Viscount Chorum or Sonus?

[Eclecticorganist]

Casavant

I recently had the opportunity to play a Chorum 60 and a Sonus 359. Both had recently been uncrated and the dealer had not really had an opportunity to voice either. The Chorum was OK, but even just out of the crate it was apparent that the capability of the Sonus was superior to the Chorum. The dealer and I spent some time tweaking the great principal chorus and by the time we were done it was extremely convincing. One thing you MUST do when you listen to the self-contained Viscount organs is to play them yourself and sit at the console. They are clearly designed to be heard at their best from the bench.

[janvds]

I recently played a Viscount Chorum 60 as well. It was installed in a church seating about 150-200 with the dealer's own audio system. Some stops sound OK. Other stops sound quite inconsistent. The overall volume of each stop can be adjusted note by note. There is also a 7 fixed band equalizer onboard. I actually found the onboard voicing and eq tools to be inadequate. For instance, the room is quite resonant in the 1700hz area which falls right in between the 1000hz and the 2200hz bands on the graphic eq -- nothing could be done to compensate. Quite frankly I found it to be a rather typical example of an installation where the decision was made based on price and the result being the congregation's major disappointment.