External speakers for ADC 1000

[Dogstar]

My Allen ADC 1000 has two stop tabs one labeled "Internal speakers off" The other "External speakers on/off" They have a label on them that says (Prepared for) Does anyone know of a wirng diagram to set them up? Currently they do not do anything. A circuit diagram would be nice.

Another thought I had would be to put a splitter at the input to the two S100 amps and take a line out to my audio system. This has a good subwoofer and 4 surround sound speakers. I am assuming this would not create any probelms for the organ or the sound system as we would then only be dealing with signals at the line in level.

Any thoughts on this would be very welcome.

Also wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

Dave

[jbird604]

The "prepared for" labels probably mean that the relays that would normally be used for internal/external switching are not installed in your console. The appropriate ready-to-use relay assembly (called a "univerel" by Allen) can be ordered, and is installed by simply transferring the wires from the terminal strips you now have in the floor of the organ directly to the univerel's own terminal strip. However, like many other Allen parts, this little unit is a bit pricey. And the installation is not completely simple, possibly benefiting from having a tech do some minor adjustments.

Your idea of taking the line-level output at the amplifier and going to an external sound system is certainly not a bad one. Just keep in mind that the stops of the organ play through different channels. For example, one amplifier will have the Principal 8' stop of the great, and the other amp will have the Octave 4' stop. So you must be sure to connect to both the channels. But do NOT mix the two together in your console amps, as this will result in the heavy 16' pedal stops getting blended into the audio channel that has no woofer.

So, use a "Y" cable at the input of each of the two amps, grab the line level signal there, and run each signal to a separate input on your external amp. Adjust the level controls to get the proper balance between the two channels. Then you'll have some external speakers and probably a very nice sound.

NOTE that you might get some turn-on and turn-off pops through your external sound system. The amplifiers built into the Allen console have a muting system that eliminates this popping, but your external amp probably doesn't have a similar system. But, if your ADC1000 doesn't have trem generators or a reverb mixer built in, the audio may go straight from the cage to the amps. In that case, you won't need mutes anyway. But if you find that you get a loud pop, just be sure to turn on the organ before turning on your external amp, then turn the amp off before you power down the organ.

[Dogstar]

Thanks John.

I thought there may be another relay needed as I couldn't see anything near the speaker terminals other than the terminal strip itself. Probably leave that alone as I do not have any good spare speakers at the moment.

The line into the aux input on the audio amp sounds good. I will probably give it a try. My tendency would be to switch the auxiliary amp on after the organ anyway. take each input to the left and right channels respectively.

My main concern was in not causing some damage to the organ.