Bang & Olufsen BeoLab Penta Active Speakers with Sonos

  • 31 July 2018
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I have a pair of B&O Penta speakers from the late 1980s, Type 6623. One Penta is working beautifully with a phono input from a Sonos Connect. The second Penta speaker stopped working awhile ago with a solid orange status light and no sound. (Research suggests the integrated amplifier in the base of these speakers often fails.)

My initial search has not yet found a replacement BeoLab 150 amplifier. What I'm considering instead is disconnecting the integrated amplifiers on both speakers to attach cables directly to the Penta drivers, making a passive speaker set that could be driven by a Sonos Connect Amp.

I've found related threads here including someone mentioning they experienced a constant humming noise when B&O passive speakers were connected to a Sonos Amp.

I don't feel like investing a ton of money in these thirty year old speakers but I'd like to continue enjoying them with Sonos if possible. Any thoughts on which way to go? If I drive the passive speakers with a Connect Amp, I suppose I could add a Sonos Sub to the room- that would probably be a very nice setup. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

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Follow up to my own post, as I have completed the revision and these details may be helpful to others. It’s very easy to remove the Penta amplifier. I set the speaker on a counter top and removed a set of nuts and the base came loose. Removed another similar set of nuts and the amplifier unit loosens from the speaker column. Easy to slip your fingers in and disconnect a DIN control connector and loosen traditional speaker wire terminal posts. I snaked in new speaker wire and threaded through the amplifier housing, made the connection to same posts, then reassembled. I didn’t cut any wires but used electrician’s tape to insulate the old speaker wire leads.

Today I added the new Sonos Amp and a Sonos Sub. The results are tremendous and I’m overjoyed to have my Penta speakers back in the program.