Allen MDS-5 without speakers

[Guest]

Hello,

I'm the music director of a small church in a low-income area, and very happy to say that despite our limited resources our finance committee was willing to spend some money to purchase a used Allen MDS-5. The organ comes with built-in speakers, but nothing else, so we're going to have to get some to augment the sound. I spoke to the Allen dealer in the area, and he suggested two HE-14s that would total to around $1400. I'm sure our finance committee is going to be a bit reluctant to spend any more money, so I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions concerning replacing the speakers. Are there any other speakers we can look into that are not as pricey? Are there good places to go to get speakers?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[michaelhoddy]

Used Allen HC-14s and HC-15s (the utility finish version of the same cabinet) show up on eBay with reasonable regularity- this would be a cheaper option. You really don't want PA-type speakers like you'd find at a music store for this sort of thing- they usually have neither the frequency response nor the sensitivity nor the wide non-directional dispersion characteristics required to do a good job of organ tone reproduction. Basically, the goals of a decent PA speaker are in several ways the opposite of the goals of an organ speaker.

The Allen speakers are the easiest choice, but periodically, other good organ speakers from companies like Walker Technical pop up too- the right model of those would also work, although the Allen speakers will almost invariably be cheaper.

Also, I'm not sure whether the MDS-5 would need another amplifier to drive the external speakers, but it's something to consider.

[cantornikolaos]

I have two words.

Parts Express

http://www.parts-express.com/

http://www.parts-express.com/project...ojectindex.cfm

Any speaker or amplifier needs you have could very likely be satisfied here.

[sadatoni]

Those Allen speakers are 4-ohm speakers (in case you use something different). If they're not going to be visible, HC-15's would also work (as someone mentioned, they're a utility finish). I know someone that used little Bose speakers to replace his HC-14/15's. It sounded ok, but not as good as the full sized speakers.

[Guest]

Thank you all for your replies.

Unfortunately, I am not very knowledgeable about these technical matters, so let me ask a few questions in follow-up:

Sadatoni: If the Allen runs on 4-ohms, does that mean that I can use any speaker that is 4-ohm? To be more poignant, what should I be looking for, if not the HC-15s (which would run well into the 1000s new).

Cantornikolaos: Thank you for the website. As I stated above, however, I'm not very knowledgeable about these kinds of technical things. What kind of speakers would you suggest instead of Allen HC-15s? What am I looking for?

Thanks again for your help! We just installed the organ today, and the built-in speakers will have to do for Easter, but some additional speakers to help ring the sound a bit more would be nice.

B. Ruelas

[cantornikolaos]

I'll look on Parts Express for something I think will work for you. If you're up for some fun, there are really awesome DIY kits and projects that can be built for a surprisingly low price!