Ohm FRS-15 v. Ohm Walsh 2

FRS speakers were part of OHMs line I believe back in the late 80's and early 90's. I believe they use the same CLS drivers as OHMs Walsh branded speakers, like the Walsh 2, 4, 5, etc., and can be upgraded similarly to newer OHM CLS drivers like the series 3 as well in most cases.

I think the main difference is in the cabinet design and construction which would mainly affect the low end the way the OHM CLS Walsh drivers are mounted on top of the cabinets.

I've never actually seen or heard any of the FRS line, but did consider buying a pair for upgrade or trade-in back when I was in that process. They often come in at lower prices on Ebay compared to similar sized OHM "Walsh" branded models.

All the OHM Walsh and FRS speaks are designed to be listened to optimally from in front of the speaker.

If they face towards one room, they will still fill the room to the rear and work to a fair extent, however, the volume heard will be somewhat lower overall and in particular the treble level heard will be lower.

You might be able to order modified drivers from OHM for a more balanced 360 degree sound if desired and install those to FRs speakers. The 360 sound would be accomplished by mounting the tweeter to be upward rather than frontwards facing and by eliminating or re-disributing acoustic dampening material inside the cage that attentuate the SPL in the 3 normal wall facing directions. OHM uses a design like this for some of their surround sound Walsh speakers, I believe. You'd have to talk to John Strohbeen to find out what could be done and for what cost.

I've owned the Ohm Walsh 2s, 4s, and 5s, and to be honest I prefer the 2's over all of them. I just sold my new model 5's S3's and kept my 2s. They just sound 'right' and can be had often for very little (I think I paid $200 for mine) whereas the 5s are $6000 (new). I don't have any experience with the FRS series but don't hesitate to recommend the Model 2s. Just my two cents...

Texas42,

I have F5 S3s (5S3 drivers in F cabinets) and Walsh 2S3. I owned original Walsh 2's prior for about 25 years.

In smaller rooms, I have found there is little or no advantage of larger OHMs over smaller. In larger rooms, larger OHMs have benefit without doubt but mostly all in the low end. Mids/highs are near identical. Of course, 5 drivers have many adjustments possible for fine tuning the sound.

I owned the original Walsh 2s and newer S3s concurrently for a while and had a chance to compare. They are much different sounding. I did not know what to make of the s3 drivers at first, but ended up preferring them once my ears adjusted.

Original Walsh 2s are very good also and big time overachievers for the cost, particularly when opened up to realistic SPLs in larger rooms and especially outdoors where they will really fool you into thinking its live and not Memorex!