Ownership and Review of a pair of Ohm Super Sound Cylinder

On the OHM speaker website, JS indicates a resolution to update his news blog there more regularly this year. A great place to go to learn about the nuts and bolts of home sound reproduction in general as well as his specific approach with OHM.

Here’s a tidbit recently posted I found interesting:

"Speakers are designed to sound their most ‘natural’ and ‘accurate’ at a specific listening level. At Ohm, we have chosen the sound level heard on the ground floor, rows K-P in Carnegie Hall – be it a solo violinist or full orchestra and chorus. "

I find most things JS says there tend to ring true with me, which I guess helps explain why I like these speakers as much as I do.

@mapman interestingly, in the Strohbeen/Guttenberg interview, John admits he really doesn't have a system of his own.  He attends live performances regularly.  I think this affects how he voices his speakers.

I’ve had my 5000’s for about 5 months now. They were purchased used, and the cans needed a little work, as did a few other things. Some additional thoughts.

1. John and Evan are very reasonable on repairs. I’ve been talking to them about updating/re-doing my old Pro-200’s and other than shipping (which isn’t their fault) it also sounds reasonable.

2. The speakers really are good. Mine are older 5000’s and I’m guessing an incremental change has been done here or there but while not perfect, they just do so much right.

3. I’m trying to decide if I think they sound better with the grills off. There is a slight difference in sound. I wish there was a really clean way to have just a black grill, that was a sock that might use a small snap ring around the top and bottom of the can. I think it could look cool, and work really well . (try to imagine a small ring that went around the top, just a sock below, and a slightly bigger snap ring that covered the bottom of the can and the bolts. Ah, how I wish I was a machinist!

4. I’m also using them in my surround sound system, still working on Audyssey XT 32 with them. I tend to like it better with it turned off for my mains, but in use for the center (ohm 3000) and rears (the micro walsh). I do have a dedicated 2 channel pre-amp and amp. I’m playing around with amps, and pre-amps just to listen for differences. I hear them for sure. BUT with the 5000’s the EQ on the back really makes differences.

I think the biggest bargain (if buying new) is probably the SC4900’s. In fact, in the right room I think using 5 of them would make for an awesome surround system.

As for John and OHM’s room suggestions... I’m torn. No question the mids and highs are all voiced the same. Bass is such a personal preference/room/floor/null’s thing. I like bass (not an absurd amount but a little hot). I’m in a finished basement so it’s carpet over concrete. My room is only 13x17x9. I run the bass/mid bass in the "middle" of the 5000’s adjustments. I have the two upper ranges on the high position. But, I have pass labs gear and my room is pretty neutral.

Oh, the live-end/dead end thing that john talks about. 100% true. Other than dispersion I have nothing in the front half of my room anymore. I have GIK panels at what would be the 2nd reflection points, which are on the side walls right in front of my listening position. I do have bass traps in the rear corners and more dispersion.

Overall, still really, really happy with them. Oh, and if you want them to play loud... they can and they just don’t compress.

There are some downsides... Fit and finish is solid, but not the absolute best out there in their price range (that is salk all day long), Wait times can be a bit sporatic and you have to get over the do they use the best drivers, capacitors etc)? I’m completely convinced on the capacitor thing now that spending a ton doesn’t make sense. I do have this twinge... wondering what John could do with a "top notch, sort of based on cost of course" woofer and tweeter.

That said, very few speakers I would rather have for under 10k. The new Salk SS 9.5 interests me, I’ve always like the JBL m2’s... other than that probably something at least like the Vandersteen Quattro CT.

I’m in Michigan, and if anyone wants a demo you can drop me a PM, happy to demo them.

Also willing to give my opinions vs a lot of other speakers I’ve owned...

Klipsch Palladium P37
Golden Ear Triton 2
Klipsch epic CF4
Salk SS8
NHT 3.3
JBL 3900
Spatial M3 S Turbo (fun, fun speaker for the money)
DynAudio Contour 60
and some older ones over the years... Klipsch Quartets, KG4, the Ohm Pro 200’s

This is a long description of my ownership experience, ending with a discovery I made that worked for me.  I hope this may be of help to others. 

I bought my new Ohm Walsh 2000s about 10 months ago, and have been a little ”torn" on deciding just how much I like them, until recently.  From the beginning they felt a little too thin and airy, like the mid/upper bass was just a little too light.  I knew they are very position dependent, and I spent a lot of time trying slightly different locations.  Too close to the wall and the lower bass gets boomy and muddy; too far from the wall and all the voices reminded me of children's voices, with all others sounds just lacking in fullness.  At the best position I could find for my room, it was good.  Just good, not great.  After all the steller reviews, and almost $3,000 spent, I was kind of disappointed.  Except there were flashes of greatness, where certain instruments sounded so much like it was in the room with me that it was startling.  And the sweet spot is, as advertised, a really big portion of the room.  The imaging is good, I think.  It does sound like the music is coming from the entire front wall of my great room, instead of just  a couple point sources.  I should mention that I do have a nice subwoofer, but the "problem" is more in the mid and upper bass.

I let the return period pass because of the hassle of trying to (triple!) rebox these big, heavy things, and the expense of shipping, and thinking that maybe my expectations were unrealistic and maybe this is about the best I can get at this price point.  I haven't actually heard many high end systems, so most of my expectations are just based on written reviews and YouTube videos (looking at you, Zeos!).  Then a few months ago (while looking for ways to improve the sound after realizing that I really should have returned them while I could), I read an article on the Ohm Walsh website about "How big is a big room".  It seemed to me that the problem is that my great room is much bigger than is recommended for the 2000s.  I talked to Evan about this, and he agreed that it sounded like I would benefit from moving up to the 4000's or the SSC 4900.    They were willing to give me a 75% trade in value, but that felt steep to me considering that I was only 2 months beyond the free return period and I was buying a much more expense set of speakers from them.  Still, it was truly my fault for not taking care of this during the very generous 4 month trial period.  

While debating my options (and continuing to try to decide if there even was an actual problem at all), I read something about Dirac room correction software.  I already had a MiniDSP 2x4HD, and it could be downloaded as a software upgrade.  Dirac is supposed to automatically measure and compensate for some of the acoustic flaws that all rooms have, but in some way that goes beyond a typical EQ, something involving phase and timing.  It also allows manual tweaking of the target frequency response curve.   I had played with making some eq-type changes using the MiniDSP parametric equalizer and REQ room acoustic analysis software, but that gets very complicated and I just didn't have that kind of time.  The results I got from my brief efforts: meh.  So, I ran the Dirac room correction on the stock/recommended frequncy curve, and it sounded better!  After a couple weeks, ran it again and played with the frequency response curve to boost the bass a little (a lot!) more, and now it sounds exactly like I always wished it did.  Exactly!  I love the sound of everything it plays, now!  Couldn't be happier.  And I had no idea that I was a bass-head!

@osteopic 

I think most people like bass and tend to like it a little bumped up.  No shame in that, it's part of the fun, and the fletcher munson curve effect is well documented.

If you have a bigger room, it's nice that the DSP is helping, but you owe it to yourself to keep an eye out for some used 4000's or 5000's (4900's used would be very tough to find).

Your 2000's would sell rather quickly if history is any indicator.

I've got the 5000's in a 13 x 17 x 9 room, I run the bass and mid-bass "in the middle" as far as the adjustments go.  They thump and I have no need for a subwoofer, I could adjust the EQ if necessary.  Also nice for home theater as I now have my subwoofer in the back of the room, and with the mains crossed at 40 for HT I am getting a more even bass response in the room since the OHM's put out such great bass.

But, you would love the 5000's I suspect.  Essentially a 4 band EQ built into the speaker.

That said, new - the 4900's are the bargain!