Ziinda
Active Member
I have a set of 3 way 12" omegas the mid is made by DLK (in Minnesota) the woofers are CTS (same thing used in countless old electric organs during the 70s and 80s. One of my woofers has a bad coil and I haven't paid much attention to them since I bought them years ago. The crossover is basically non-existent maybe 2 caps, thin wires and the cabinets were cheaply made. Reminded me of the old Sonic brand.
I figured if I picked up a few free organs I might come across a matching woofer. I tore one apart years ago and I have to say that those old organs had a ton of point to point hand wiring in them and to even think of doing any repairs would be insane. The wires are all run in huge bundles with all the same color wires and rarely do they use any plugs for connections.
They're made tough, like fall off the back of a truck going 65 mph and only have scrapes tough. The tear down was a bitch and the amp in the one I had was not a tube amp. The driver was an 8" and it had that all important, spinning mount that worked from a foot pedal to control the speed of the spin. What I found was a mix of switches, all types, some sealed, some heavy duty, multi poles and multiple settings in huge arrays, some like old slot machine multi blade types only they were all pristine in the organ while most Slot machines switches always look so burnt and beat up from use.
There was a bucket full of old huge capacitors, they are all pica-farad ratings and they're enormous. I tested most of them and found they were all still perfect and reading nearly exactly as they are rated. The leads tend to break off easily and they are soldered directly to each other using multi post wire posts to serve as the board. Crazy labor intensive design. A wire cutters was a must to get started I was bummed when I didn't find a CTS 12" driver after all the work dismantling it. Laid in pieces there was so much there, the case was like piano hard wood. Weighed a ton and was thick. All screws were slotted so it made it that much harder to remove them.
Cheaper or "off brand" organs can still be found for free if you look, 10 years ago there were tons of them posted for free, at first they'd ask some crazy high price and over time they'd reduce them and realize that they'd have a hard time getting rid of it and would end up actually having to pay some one to haul it away. Then they'd post for free and they still couldn't get rid of them.
Finding out which ones have tube amps and good drivers is a must if your looking for a matching Omega driver, of course the dust cap will need to be reused from the old driver since they so boldly marked them with their label.
Probably be better off replacing with a better driver all together since the driver isn't really that good to begin with. The mids in mine have a bright metallic green frame and hefty magnets, the tweeters are typical paper cones like Bose and most others used in everything during that time period.
Overall not impressed by the one that worked and never thought about them till I saw this post.
The tweeter has a very similar look to a ribbon tweeter that Trio Kenwood made as a super tweeter, they may have been trying to copy that look.
I have the matching mids and I think I have the crossover. These could be an interesting replacement for those in the omegas. Surely would bring the power rating down. I found the need for a fuse being used with speakers rated at 400w to be strange? I have to ask what the rating is, I have a Bose crossover that has a series of light bulbs for protection. I always hated that type of protection. It just limits the tweeter output and destroys the sound.
I figured if I picked up a few free organs I might come across a matching woofer. I tore one apart years ago and I have to say that those old organs had a ton of point to point hand wiring in them and to even think of doing any repairs would be insane. The wires are all run in huge bundles with all the same color wires and rarely do they use any plugs for connections.
They're made tough, like fall off the back of a truck going 65 mph and only have scrapes tough. The tear down was a bitch and the amp in the one I had was not a tube amp. The driver was an 8" and it had that all important, spinning mount that worked from a foot pedal to control the speed of the spin. What I found was a mix of switches, all types, some sealed, some heavy duty, multi poles and multiple settings in huge arrays, some like old slot machine multi blade types only they were all pristine in the organ while most Slot machines switches always look so burnt and beat up from use.
There was a bucket full of old huge capacitors, they are all pica-farad ratings and they're enormous. I tested most of them and found they were all still perfect and reading nearly exactly as they are rated. The leads tend to break off easily and they are soldered directly to each other using multi post wire posts to serve as the board. Crazy labor intensive design. A wire cutters was a must to get started I was bummed when I didn't find a CTS 12" driver after all the work dismantling it. Laid in pieces there was so much there, the case was like piano hard wood. Weighed a ton and was thick. All screws were slotted so it made it that much harder to remove them.
Cheaper or "off brand" organs can still be found for free if you look, 10 years ago there were tons of them posted for free, at first they'd ask some crazy high price and over time they'd reduce them and realize that they'd have a hard time getting rid of it and would end up actually having to pay some one to haul it away. Then they'd post for free and they still couldn't get rid of them.
Finding out which ones have tube amps and good drivers is a must if your looking for a matching Omega driver, of course the dust cap will need to be reused from the old driver since they so boldly marked them with their label.
Probably be better off replacing with a better driver all together since the driver isn't really that good to begin with. The mids in mine have a bright metallic green frame and hefty magnets, the tweeters are typical paper cones like Bose and most others used in everything during that time period.
Overall not impressed by the one that worked and never thought about them till I saw this post.
The tweeter has a very similar look to a ribbon tweeter that Trio Kenwood made as a super tweeter, they may have been trying to copy that look.
I have the matching mids and I think I have the crossover. These could be an interesting replacement for those in the omegas. Surely would bring the power rating down. I found the need for a fuse being used with speakers rated at 400w to be strange? I have to ask what the rating is, I have a Bose crossover that has a series of light bulbs for protection. I always hated that type of protection. It just limits the tweeter output and destroys the sound.