Allen R-230 Audio Issues

[JAXorganist1990]

Hi all,
Just brought home an Allen R-230 yesterday. It had been stored backstage at a school for awhile and relatively unused. It came with 4 HR-200 speakers. Once I got it there and installed, I noticed that there is pretty bad distortion when the external speakers are switched on. Whenever I turn them off and use only the internal speakers, the problem seems to go away. Overall, the organ sounds a bit quieter than it should. I checked the channel levels in the console controller and the outputs on the amp itself, and everything there seems to be in order. For what it's worth, the MIDI is coming through at a normal level, so the audio is just fine there.

Is this an amp issue or is this possibly just a loose or dirty connection somewhere?

[you795a]

I would check to see that the speakers and cables are connected correctly and all connections are secured. The other possibility that I can think of is that the contacts in the relay itself could be dirty. There is a way that you can bypass the relay by using a wire from AMP1 to Main SP1 on the univrel relay board and another wire from AMP2 to Main SP2. That would bypass the relay. If it clears up then the problem is in the relay. Just be careful that you don't short anything out. That is a nice model.

[myorgan]

What ^^^ said. I chased a distortion sound through the cards, amplifiers, and everything else in my ADC-5400, only to discover it was the contacts in the relay, as stated above. Bypass it, and I'm sure you'll find the issue is resolved.

If the organ is softer through the relay, that's because on the secondary channel of the relay is generally used for antiphonal speakers. I'm not sure, but I'm think perhaps the channels could be reversed so the external speakers receive the main signal.

Michael

[JAXorganist1990]

Can you walk me through this? Sending a pic of the relay in a moment

[JAXorganist1990]

[myorgan]

To reverse the speakers, simply switch the two brown wires on one half of the relay with the brown wires on the other half of the relays. You will notice under the wires, there is white lettering probably saying something like Main 1 | Com | Ant 1. The other half will have similar labels like Main 2 | Com | Ant 2. Make sure you switch like-connection with like-connection, otherwise you might reverse the polarity of the speaker (not a major issue, but troublesome nonetheless).

When responding, I had assumed you set up the organ yourself. Is this not the case?

Michael

P.S. The horizontal sliders with the C-collar adjust the volume of the Antiphonal (in this case, External) speakers. You can experiment with those to find out which direction makes the external speakers louder.

[you795a]

To bypass the relay with the external speakers, move the brown sleeved red and black wires to the yellow and black terminals and also move the other set of red and black wires to the green and black terminals. This will bypass the main relay. The antiphonal speakers will still function. To make the internal speakers louder, move the sliders toward the center of the circuit board. To make them softer, move then towards the end of the circuit board. Do this with the organ off so you don't accidentally short anything.