is absolutely immaculate. It came with a spare remote new in box and various other 'just in case' parts that Steve had kept over the years. At first I had refused the set saying I had enough tellies, it was "too new", space limited, all the usual excuses.
The set had been stored for many years and Steve wanted rid so after a week or so Mick mentioned it to me again as Steve couldn't bear the idea of it going to the tip. So I caved in and said yes. The set is truly like new. Mick said it hadn't been powered up for years so I should give it a once over. I of course completely ignored that advice and plugged it in. The set came on and the picture was perfect the tube is like new! I left it running playing a DVD on my dining room table. I happened to be walking past it on my way to the kitchen when it went full 'James Bond effect', it went off with a sharp Crack! Hiss!! and clouds and clouds of white smoke poured from the back vents!
I switched off and fetched my phone camera,
the set was still smoking away when I took the photo. A very familiar smell of burnt paper filled the dining room. I opened the windows and made sure there was no fire as such. Taking the back off I looked for the mains filter capacitor, sure enough it had smoked a Rifa!Â
I'll replace it tomorrow and give the set a light dust out. Then it's a case of finding somewhere for it. It must be preserved it really is a museum piece !
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A friend of mine had one of these - from Cotton's, I think.
As Blue Oyster Cult sang: "Don't fear the Rifa..."
That is a gorgeous looking set, I can see why he didn't want to take it to the tip.
 @wayned Yes, certainly a grim Rifa! 😀.
@cathovisor Cotton TV was where this set came from. Steve was one of their engineers for years. I have the stand still in the original box with their address on it.
I used to buy ex-rental TVs and VCRs from Dennis Cotton in the early '80s. I bought a 26" B&O with a slightly scratched screen, an earlier model to this one. I gave to to my parents as they both did a lot of virtually unpaid work for me when I first started up. I have a photo of the set with my parents' Yorkie, Dinky sitting in front of it. By sheer coincidence I found the picture loose in a book the other day, sort of reenforcing why I should have a B&O in my collection....
Lovely set!
A couple of years ago a seller at the Rugby radio rally had a big box of new, unused Rifas offered for free. Every single one of them was seriously cracked. Not many takers I presume… or hope!
Peter
That is a coincidence, I bought a job lot of parts a few years ago from our local auction. There was a car full of parts in various boxes including an Ice cream tub full of new Rifa capacitors with white sleeved legs. every one splitting and bulging. I tipped the whole lot into my bin. I wish now I had kept a few and put them on the end of an extension lead outside just to see what would happen!Â
I replaced the Rifa and gave the set a flick around with a paintbrush. The panels are like new. No signs of any heat staining even around the degausse thermistor or posistor whatever it is... I resoldered a couple of slightly dodgy looking joints near the mains input. Steve had resoldered the LOPT when the set was new as it was a known common fault and is in fact the only problem I had on my parents' set during it's long career.
Just for fun I put the Rifa on some wires took it outside and plugged it in, camera ready... That was no fun! Nothing ! So it seems you can only let the magic smoke out once! The cap must have failed O/C before I switched off. There are a couple of other Rifa capacitors right at the bottom of the Line output board near the focus control they aren't cracked or swelling but it is probably a good idea to replace them before I put the back on. Especially as we know they split when new unused?Â
Now Scooby can solve the mystery of the magic smoke without it getting too scary!
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It’s a very nice set! I like how they laid out all the PCB’s, very neat.
My B&O went up in smoke when I first tried it out too, it’s an MX2000, it wasn’t a Rifa that let go, it was a resistor burning up because one of those gold coloured electrolytic capacitors shorted out further down stream.
Regards,
 LloydÂ
Smoke curls . Silence falls. Rifa's smoky end. Not Bang and Olufsen's loyal friend! 😀Â
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