Viscount Chorum range vs Eminent e-series?

[Eightfoot]

Hi all,

Looking for a bit of advice as I've started to put out feelers for purchasing a practice organ for home use. At present I've identified the Viscount Chorum range as a possible option (likely to be the 40 or 50, possibly compact versions) as well as the Eminent e-series, considering budget and space limitations. The latter has less information available online but I understand that they will come and voice the organ for you which seems to be a positive option, as well as having Hauptwerk software.

Obviously I'll be trying both to get a feel for the instruments, but does anybody have advice for me based on prior experience please?

Many thanks.

[seamaster]

Welcome, but if you're not planning to play Wichita Lineman on it, you're in the wrong subforum. "Viscount Chorum"??

[Eightfoot]

Ah, maybe I should be in the classic electronic organ subforum! Any chance I could get this thread moved or would the best bet be to start another? Apologies...

[andyg]

No problem, I've moved your question for you.

[Eightfoot]

Thank you!

[Melos Antropon]

You can hear the Chorum (which is, indeed made by Viscount) at this URL:

https://soundcloud.com/viscountinstr...s/chorum-audio

I would love to have had a practice instrument like that when I was starting out!

Tony

[jbird604]

Both series appear to be decent home practice organs. If I were in the market for a new organ for my home, I'd consider the following criteria:

1. Sound. If the organ doesn't sound good, you'll regret it sooner or later. Voicing and tonal adjustments may be possible, but you need to be sure that it's going to produce the type of sound you want to hear, and that it doesn't "tire" your ears to sit and play it for long periods of time.

2. Price. If there are significant differences in price, you need to know why. Sometimes the more expensive organ is simply built better -- better console, better keyboards, better pedals, better circuit boards, better speaker system. If so, it could be well worth the extra cost. If not, then you should find out why it costs more.

3. Dealership -- If possible, buy from a dealer who is not too far away, as you may need service or support after the sale. Also, consider the friendliness and attitude of the dealer and sales person. You may regret buying from someone who isn't genuinely nice and interested in you as a person.

4. Appearance counts too, of course. All entry level organs are necessarily rather plain-looking, but some may be more attractive to the eye than others. You might get tired of looking at something that is truly ugly and out of proportion.

Personally, I haven't had to consider many of these, as I have been able to get good used organs, often for little money, because I'm in the organ service business. But if I weren't in this business, I'd certainly shop around shrewdly before spending thousands of dollars for an item that I'd probably own for a great many years and would spend a lot of time with.

Many folks do find used organs, but it is always risky, as you can't be sure that an organ is really in good working order until you get it home and spend time with it. And some problems can be costly to repair, since you'll probably not get a warranty with a used organ. People are also going the Hauptwerk route these days, either taking in an old console and installing MIDI interfaces, or else buying a ready-made Hauptwerk organ. These can be less expensive that the stock hardware organs, but not always.

BTW, what prices are you seeing for these instruments? Have you compared them to similar home organs from Johannus? Just curious.

[Eightfoot]

Thank you both very much for the advice and the link to the audio.

BTW, what prices are you seeing for these instruments? Have you compared them to similar home organs from Johannus? Just curious.

I'm in the UK so price wise it's looking like abouy £6,900 up to £10,000 (although the £8-9k mark is most comfortable). I've struggled to find any prices on the Johannus range online, but more importantly a UK showroom - their website doesn't seem to list one - and I'm loath to spend several thousand on an instrument that I haven't been able to try. I think that's also what concerns me about a preowned instrument - I don't have a huge budget to spend on repairs and I'd like something that's going to last me beyond a few years.

[nullogik]

I've struggled to find any prices on the Johannus range online, but more importantly a UK showroom - their website doesn't seem to list one - and I'm loathe to spend several thousand on an instrument that I haven't been able to try.

Johannus are sold in the UK by Church Organ World (Makin) who also represent Rodgers. They have a showroom outside Manchester and another near Oxford. You might be interested in their pre-owned page:

http://www.churchorganworld.co.uk/Info.aspx?ID=8

This German dealer is quite open about their prices and might be useful as a very rough guide as to what models/ranges might fall within your budget:

https://kisselbach.de/de/produkt-kategorie/johannus/

[Eightfoot]

Johannus are sold in the UK by Church Organ World (Makin) who also represent Rodgers. They have a showroom outside Manchester and another near Oxford. You might be interested in their pre-owned page:

http://www.churchorganworld.co.uk/Info.aspx?ID=8

This German dealer is quite open about their prices and might be useful as a very rough guide as to what models/ranges might fall within your budget:

https://kisselbach.de/de/produkt-kategorie/johannus/

That's enormously helpful; thank you! One of those showrooms is not too far from me either so it sounds like a good option to visit.

[jbird604]

Good deal. You should take a look at the Johannus (which may be sold only under the brand name Makin in the UK) because they have consistently advertised some instruments in your price range, and they are a large company with good build quality, even at the bottom of their line. You may find their small models quite impressive, though I have no idea exactly how they stack up against Viscount or Eminent. You're fortunate in the UK to have so many choices in that under 10K price range. We currently have almost nothing to consider in that range, except for those lucky enough to live within driving distance of a Johannus dealer. (That may be about to improve, per the recent news regarding the Rodgers/Johannus partnership.)

In that price range, you do want to carefully take note of how the keys feel and respond, whether they feel solid or overly flexible. It's tempting for a builder to skimp on keyboards at the low end of the price scale, and use some flimsy keys that might not be durable. That situation is not as bad as it was 20 years ago, with keyboard manufacturers like Fatar now offering serviceable actions to these builders at the low price points they need in order to put them into their entry-level organs.

And the sound of one model over another might be quite striking. Some companies may be holding on to dated technology in their low-price models, while others may be using only slightly-modified versions of their high-end technology in their cheaper models. If you listen carefully you should be able to spot poor sound if you hear it from any of these. With today's digital equipment, even a fairly inexpensive organ should be able to accurately reproduce quite nuanced pipe sounds, at least on individual stops, as well as respectable ambiance that may simulate the effect of playing in a much larger space.

A few years ago I had a little Viscount organ at home for practicing that had been built about 2006, and was one of their least expensive models with an AGO pedalboard. Even though it hadn't cost the original purchaser very much, it had amazingly sweet sound. When building up the ensemble, I noticed that the tone got thicker and less distinct than happens with the larger and more costly organs we typically see in our churches, but with small registrations this little organ was perfectly enjoyable to listen to. You should be able to find sound even better than that these days well within your price range.

[Eightfoot]

Thank you to everyone who posted with advice. I wanted to update to say that, having tried a selection of organs, I've decided on a Viscount Chorum and am very happy with that choice.

[myorgan]

Excellent! Please keep us posted on your observations of the organ as you "break it in" and put it through its paces. May you have many years of pleasure playing it!

Michael