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

@mapman 

Thanks for all of the comparisons.  I have to ask about what "laid back" means to you and what you are hearing?

I would probably say that for me, "laid back" suggests that the high mids and treble may be down a few db thereby giving two impressions....first that you are listening from row 20...and second, that some of the top end detail is missing....or that you are straining to hear it.

Somehow, though, my interpretations seems incorrect vs what many have said about the Ohms.  Example....you equate the Ohms to the LS50s for detail, coherency and attack...and having owned the LS50s for a while, I agree and would not at all suggest that the top end was rolled off or that they were laid back?

One thing though that I would say about the LS50s is that in a large room, even when crossed over to a 15" sealed sub, they still sounded relatively small...and so I had to let them go....on the other hand, I heard the Blade 2s at the Florida audio show in a small crappy room...and they still sounded excellent in every respect.

My ls50s are in a small 12X12 room with a powered sub. I would not use them in a large room.

My 8" and 12" Ohms are both in much larger rooms. Tweets in the standard design are angled in 45 degrees and cross well in front of my usual listening position. Sometimes I listen from a different location with more direct exposure and that tends to make things more like others that tend to have tweets facing forward.

You can also angle out the Ohms for more direct sound from tweets to tip up the treble, but that tends to narrow the soundstage, so its a balancing act. I tend to not do that.

My Ohm 5s have the 4 3 way frequency level adjustments, one in midrange and one in treble. Those adjustments make the big OHMs like the current 5000 very adjustable for personal preferences. There are 4 3 way level adjustments on each speak. That provides 3 to the 8th power or 6561 different combos making it easy to tune them to most any room and personal preference as needed. So I do not really perceive any lacking treble. However, I would note that I have older ears that do not hear out to 20khz anymore like they used to, so its possible others may hear things differently.

For me, the unique lifelike imaging of the Ohms (also mbl) as a whole provide a much more detailed listening experience overall when set up right than conventional speakers. That applies not just in cases where speakers like Magnepan shine, ie very well recorded smaller acoustic works, but good quality big dynamic large scale recordings, like orchestra and big band, which is where I found Magnepans to be lacking prior.

Laid back to me means pretty much what you said. I’ve heard large mbls set up optimally. Those tend to be similarly laid back as well. I’d say its a tendency of omni design speakers in general compared to those that fire straight at you. Magnepans fire forward and back and require a lot of distance to walls, so those are a different story all together.

John speaks to his imaging philosophy: "My reference sound level is the level I enjoy in a live setting, sitting in the center about 12-15 rows back in Carnegie Hall: be the performance a solo singer or full orchestra."
https://ohmspeaker.com/news/speaker-size-how-small-is-too-small/

Yes, and having been in Carnegie Hall listening and knowing that, I would say he does a very good job.

Of course, that is the reference sound but actual perspective at home will vary case by case based on the room and listening position relative to the speakers.

As you move further back or more forward in the room or around in general, the perspective will change. That can only happen with the omni imaging and practically full room sweet range of Ohms and their ilk like mbl.

Also the gear upstream feeding the Ohms can also have a very big effect on resulting imaging, level of detail and tonality, though you don’t need anything fancy to get just "good" sound out of the Ohms. Ohms are designed for all music lovers, not just audiophiles.

Yes, I even hear those differences when I change between certain interconnects and power cords with my Ohms perhaps more so than with any of the other speakers I have ever used.  They are very revealing speakers.   

Understand.  I was just logging back in to say I know I mixed terms (sound level and imaging), but I think the statement is still representative of how he approaches the entire endeavor.
There are a lot of blog posts on the Ohm site, and they are worth reading through.  You get a pretty good idea of how John thinks about his business and his products, including the topics you asked about.
-austingonzo