Sound system for an Allen ADC 5400

[John Vanderlee]

So I got the ADC5400 home last week. It has 13 HC15, 2 HC12, and one B20. With 6 channels of audio Allen obviously doubled the speakers.
A lady with a large house would like it installed but objects to all the speakers. Obviously the complement can be cut in half but that still leaves too many "big" speakers.
So 2 questions:
1. Any recommendations on smaller speakers? Not necessarily Allen? She mentioned Bose...
2. What if all channels were mixed down to only two resulting in just 2 speakers and a sub? Wouldn't that ruin the sonic diversity?
Any and all thoughts appreciated.

John

[Horseshoe_or]

I have used Klipsch 8" tower speakers for the manuals and am happy with the results.

[AllenAnalog]

While the 5400 does have two 32' flue stops in the pedal, you could eliminate the B20 and its crossover for a residence installation and keep one HC-12 for that pedal channel. Stacking three speakers on their sides does not take up that much floor space. I have that physical arrangement flanking the console of my 5300 in its temporary setup. One stack would have three HC-15s and the other one two HC-15s and one HC-12 on the bottom.

IMHO, Bose speakers would be a terrible idea. Why bother to buy a 51-stop 6-channel organ if you are going to reduce the channel splitting so it sounds like a cheaper instrument?

[John Vanderlee]

I agree on the Bose.🤢I guess I will have to find out what her home Layout is. And how much space she really wants to allocate.

[mlaird]

There is truth in the old audiophile adage, "Got no highs? Got no lows? Must be Bose." Bose spends lots of money on advertising, and far less on accurate sound reproduction. I would not expect their systems to be able to reproduce a 16' stop correctly, much less a 32'. Just say no to that option.

Since this is an ADC model, I think it will need all the channels it can get in order to avoid phase cancellation problems between various notes. I would look for good quality audio speakers like Boston Acoustics, Klipsch, Polk, etc., and then fill in the bass with a subwoofer of some sort, Allen or otherwise. Avoid mixing down any of the channels if you can, and just find small enough speakers that you can fit them all in.

I had a similar problem with my recent "organ transplant" of a 3m Allen into my living room. It has 8 channels, 1 bass, 1 Festival Trumpet, and 6 main channels. I ended up building my own speakers for the 7 non-bass channels, and bought a good subwoofer to handle the 32' range. While building my own speakers took a lot longer than I was expecting, I'm happy with the results so far.

[John Vanderlee]

I also thought that "quality" smaller speakers would be the answer. Then, that and a decent sub like from SVS.
I recall a church that had an internal speaker Allen, like an ADC 400 series. They added Bose speakers on someone's recommendation so the sound would get "out".
They now have a Johannus!