Ohm F remodel options

Thanks for the responses so far. I have an email in to Dale Harder. I hadn't been aware of Miller Sound, and will definitely check it out.

-P

OHM Fs are special and deserve preservation if at all possible.

It may or may not still be possible to restore original drivers to their original glory or something close enough, I just do not know for sure. I know OHM gave up on trying to do it years ago.

Restoring the surrounds may be the easy part. I have heard that the spiders in the voice coil tend to sag from gravitational pull and such over time and that affects the sound, etc. Also the foam material used in the driver rots. Just some things to be aware of that experienced OHM F repair shops should be able to address. I would not assume just any speaker repair shop can properly repair an OHM F Walsh driver. They are much different from conventional dynamic drivers.

Hey Mapman!

Pretty sure I'll be sending them to an extremely qualified shop, if I go the restored F route.

But honestly, the Ohm X000 (new series) drivers are still in play for me, on a cost-benefit basis.

At any rate, I have at least 6 months before I can actually do anything with them. I'm just hoping for a lot of ideas and debate in the meantime so that I make the best choice.

-P

If you find a place (Miller SOund?)that can reliably restore an original F driver properly, please let us know the details of what is done to accomplish that. As I indicated, OHM Fs are a piece of sound engineering history and should be preserved if possible. IS it possible or is the sound of a properly functioning OHM F only a valued thing of the past at this point?

My understanding is that Dale Harder replaces the original driver with his own new and approved version. It may sound fantastic at that point, but it technically is an "OHM F" in general appearance only at that point. His driver is a new, different and I would assume much improved design.

My OHM F-5s use original OHM F cabinets. Though the Walsh 5 drivers have level adjustments to enable them to fit into smaller rooms, the main sound advantage of these are in larger rooms. OHM does fit smaller drivers into the larger OHM F cabinets as well. This probably provides additional bass extension versus a smaller cabinet via porting. Whether this is beneficial compared to the same CLS driver in a smaller cabinet will probably depend on the room size and layout and listener preference. Personally, I would prefer having a smaller driver and cabinet in a smaller room in that the omni Walsh drivers sound best with room around them to "breathe" IMO. For normal listening, putting my F5s in my smaller room had no practical or sound advantage over the smaller 100s that normally reside there.

Despite many claims to the contrary, these are unusual and classic drivers, very, very few have the know how to restore them. I've heard about nightmares from others who have had supposed experts completely destroy them. If the cost of restoration has you contemplating an Ohm replacement, please reconsider. Perhaps you can sell them as is, to someone willing to do it right. Original Walsh drivers are hard to find and deserve appropriate restoration. Though Dale's version might not be an exact replica of the original Walsh driver, it appears to be much closer to the original design goals than the new Ohm subsitutes.