Line: I can rattle off all kinds of reasons as to why the F's are ( theoretically ) technically superior to anything that Ohm makes today. I've covered some of that in previous posts pertaining to Ohm's and their Walsh series of products.
The fact that all of their newer products are vented compared to their sealed designs in the past tells me that they are no longer the same company. When one fully understands the design benefits & drawbacks of each approach, it would be hard to switch from one to the other, especially in the manner that Ohm did. Then again, vented boxes are cheaper to produce than sealed boxes are, so that may explain part of the equation in itself.
As to asking John at Ohm as to what he thinks sounds better, what type of response did you think you were going to get? Read the comments above about the complexity of this driver and then you'll understand why they stopped producing them. The fact that the amount of time that it takes for them to hand build one F driver is probably equivalent to building an entire set of their current speakers may explain some things. That is, time equals money. The less time and labour that you have in a product that you can sell for the same price equals a higher profit margin. Less cost on the drivers, less cost on the cabinets and same or even higher asking price. Hmmmm....
On top of that, you're comparing notes with John who owns Ohm. How many different makes / models of high end speakers do you think that he has gone out of his way to hear and actually listened to in-depth? Now compare that answer to Bill at Millersound, who has seen / repaired / listened to thousands of different makes and models. Given Bill's level of experience and exposure, the comments that he made pertaining to the performance potential of this speaker should tell you something. Sean
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PS... Anyone that tells you that the F's have a "small sweet spot" is either a blatant liar or is "confused" and knows not of what they speak. A small sweet spot boils down to a lack of horizontal dispersion. Between an omni driver and one using a focused array, can you tell me which one is going to be more limited in horizontal dispersion??? I'll give you a hint. Once i was able to get them dialed in with the proper support components, my F's have produced the deepest and widest soundstage that i've ever encountered.
