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

Hyperion85 - Yes, Mapman, as usual, provided solid advice. I have heard various Mirage models. The better ones, like the OMD line, do indeed sound really good. But they are very different designs from the Walsh line. After 2 years with my Ohm Walsh 2000s, though, I have no regrets at all. In fact, as I have made improvements to the rest of my system, the 2000s have responded with more and more magnificent sound. I just listened to all 3 discs of the Riki Lee Jones compilation "The Dutchess of Coolsville." Besides wondering why I never paid more attention to Jones as an incredible performer, I was almost moved to tears by the beauty of this well produced Red Book CD.

To me, and this is where the Ohms may diverge from the Mirages, the Ohms present just the right amount of transient information, enough so that you can tell it's all there, but not so much that it becomes overwhelming at higher volumes, or so much that it masks other details in the music. This past Sunday, I heard a $40,000 speaker system on a rig that cost easily $100K, in a treated room. Was it a great stereo? Yes. Did it do everything better than my modest system? Nope. When it was cranked, this pricey system made me wince with a blaring quality in the upper mids. My Ohms almost never do that, at any volume, unless the source material is really peaky in this range. Listening to that Riki Lee Jones CD, I realized that if someone offered me those $40K speakers as a cash-free trade for my Ohms, I would turn down the offer. Seriously.

Give some time for your 1000s to break in (it's absolutely a big factor with the Ohm Walsh speakers). Experiment with toe-in, remembering that with this series, toe-in reduces upper-treble output from the super-tweeter at the listening seat, and toe-out increases it. Get the speakers level and level with each other. And try different locations if you can. When properly set up, the soundstage on these speakers is not only huge, but accurate to the source recording, with excellent image placement and solidity.

As I have often said about these speakers, I may upgrade many other parts of my system and try to improve my room, but the Ohms are staying for the long haul.

In fact I own a walsh 2xo, 4xo, pro 200 sound cylner and my best, ohm walsh 300 mk 2 rebuilt drivers by ohm upgraded to the 4000 series.

Armyscout41,

It's obvious from other posts you appreciate the Ohms and, along with Mapman, seem to have owned a number of different models. Care to elaborate on the differences between the models above? Have you heard the newer designs?

FWIW, I picked up a used pair of MWTs for surround speakers and also bought an Ohm Walsh center (smaller model). The center and MWTs are both very similar in voicing to my Walsh 2000s (current model). The MWTs were a little less dynamic than the 2000s, but with my subwoofers kicking in below 80 Hz, there was little apparent difference between the MWTs and the 2000s. One of the Ohm Walsh strengths, IMHO, is the uniformity of voicing throughout the line, even between older and newer models.

John Strohbeen goes for a certain kind of sound. If you like it, I bet you will like any speaker he has ever designed. The newer designs might just be more of a good thing if you like the Ohm sound.

Oh, and yet another mega-buck speaker that I would not trade my 2000s for: Just heard the Martin Logan CLX flagship, run on Pass amps and Esoteric source gear. They were very nice, but I still prefer my humble Ohms, at a little over 1/10 the price!

I thought I'd weigh in, since I've had a pair of Ohm 5000's for about 6 mo now.  Originally, I had looked at electrostatics (Martin Logans) but they were more expensive and I was intrigued that Walsh drivers were still made, having last heard them ca 1977.  Also, the fact that the company would offer upgrade kits to speakers made over 30 years ago sold me on them as having a quality product and outstanding customer service.  I chose my 5000's in Bubinga wood and John was very nice in not charging me extra for the exotic product.  He even sent me several samples to choose from to help me make up my mind.  The speakers came triple boxed and of course unscathed.  The construction is great, no scratches or flaws.  They are well broken in now and sound fantastic!  I find that the audio sources and the recordings themselves are the most important factors in enjoyment of the speakers. Hooking up my iPod is great for background music if I'm having a party, but no way would I sit down and listen for pleasure with that.

Ok, so what's my setup? I started with a tube preamplifier of unusual design, probably the first in the states to own a Ming Da MD300 APS (sourced through Pacific Valve & Electric).  The initial stage uses 6SN7's, and I use VT-231's from WWII.  The final stage is 300B's, and I have Gold Lions from Genalex (Russian).  This can be a bit microphonic so I installed tube dampers to help quiet them. The sound stage is amazing when using this with the 5000's, really makes one feel you are AT the concert and you can place the instruments easily.  This preamp comes very, very close to a SET sound, which is what i was looking for.  I paired the preamplifier with a Sumo Polaris II that's about 20 years old.  At 6 ohms it puts out 170W per channel and I've never even begun to think I'm underpowered.  So for me tube/SS has worked out well, getting the SET sound I wanted without having to go for a super efficient horn speaker like a Klipsch.

My speaker wire is an old Monster Cable product which is no longer made- it's braided from 8 cables in a Litzendraht design that results in very low capacitance. 

I bought a Sansui TU-919 from eBay for my tuner, and I'm very pleased 
with it. I originally used a HD radio from Sony but decided on an analog unit from the late '70s. 

Nothing special for the CD, except it's an Onkyo C-S5VL that comes with a very good Wolfson DAC and plays SACD.  I don't fiddle with the different digital audio filters, just use the factory settings.  Some SACD's are scary good- Pink Floyd DSOTM and Who's Tommy come to mind.  The bass response is great on these SACD's, but it's also impressive on CD's, like Zappa's Inca Roads.

Vinyl (Pro-Ject 5.1) can be fantastic, like the Blind Faith I picked up for $5, but sometimes recordings sound quite bright. Haven't figured that one out yet. 

It's nice at the age of 58, four kids out of the house, to get back to my musical roots and have an old school setup to showcase the Ohm 5000. 

James

Carja,

Nice. Thanks for sharing that!

WOuld love to see some pictures of the 5000s in Bubinga wood.

IS it a veneer or solid Bubinga? I'm guessing the first, especially of no extra cost.

I ask because I see Bubinga is an exotic wood sought for use in instrument construction, similar perhaps to Baltic Birch.

There are many very exotic and well received speaker lines out there that construct their cabinets from these kinds of exotic woods that lend themselves well to musical intruments as well in that this is a key aspect of the actual sound of such designs. I've often wondered what a pair of OHM Walsh speakers with similar construction might sound like. I think the results could be quite extraordinary if done right, but a different tuning process would probably be required for the Walsh driver, so I think it would entail a significantly different functional design.

Just curious. I suspect yours are babinga veneer which would not change the OHM Walsh design for sonic reasons, but would still deliver the usual still excellent sound plus being more lovely to look at.

Enjoy!