Ohm Walsh F Hope of Resurrection

Thank you all for the continued advice and encouragement!

I have acted on one avenue of potential repair/restoration, which I found myself. My request from a local dealer went nowhere, and the request of a well regarded speaker repair shop about 1.5 hours away sank when they refused to work on it. That convinced me not to try by myself; good move, given I have zero experience in this activity.

My repair plan for the speakers involves two 12 hour round trip days in the car, as I was not interested in shipping them due to the potential for damage. I am willing to work a bit to get these drivers back into operating condition. The drivers have been in the possession of the repair facility, so they should be done sooner rather than later. Then, one more day in a car, and... COOL OMNI SPEAKERS TO ENJOY! ;)

In terms of the cabinet damage, where it is splitting along one of the front corners, at least a clean split from the outside; I will probably just shoot some glue into the fissure from the inside of the cabinet to prevent further compromise, probably use Gorilla Glue, and then put some wood putty into the gap. If I sand it down right, it shouldn’t be ghastly.

CALLING CABINET MAKERS/REPAIRERS... What do you think about that fix? The MDF seems to be the patchier kind, so trying to push hard on it and screw it back together might cause more damage. What’s the best stuff to shoot into the gap to hold it?


Lastly, I think I’ll try a simple, likely effective maneuver of placing about .5" pliable foam sheeting inside the cabinets (not glued, just put in position) to help with cabinet resonances. I suspect that will tighten it up a bit on the low end. Rapping on the cabinet is like ringing a wooden bell, even while the stock stuffing is inside! I’m not going to have that kind of distortion if I can help it. If my solution doesn’t work, I have not lost much and I pull it out. Or, maybe I can put steel straps inside, and fill the cabinets with 400 pounds of sand! ;) LOL I have filled one or two speaker cabinets in the past, and frankly, I didn’t like the result all that much. The bass on this will be like Harbeth, Audio Note, Tannoy, etc. with the hollow cabinet feel, which I’m not overly crazy about, but it’s an alternative toy. I don’t need to perfect it.

Imagine, these were a "last resort" call from the family who knew I was big into audio, as they were about to take them to the dump!

Hello Doug.  Remember when we sat listening to the TL-1 in Dale Harder's room at Axpona?  IMHO that was best in show.  After that I wouldn't bother with Ohm F, but to each his own and a good project is always interesting. Talk to Cascade Audio Engineering about coatings and appliques to damp MDF enclosures.  I have used their VBLOK paint to good effect inside various MDF cabinets. You can mix that with brass powder if you want to get fancy. They have since introduced a variety of padding conceived for automotive applications that may help as well.  Use two-part epoxy mixed with saw dust to repair or strengthen broken or crumbling MDF.

dgarretson, yes, I recall meeting you at Axpona, a very pleasant experience! Yes, Dale puts up a very nice speaker, no doubt. 

I appreciate the lead on the treatments for the cabinet! The epoxy/sawdust fix sounds like a winner! 

Time moves Oh, so s.l.o.w.l.y. when waiting for a repair!  ;) 

Repair now underway. It seems one driver is original and the other not. The original does not have ferrofluid, as it had not been invented at the time. A different lubricant, such as a grease, was used. At some point one driver failed and was replaced, the new unit utilizing ferrofluid.

The drivers are having spiders and surrounds rebuilt, the one with hardened/tacky ferrofluid has been cleaned, and both will be reconditioned with new ferrofluid. My understanding was that the original units were prone to failure, but the addition of ferrofluid ameliorated that problem. 

I may have reconditioned Ohm Walsh Model F’s for Christmas! That would be fun! :)