History on ohm A's and F's.

Pedrillo,

One other thing of interest is that Ohm's website indicates that newer Walsh 5 speakers, like those like the F5s in my system, can be set to sound identical to original Ohm As using a certain combination of the 4 range level adjustments on the Walsh 5 cage.

My experience with most assertions on the Ohm site is that they are usually on target, for what it is worth.

I tried this with my system and found it a bit bass heavy in my larger 30X20 L shaped listening room. I've used similar settings in that room most recently but with the relative bass levels lowered somewhat.

In the current 12X12 main listening room I currently have the F-5s in (where I have access to best speaker cables, etc.), I lower the bass even further otherwise my fixtures will start to vibrate and I might well be driven out of the room at even moderate to higher level SPLs.

The weight, dynamics and overall impact the Walsh CLS speaks provide though when properly matched to room size is an exhilarating experience you will most likely never get with electostats or planar designs which may otherwise sound similar.

The Ohms and Maggies are the only speaks I can afford that I ever found endearing when set up properly with classical music but the Maggies alone cannot touch the Ohms in regards to overall power and impact.

The 5-S3 is a nice speaker, a good value.

However, it is not an Ohm F but nothing else is either.

The F is among my favorites of all time which includes Apogee Duetta, Quad 57, and Magnepan 20. You can see I am partial to panels or speakers that replicate the imaging of panels.

One drawback to the F was the lack of SPL. I believe the sensitivity was around 82dB. Very few amplifiers back then could drive them to rock and roll volumes that we were accustomed to vis a vis the other contemporary speakers such as ESS, RTR, Infinity, JBL, etc.

I remember listening to my Phase Linear 700B in 1973 getting sucked dry during the opening heartbeat from Dark Side of the Moon. Even at reasonable SPL the Phase Linear was gasping for breath and out of gas.

Great memories of the speakers and the recreational medication.

Audiofeil,

Have you heard Walsh 5 series 3? What electronics have you heard with them?

I'd be curious for a comparison between 5 series 3 and properly functioning Fs if you've heard both.

Mapman,

Have you ever heard the MBL's? what do you think of them compared to the Ohm's?

Jtwrace,

No,unfortunately never heard MBL, so I can't compare the sound.

I can compare the two designs however to some degree.

They are similar in that both are inherently omnidirectional using a single yet supplemented wide range driver.

The Ohms however are physically damped/attenuated in the wall facing directions by default to enable easier placement near walls, so their measured sound dispersion pattern is not purely omni-directional.

Also the Ohm Walsh wide range driver reside on top of the cabinet like larger MBL and German Physik for that matter and is supplemented on the high end by a directional super tweeter and ported to extend the low end, whereas I think the large MBL wide range driver is supplemented on the low end by a sub woofer.

Larger German Physiks, which use their own derivation of the Walsh design, are also supplemented like the MBLs on the low end by a sub woofer, I believe.

All these designs will claim a high degree of phase coherency from top to bottom.

Ohm claims that their near full range design produces most of the most important frequency range that most people over 40 can truly hear via the wide range Walsh driver used. The theory is that we lose our ability to hear the highest frequencies recorded in music as we age.

Ohm As and Fs utilized a single Walsh driver for all frequencies but rolled off at ~17Khz, according to the specs on the Ohm site.

Ohms and German Physiks use different derivations of Lincoln Walsh's original driver design (look up "Lincoln Walsh" on wikipedia for more info here). I am less familiar with MBLs omni design but from what I have read on their site it is a more radically different breed of omni design.

One a'goner here whose opinions I respect recently referred to the Ohms as "Blue Collar MBLs", which is probably a fair description in that Ohm Walsh speakers range in cost from $1000 to $6000 depending on target room size and finish, whereas big MBLs cost over $25000 as I recall, so some might consider the Ohms to be "giant killers" and all that goes with that designation.

Ohm is located in Brooklyn NY, USA. MBL and German Physiks are imported from Germany.