Ohm Walsh old vs. Microwalsh new

Mapman, thanks for the advice.

I ended up ordering the Microwalsh Talls. I've had them now for just over a week. Initial impressions are quite favorable -- they are quite natural sounding and easy to place. I'm trying not to listen too critically until they're broken in. Initially, the bass is pretty weak; I'm hoping this will be alleviated as they're broken in.

My Walsh 5's came new and took months to break in.

My 100s were acquired 2nd hand and already well broken in.

I've never heard micros, but bass is certainly not an issue with the 100 S3s or Walsh 5 s3s.

Keep us posted if things do not open up. If so, that could be due to 1) room size, 2) room placement or 3) amplification.

I've used a Carver m4.0t, the amp section of a Tandberg 2080 receiver, and the Musical Fidelity A3CR with both 100 and W5 S3s. Never had bass issues with the 100 S3s, though amps did make a bif difference in overall presentation. I was never happy with the bass using the CArver with the bigger Walsh 5's despite it putting out over 300w/channel. THis was because it was not a high current design. The Ohms require high current, not just watts, and higher damping factors (>50) in order for an amp to take control of the drivers fully and realize full bass potential.

The micros are smaller than the 100s even, so they should not require massive watts, but I would bet they can still benefit from a high current amp, one that essentially doubles in power output from 8 to 4 and then from 4 to 2 ohms (ie say 70 watts @8 Ohm, 140 at 16, and 280 at 2 ohms.

What amp are you using currently?

I'm using an Onkyo A-9555. It's listed as 85 Wpc at 8 Ohms, with dynamic power of 120 Wpc/8 Ohms and 200Wpc/4 Ohms. The damping factor is relatively low, listed at 25.

I think the Onkyo should do pretty well with the smaller CLS drivers in the micros.

My observation has been the smaller CLS drivers (100 S3s in my case) are not as hard to drive and control properly as the larger ones (Walsh 5 S3s in my case).

Unless you are running in a significantly larger room or have the speakers located way out away from the wall or have some other unfavorable room acoustics happening, bass should not be an issue. Just give 'em some time to break in fully.

My "Super Walsh 2s" with the 100 S3 drivers are in a 12X12 sunroom with cathedral ceiling, about 18-24 inches out from the rear wall. The bass in this room was a bit too much for me at first so I loosely plugged the ports underneath to ease things up a bit. Now the bass is balanced much better, similar to my other rooms.

If my wife would allow it, I would probably opt to move these out another 6-12 inches for even better sound stage, at which point the plugs in the ports would probably come out again as well.

My room is 13'x13' with a 9' ceiling. I have the Micros about 2' out from the rear wall. So, based on what you say, it's probably just a matter of the speakers breaking in fully. I'll be certain to report back. Thanks again.