Bang & Olufsen’s latest reworked turntable is a masterpiece of retro revival, in a breathtaking wooden presentation box | usagoldmines.com

• The Beogram 4000c Saint Laurent Rive Droite Edition costs about $35,000
• Each turntable is a 1970s original, painstakingly restored
• A very limited edition: just 10 pieces

The B&O Beogram 4000 Series turntable is a genuine design classic, a ’70s turntable that found a place not just in discerning music fans’ homes, but in art museums too. And now it’s back in a strictly limited edition that you probably can’t afford, but won’t be able to tear your eyes away from.

The Beogram 4000c Saint Laurent Rive Droite Edition, to give it its full name, has been created under the watchful eye of Saint Laurent’s creative director Anthony Vaccarello.

This isn’t the first time Vaccarello has reimagined a classic: for example last year he redesigned the Fender Stratocaster electric guitar and accompanying amplifier. But clearly he was just warming up, because this B&O turntable is staggeringly beautiful.

This isn’t the first time the Beogram 4000c has been reborn: B&O restored and tweaked 95 of them in 2020 and offered them for $11,000 / £9,000 / about AU$17,000. But this new edition is even more select, and a bit more expensive too.

The Beogram 4000c Saint Laurent Rive Droite Edition: exquisite and inevitably, expensive

As our colleagues at Wallpaper explain, each turntable is a fully restored and numbered original with silver-plated metal and a Ziricote wood base. Each original turntable is disassembled by B&O in Denmark, and every single part is then cleaned – and by “every” we do mean “every”, right down to the tiniest screws – and if necessary, replaced.

The hand-crafted wooden frame is new, as are the new finishes on the zen-like controls aside the platter, and each turntable gets a new cartridge and a new pre-amp too.

The wooden case is made from solid ziricote, which is a dark hardwood; it has “a particularly distinctive grain, creating an object of fascination even when the turntable is not in use,” Wallpaper says.

I think it looks absolutely stunning. We’re used to seeing a lot of retro-styled turntables or retro-inspired ones, but it’s quite something to see a true original come back and show everyone how it’s done.

The Beogram 4000c Saint Laurent Rive Droite Edition is available now from Saint Laurent Rive Droite in Paris and LA, and online from both YSL and Bang & Olufsen.

It’s yours for €30,000 (about $35,000 / £30,000 / AU$50,845) but if you want one you’d better be quick: there are just 10 turntables in this release.

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