Ohm Walsh Micro Talls: who's actually heard 'em?

We're working on it. We might even reference Micro Walsh Tall's again :)

(just kidding. This is my favorite thread)

I took a chance and ordered a pair of the micro talls back in September. I wish I'd discovered Ohm in the 70's. The micro talls are the most revealing, room filling, addictive speakers I've ever owned. These speakers make me want to re-listen to all the music I have, and I've never had the urge to do that with any other speakers I've heard or owned. I've had a Carver audio component in the past with the Sonic Holography feature, and the Ohms give the same 3-D presentation without being stuck in a "sweet spot". Sometimes when I'm listening with my eyes closed, I feel like I'm listening with my headphones. I can't recomend ohm speakers enough. For anyone looking for a new set of speakers, you'd be foolish not to try the 120 day home trial with a money back guarantee. The only way Ohm will ever get these speakers back is if I choose to upgrade, or they come and pry them from my cold, dead fingers

The most remarkable audio illusion I experienced with the Ohms was when I was listening to environmental CD of breaking surf with the sound of seagulls, with eyes closed the room disappeared, it sounded as if I was really there on the beach. If salt air and a breeze were added I think someone could be fooled if they did not know better.

CDC,

Regarding omnis and added reverb.

You could look at this another way: Every speaker is an omni.

For signals below 150hz or so. So called "Omnis" merely continue this radiation pattern throughout the audible frequency range. From this viewpoint, your question should read:

"What happens to the intended reverb on a recording when you effectively remove that intended reverb by restricting the radiation pattern above 150 hz?"

It is your phrasing that begs the question. There is no "default" reproduction dispersion pattern - unless you believe that the recording was intended for replay in a specific environment. That's because every room impacts the response of every speaker system differently, with a single commonality: There is - generally speaking - an increasingly destructive impact as frequency drops into the bass range, where all speakers provide omnipolar dispersion. Bummer.

As to my opinion of "waveguides", the phrase is used in many ways, so it's hard to respond. I assume that you mean a (truncated) horn, as this is IME the most common usage. My (rather limited) experience here is pretty similar to that for other designs. Zingalis - which I own - sound different from SAP and Avantegarde, the two other horn systems with which I'm rather familiar. OTOH, the later two are full blown horns, rather than truncated "waveguides" so we may not be talking strictly apples to apples here.

Like the broad similarities in imaging between omni designs, I would note that different horn/waveguide designs can share the ability to mitigate damage from difficult rooms or difficult positioning in better rooms. The effect of this (obviously) varies from room to room. In a well designed room, it may prove either beneficial or disadvantageous - or both, varying with your program choices.

Beyond that, I'd say that these designs vary as widely in overall tonality as most other designs. If your room presents issues, then find a speaker with appropriate restrictions to dispersion. This might mean a waveguide/horn or maybe a planar design with little output to the sides. Just recognize that this doesn't mean that such a design will be superior in a different environment. Horses for courses, you could say.

And, either way, you have to then find an example that works for you tonally.

Again IMO and IME.

Marty

Joefish,

I've always been something of a "soundstage addict," myself. I even owned in the 1980's (and still have in a box somewhere) a Carver Sonic Hologram Generator.
The theory was the the C-9 injected a certain amount of out-of-phase info into the output signal, so as to "cancel interaural crosstalk..." precisely, as you say, to create a "headphone" experience through speaker systems.

As I remember, the C-9 had only two control buttons, each with a Hi/Low toggle:
"Injection Ratio" controlled the intensity of the effect.
"Listening Window" controlled the size of the "sweet spot."

The pleasantness or unpleasantness of the C-9 depended heavily on the source material. Some material could sound artificially echoey and weird. Tracks that had voices or instruments panned totally to the left or right channel (think some Beatles tunes, for example) tended to really show off the effect: you'd hear sounds coming from way, way beyond the outer, physical boundaries of the speakers. It was not unlike what you get from the SRS processing in some boom boxes today.

In my setup, the Ohm "holography" is more subtle. It has more to do with retrieval of a sense of ambience, if that makes any sense. And some sounds/ instruments will fill the listening space in a very convincing and pleasing way.

John Strohbeen once said to me that the CLS driver's soundstaging characteristics tended to shine on two very different kinds of recordings: purist, live recordings with minimal miking, and heavily processed studio tracks where the engineer has deliberately manipulated phase artifacts to give the illusion of spaciousness.