Ohm Walsh Micro Talls: who's actually heard 'em?

After talking to John Strohbeen today, I bit the bullet and ordered the 2.2000 driver upgrade. I will be sending my Walsh 2 speakers back to John for a partial trade toward the 2.2000s that will end up going into the Walsh 1 cabinets. He mentioned that it is an easier install into the Walsh 1 because you don't have to dig out the cross-overs like on the Walsh 2s.

Sounds good to me!

In a couple of weeks, I will have everything back together so I can work on comparing the IC cables. They can start their break-in in the meantime.

The Walsh 1s actually sound pretty good now that they are installed in the new system, but John said to not turn them up too loud! I really didn't think I was playing them beyond reason, but...

Nice. Trade in is the way to go and installing drivers oneself with instruction from ohm saves money as well.   Should not be hard especially if no current bottom mounted crossover board to rip out. 

t8kc:  Not to worry, this is THE Ohm thread on Audiogon, and many people lurk in addition to posting.  I think you've made some excellent decisions.  The new 2.2000 will need a lot of break-in.  Be patient, and you will be richly rewarded.  John has made major improvements in the power-handling abilities of the Walsh line over the years.  For a week, I had a loaner pair of 500 wpc Arion Class D amps, the sound was great, and nothing blew up or launched itself from the speaker cabinets of my Walsh 2000s.  IIRC, Mapman uses 500 wpc Bel Cantos on his Ohms.

BTW, in the future, you can get local and international radio stations via the web using many different audio streamers and computers.  Cheap and easy.  I have a tuner in my system, but never use it any more.

The tuner+remote is 100% for the WAF.
I don’t think having a computer hooked up in our living room is going to pass muster.

I emailed John Strohbeen asking "how does one know if the speakers are over-driven?" and he answered this.

"The upgrade comes with a 3-Year Limited Parts & Labor warranty. If you blow them up and we consider it abuse, we will tell you; but still cover it under the warranty the first time. After that you will know how loud is too loud and we can discuss moving up to mode with a Walsh 3000 size driver. I normally only have this discussion after the damage in done; but since you did in your Walsh 2s..."

I really didn’t try to over do it with the volume control, but I like to hear the live concert-level sound. Also, some music really only sounds good when cranked-up. Additionally, I had read on this thread that the Walsh type speakers needed lots of power to sound their best. I provided the power, but...

Hopefully, I can restrain myself enough not to do more damage. The highest I went on the Parasound amp was -10db. I know this is probably a meaningless number as it is source dependent.

I am looking forward to the new drivers after reading all the positive reviews on them. I also am aware of the break-in issues so I will be patient.

I had original Walsh 2s from 1982-2008, a long time.

Once at an outdoor party I had them cranked to max off a high quality Tandberg 80 w/ch receiver.   No problems.   The music sounded loud and live in the adjacent field over 50 yards away.   With good quality amplification, I always considered all OHM Walshes about as indestructible as they come.   They still sounded great in 2008 though I never cranked them that loud probably and age will eventually do in anything.   Plus its always possible to blow up speakers if one goes to extremes too quickly or an unexpected accident happens.  Caution when testing the limits is always advised.   I've always found a lower power amp that clips sooner is more likely to cause speaker damage than a higher powered one that can go loud without strain.   In general I think teh OHM walshes are capable of going full range louder and clearer than most any other passive speaker in their price range.   So you will be in a very good place to start after the upgrade.  I am very confident of that.