Allen Organ Company HC-12 first impressions

bermnerfs said:
This is a cool thread to stumble on!

I recently picked up a set of HC10f's for $50. After recapping the crossover, these things kick butt :banana:. Plenty of bottom end with great mids and highs.

I will say they are sensitive, but love power. They sound best so far with 100 WPC or more. I love how huge and heavy these beasts are.
Click to expand...

Bermnerfs, from everything I have learned, (after lots of searching for information on Allen Organ speakers) the HC10 speakers were Allen Organs first sealed cabinet speakers with higher quality drivers and a more advanced crossover. They should be an excellent sounding pair of speakers!
 
Leben said:
Bermnerfs, from everything I have learned, (after lots of searching for information on Allen Organ speakers) the HC10 speakers were Allen Organs first sealed cabinet speakers with higher quality drivers and a more advanced crossover. They should be an excellent sounding pair of speakers!
Click to expand...

Thanks. I think we both have some hidden gems in the vintage audio realm. I emailed AOC and they were great. They sent me a response with the history of the model and related schematics.

The recap was my first and very straight forward. The crossover is the beefiest I have seen.

I'm keeping an eye out for one of their subwoofers next
 
I parted out four of these Allen organ speakers , the woofer in mine had foam rot along with the Peerless mid ranges , i got rid of the cabinets , keep the mid ranges , tweeters and crossovers .I used two of the tweeters to repair a pair of Mission 737's i got from toxcrusadr , put new surrounds on all 8 the mid ranges and will use 4 of them and two of the tweeters along with an 8 inch woofer and the Hc-12 crossovers the make a pair of speakers .

The tweeters and mid ranges are as good as you get in voice coil speakers for when they where made . Magnapans smear the sound , electrostatics like Quads and Acoustat's have a tiny window to listen in ( have had both ) the Peerless 4 inch sound better than a KEF B110 in a lot of applications

The
 
Battradio, where did you source the surrounds for the mids? Are your replacement surrounds inverted like the originals? Mine do not need them yet but I know they will in time.

When you decide to make a pair of speakers using the Allen drivers I hope that you will start a thread so others can follow. I would be interested to know which 8" woofer you decide to use.
 
Last edited:
I did get a prompt and courteous reply from Allen but I did not get all of the information I was hoping for. I was hoping to find the specs on the drivers but that information is not published and is proprietary.

Diamondsouled, you are fortunate to have one of their tube amps. I am hoping to end up with one someday, I have heard they are very good.
 
Leben said:
Battradio, where did you source the surrounds for the mids? Are your replacement surrounds inverted like the originals? Mine do not need them yet but I know they will in time.

When you decide to make a pair of speakers using the Allen drivers I hope that you will start a thread so others can follow. I would be interested to know which 8" woofer you decide to use.
Click to expand...

I got them from Matt electronics , the ones i used are butel rubber , and they are inverted



I should have dusted them off .
 
Battradio, thank you for the source on the surrounds! I really like that they are inverted. It's a plus for me that they are butyl instead of foam. I will look into ordering some.

AK is a great resource full of helpful people. I want to say thanks to everyone that has contributed information to this thread, it is very much appreciated
 
The voice coil is 2 inches I have the same set of four Alan HC 12's upgraded to the single mid range with the same crossovers just so happen to one of the magnets had fallen off so I was able to measure it for you there are no markings on the woofers at least nothing by eminence and my mid and tweeter is the same as yours I also have two Allen organ amps both 100 W amps unfortunately they are later models and not to vamps I have never used them but I'm looking forward to trying them thank you all for all the information I've been looking at that for a long time and these are the most recent threads I've seen
 
Raje7, thanks for the voice coil information. I enjoy figuring out whatever I can about these speakers.

I'm continuing to use these in my main listening area. I tend to prefer a brighter top end than the dome tweeters provide but I like the clarity of the mids and the bass that the woofers are capable of putting out. I may experiment with using horns or smaller Heils as tweeters in the future. I am happy to continue using these the way they are though.
 
I wanted to post the crossover schematic here so I can easily find it. Perhaps it will be of some use to others in the future as well.

20151012_144516_zpsjmrftq8c.jpg
 
I figured I would update this thread since I have had more time to listen to these.

I have noticed that the HC-12s seem bass heavy. Out of all the speakers that I own, these are the only ones that I feel the need to use tone controls for. I can relate with Cubby01 that they sound muddy at times. I would like to try Bi-amping these using an active crossover to see if the reason is the crossover. I fully acknowledge that it may never happen since I have been focusing my attention on horn DIY.

These have been rotated back to the garage where they still see regular use.
 
Bought a pair for $14.
Haven't tried them yet but they are now doing duty as speaker stands for some University 315 C's that I bought for 60.
I'm a lucky so and so.
 
Hey guys I have a couple of these terrific speakers and I want to pull the base drivers and make a sub with them for my home.
They will be working with ads L1290s.
How low will they go if I put them in the proper size box and what is the size of the box?
 
Jim Pearce said:
Hey guys I have a couple of these terrific speakers and I want to pull the base drivers and make a sub with them for my home.
They will be working with ads L1290s.
How low will they go if I put them in the proper size box and what is the size of the box?
Click to expand...
IMO, they can make pretty good subs in the cabinets that they’re in Keep in mind HC-12s were designed to play 32’ pedal stops for organ music (16hz). I’m not saying they play as low or as well as higher quality subs but they do play low. I have never measured them so I’m going off of specs and my own ears.

I previously used 4 HC-12s (woofers only) as subwoofers in a tri-amped system. IMO, they worked very well as subs in that system. The more of them I added, the better the system sounded. In smaller indoor spaces, I would think 2 should be sufficient.
622B26FD-7345-4CF9-A14A-8051FCEF3C9E.jpeg
 
Leben said:
I wanted to post the crossover schematic here so I can easily find it. Perhaps it will be of some use to others in the future as well.

20151012_144516_zpsjmrftq8c.jpg
Click to expand...
Sorry to revive such an old thread, but I have a pair of Allen HC12's mounted on the wall of my church. These cabinets were special ordered to match the church's woodwork perfectly, so replacing the entire cabinet is not an option. I have been looking for appropriate drivers to replace the OEM speakers in the cabinet, but need to know the approximate cutoff frequencies of this crossover. Allen has not released any technical specifications regarding these cabinets, I am hopeful there is someone who can shed some light.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom