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

Mapman: I remember your earlier post about playing the W2s outdoors.

Just to be clear, I didn’t have any issues with my speakers when using my Onyko receiver (100 wpc). It was only when I put the Parasound 1500 into the mix that the problems occurred. I will be more careful in the future.

Using my Samsung Note 5 to stream music is an option that I can look into, but the B&K tuner seems ok now that I have removed the W2s from the mix. I think I had already blown the voice coils by that time so it only appeared to be missing the bass. With the W1s installed, all is well with the tuner again.

I want to thank all the posters to this thread as I’m sure my system would be pretty pathetic without all of the input. My good choices were a result of following the suggestions found here.

When I mentioned this thread to John S., he just chuckled.

Also, any feedback on Jim Smith’s book (Get Better Sound)?

It's a good resource.  Jim Smith knows his stuff.  I heard and bought a pair of Maggie's once from his old shop Audition in Birmingham Al.  I strived to get them to sound as good at home as they did there.  

I thought it was interesting that he didn't mention Ohm-Walsh speakers. It seemed as if he didn't consider them "audiophile" enough. That is just my opinion, of course.
Also, he would have then had to make special comments about fitting them to the room and maybe he didn't think that was worth the effort considering the small population of owners.
Anyway, it was still an interesting read and, there is no doubt, he knows his stuff.

OHM has been sold direct to buyers only for a number of years now since the 80s.  Despite being pretty unique, others in the business have little business reason to give them much if any special attention.   There are not many substitutes if one likes them.   The closest things are other omnis like mbl and German Physiks and a handful of other very small brands.  The successful ones seem to be the ones that stake out the high end in terms of cost and quality that has a very limited market.  Most people have no special interest in weird looking speakers.   Despite that how many thousands of speakers has OHm likely sold since the introduction of teh Walsh line back in 1981 or so?   The basic design has remained mostly unchanged, just tweaked and improved over the years.

That the basic Ohm-Walsh design has remained the same for decades, accounts for the stable "voice" they make.

I like the fact that the design has been refined over time, but not changed. This is called 'development'; think Volkswagen Beetle for example. Rather than being driven by maketing forces (whiz-bang selling points), the Ohm-Walsh speaker evolution is driven by engineering forces (thanks, John).

Mapman, you are correct to say that there is little interest in the greater audio comunity because this competitive business is extremely marketing-driven; the latest and greatest fads are headline material. While performance is part of that equation, it is sometimes secondary to how something looks and/or is marketed. Many consumers need to have a visual representation of how 'cool' there equipment is.

Imagine, if all audio electronic equipment was housed in non-descript black boxes with only the manufacturer's name on it; that would be a marketer's nightmare. Components would have to be sold only on their sonic merits - ouch!

Ohm-Walsh speakers are like that. With only a couple of visual face-lifts over 4 decades, this product line has been remarkably stable. The fact that the company is still in business speaks volumes (excuse the multiple puns) about the sonic quality of the speakers themselves.

I have the utmost respect for the Ohm company for staying the course in this extreme marketing-driven segment.