Rodgers i577 vs Rodgers Cambridge 730

[bobbydd21]

Hello everyone! The church I work at is looking at getting a preowned, but temporary (2-3 years), digital organ. The two organs that have been proposed to us by local companies are the Rodgers i577 (built in 2005) and the Rodgers Cambridge 730 (built around 1995). As far as I am aware, the i577 is more of a "home" organ and is only 2 channels, where as the 730 is 6 channels. The church is pretty big (seats around 800 people). If someone knows anything about these two organs I would love to hear your thoughts. Both companies are asking around 20k for them, including install and external amplification.

Thanks!

[jbird604]

I hate to get involved between dealers and customers, but I can offer some observations. It may boil down to which dealer you trust the most to do a good job, especially since the organ is intended to be only temporary. Either organ is surely going to serve you adequately for just 2 or 3 years.

The two organs differ quite a bit in age. The 730 was one of the very first Rodgers digital organs out the door in 1991 using the "PDI" technology that carried them throughout the 90's. The 577 was built from 2001 to 2007, so it's at least 10 years newer, built with considerably more modern technology.

That aside, the 730 is a solid Hillsboro-built model from the heyday of Rodgers/Roland integration, while the 577 is one of the "Insignia" series, which were quite frankly a sort of cheaper type of organ. I don't recall all the details, but I believe the Insignia models were built in Italy or somewhere and shipped to Hillsboro for the final assembly. I do know that there is a lot less "stuff" inside the console than inside a genuine Rodgers PDI organ. Of course they might tell you that by 2001 they didn't need the big cages full of boards, and that the 577 sounds just as good as the older larger organs.

Also, note that the 730 has the standard Rodgers audio arrangement -- two channels per division, a total of six 100 watt channels with high quality speakers. This type of audio system tends to work pretty well in even a medium-size church. The 577 is by contrast simply a two-channel organ, though as I recall there is an option in the menu system to separate the swell stops out into a separate stereo pair. But even at that, it doesn't have the same potential for audio power and separation. Of course, if there are plenty of amplifiers and speakers appended, it ought to be able to play as loud as needed to fill your church.

The 577 just isn't nearly as "big" an organ, in more that one way. The capture system has only 8 general pistons, no divisionals (though the pistons can be reconfigured as divisionals, I believe). There are only two expression pedals, though one of them can be reconfigured to work as a crescendo, while the 730 has two expression pedals plus a dedicated crescendo. There aren't nearly as many stops on the 577 (though there are "hidden" stops in "voice palette" knobs, and there are some orchestral stops that can be called up on the menu). The 577 has no 32' pedal stops, while the 730 has a massive 32' Contre Bourdon that will shake the building, especially if equipped with the full-size subwoofers.

The biggest drawback of the 730 is its age. During the first few years of Rodgers PDI production, there were some problems with leaking capacitors (Rodgers urged dealers and techs to seek out and change the known bad ones, but this may or may not have been done on a particular organ). As these organs are now approaching 30 years old, certain problems are showing up on the ones we service around here, such as key contact issues, lighted pistons burning out, rubber up- and down-stop bumpers in the pedals are failing and having to be replaced. So unless this 730 has been gone over thoroughly and updated as needed, it could give you some trouble. But the upside to the 730 is simply that it is far more organ than the 577.

You'll have to decide. BTW, with each dealer asking around $20K, you should expect to get a good warranty, so the issues I've raised might be covered if they arise. I know that if we were to sell an early 90's PDI organ for that much money, we would certainly make sure we had completely rebuilt it, and would offer a good warranty.

[bobbydd21]

Thank you for the reply! It is very informative! To throw another complication in, we also found a 1995 Rodgers 940 for sale but they are looking for closer to 30k for it. That seems like quite a lot of money. Is this organ really that big of a step up over the other two?

[jbird604]

The 940 is definitely a major step upward from either of the others. Three manuals, 8 audio channels (at least), a very complete stop list, and the lighted drawknobs (or possibly even mechanical knobs, though that would've been an expensive option that purchasers rarely ordered). One of the real flagship models from the PDI decade.

All the cautions about the 730 still apply though. There COULD still be some of the defective leaky capacitors in the power supplies, so it should be thoroughly checked by an organ tech familiar with this issue. If the pedal board has never been rebuilt, the old foam rubber down-stop and up-stop bumpers are likely to be flattened out and turning gooey. They need to be replaced and the pedal board properly rebuilt and REGULATED by a knowledgeable tech. (Sometimes an unknowing fixer will replace the foam but not know how to regulate the pedal tension and keying depth, so they still don't play right.)

Perhaps most important of all with an organ from that era, there are LOTS of foam-surround drivers in the original speaker cabinets. They should all have been changed out by now. There is an ugly raspy noise in the tone that one simply cannot ignore when the speakers get rotten, but some folks just don't seem to hear it or care. So make sure the speakers have been fully renovated.

If all these issues are addressed, getting a 940 would be a fine choice, even if it's only for two or three years of use. It will certainly fill the church better, having more audio channels, and may please the organist better.

One final word about it though: I trust that you are buying from a truly knowledgeable and professional Rodgers dealer or authorized tech/rebuilder, so that not only will all these age-related problems be addressed, but the installation will be done with great attention to the placement of the speakers and to the voicing of the stops once the organ is in place. No matter how well the repairs are done, if the installer doesn't understand how a PDI organ is to be set up, and doesn't go to the trouble of correctly balancing all the stops and divisions, it won't sound right.

In order to voice one of these, the installer must have access to the "GC-8" voicing device, or have a dedicated computer set up to run the "GC-10" voicing software, and know how to use them. Many Rodgers dealers and techs don't own a GC-8, and Rodgers has no more of them available, and the GC-10 software only runs on an old Windows 95 computer. Thus many techs and dealers simply cannot do a complete voicing procedure on these older organs. Be sure to ask about that before you make a deal.

I'd say that $30K is not too much to pay for one of these, but ONLY if it is to be professionally installed by someone who knows what he is doing.