Small room, "budget priced" speaker advice, please

knownothing,

I've toyed on occasion with the idea of replacing my Dynaudios, which are a pretty decent set of highly accurate monitors, with Ohm micros. Reason being that they are a very good monitor speakers that do most everything very well, but in the end, the Ohm Walsh design convincingly deliver sound like a live performance in my listening room to me whereas the Dynaudios and my other box speakers (Triangles and Ohm Ls) all in the end always end up sounding like just "very good stereo speakers", if that makes any sense.

I keep the Dynaudios mainly because I still like having a pair of nice monitors around for the many things they do well, even though in the end I always levitate back to the Ohm Walshs for the best performance whenever I can. Also I like variety and I figure 3 pair of speaks with the same design, no matter how good, might be a bit too much.

The only full range speakers I hear anymore that will catch my ear tend to be extremely big, massive, and way too expensive for a guy like me with two kids still to send to college. And I'm still not certain even with these that, everything properly set up, they can do what the Ohms do.

What about the imaging issue, Mapman? Do you find that you can locate instruments and singers in space, or is the presentation more "vague" with the Ohm's? I'm trying to imagine how imaging would work with the speakers radiating sound all over the place. And "good" imaging is to me one of the nicest hi-fi pleasures.

Imaging/location may or may not be an issue. The imaging is different than that from box dynamic designs. That alone could be an issue for many.

Sound from omnis (and Ohms) emanate and interact with the room much more like sound does in a live performance rather than the way it does with other speaker designs. Thats what makes the Ohms special. What you hear more resembles what you would hear at a live performance, from various listening locations, more so than conventional speaker designs.

However, it may take your ears some time to adjust to this if they are trained (as many audio buffs ears are from experience) to hearing conventional box designs.

If you are the type who pays attention to room acoustics at live performances, I'd say it should not be an issue once your ears adjust to the Ohms in your room. Once they do, magic happens and everything is laid out clearly before you, strikingly much like a live performance.

Amplification can make a huge difference. You also have to learn to not focus on the speakers themselves while listening because the soundstage is utterly transparent and can be totally disassociated from the actual speaker location, depending on placement and acoustics.

In my review of the Ohms here on Agon, I relate how the Ohms act as a sort of "sound projector" more than speakers. Take a look at that for more info.

It's interesting that when I changed amps from a Carver to a Musical Fidelity, the sound stage opened up so much and in such an unexpected way relative to the actual location of the speakers, that even my ears, which were adapted prior, were totally thrown off and confused for a bit.

I have a very difficult room shape to deal with. The room is L shaped. The Ohms are located a couple of feet out from the rear wall at the base of the L, and located to fire into the length of the room, which is the main listening area. The Ohms are about 3-4 feet apart but location is skewed ~ 30% or so to the right of center. Yet, when listening about 4-5 feet dead center in front of both Ohms, the center of the sound stage is located dead center between the two side walls and extending 10' in each direction to the side walls on good recordings. Mono recordings all came from dead center between the side walls, about 3 feet to the left of the left -most speaker (yes, to the left of BOTH speakers, believe it or not)! Never heard anything like this before, so I did not recognize it at first! Once I tuned in again, though, audio nirvana! A 20' wide sound stage with the speaks only ~ 3-4 feet apart and the ability to locate every instrument, voice and recording line clearly and precisely.

My Dynaudio monitors ($2500 retail a few years back) image extremely well for a box design as well, but they do not have the Ohm's "you are there" factor.

Bottom line: the imaging works differently with Ohms and omnis. Some may not like it because it IS different and takes some getting used to at first. But, in my opinion, once everything is set up properly and your ears locked in, nothing can beat it, especially at the $1000 price point.

Its low risk to try the Ohms, but if this all sounds to way out there or scary to you, you will probably be very happy with the Totems. THey are a very good choice for a conventional box design in your price range.

Or if this all sounds interesting and the chance of discovering something totally different that can take things to a higher level for $1000 sounds intriguing, give'em a try.

Good luck and please continue to keep us posted whichever way you go.

Small room, "budget priced" speaker advice, please
Greetings Rebbi
Why not just look into a pair of the latest Black Vandersteen 1Cs
They can work with the best of em, easy to drive,are still Phase/Time aligned and disappear like your 2CE.
Later you can add a powered 2WQ in the corner and have a superb world class quality system that runs with the Vandy level 2 series
Best John Rutan

Mapman,

This is all very useful and you are very generous and patient to lay it all out in such detail. Thanks! You nailed it on the head: clearly, this is quite a different listening experience than one would get with a box design, and question is whether I have the nerve to try it or not! :-) I'll look for your audiogon review, too.