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

Hi,

I'd love to hear the impressions of people who've actually spent some time with these speakers to share their sense of their plusses and minuses. Mapman here on Audiogon is a big fan, and has shared lots on them, but I'm wondering who else might be familiar with them.
rebbi
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,198 posts
 
crossover most likelycontained in teh can with the drivers.

SBA can work off the full range signal feed into the can.

With my 5 series 3 drivers on the OHM F cabinets, everything was in the can as best I recall from when I first connected those.
frazeur1
345 posts
 

"Even Jim Smith (Get Better Sound) rarely mentions changing the sound coming out of the speakers, but focuses primarily on changing the room to fit the speakers. That thinking seems backwards to me, but I'm just a lowly mechanical engineer...or am I missing something important here?" Quote from t8kc-

Just to pick this thought up a bit, I think what happens quite often, and even I have been guilty of said thing, is that sometimes we try to "fix" what we think are sound issues with different gear. The thinking behind this is that it will somehow fix the problem, when in reality, the issue could very well be the room itself and poor acoustics-probably more times than not. While changing tone controls etc. in effect changing the sound coming out of the speakers, rarely will the changes given by ordinary tone controls really fix issues. It might make some things more pleasing to some degree, but room acoustics tend to go far deeper than what we can fix this way.

While I don't know if this is exactly what Jim's thinking is here, as I have not read any of his book, it makes sense to me. Get the room as acoustically "fixed" as possible, then work with the gear/speaker side of things. Of course this also brings up differing means of treating the room depending on the type of speaker to some degree-such as Magnepans, Omni's or front driven speakers. Even though the basics can apply to every one of these, each one also may have a slightly differing means of going the next step further.

The nice thing is that in my opinion, most Ohm speakers are a bit easier to work with room-wise. I always called them a more "friendly or real-world" speaker system. While certainly benefits can be had by taking the room acoustics and setup to the utmost degree, I find they just work fairly well with minimal fuss overall.

For what it is worth!

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,198 posts
 
There are automatic digital room correction devices available today that users swear by and I suspect can do a very complete job of adapting speaker output to rooms if done properly.    One way to skin the cat fairly completely in one blow if desired.

There are many other more traditional ways as well to address the problem that work well with some trial and error over time.

My opinion is one of the most common and significant problems many aspiring audiophiles face are floor interactions that often muddies the bass.   Muddy bass not only sounds bad but obscures other good things that may be happening.   Any modern construction home with suspended plywood floors is susceptible to this I believe including mine,   The solution is to use isolation devices under speakers like isolating pads or stands.   Heavy rigid spiked stands  or spikes under floorstanders alone do not solve the problem.   its a big problem that probably effects teh majority of listeners these days.

How do I know this is a problem?   I use my OHMs and other speakers both in two finished basement rooms on solid concrete foundation, and same speakers one level up in two rooms with suspended plywood floors.   In basement the bass with all speakers is both clean and articulate in both rooms.   Upstairs teh same speakers have muddied bass that greatly impacts the sound quality.  

It took me many years in my house to discover this.    Isolating stands (I use Isoacoustics brand under smaller monitors) and pads (I use Auralex subdudeunder my smaller Walshes upstairs) are the cheap and easy solution.  In the basement, I allow the speakers to couple to the solid foundation (opposite of isolating) with no ill effects.

Most modern houses and floors are built  to have some give to provide earthquake resistance.  Good for that but bad for sound.  If you can jump up and down and things in teh room move or vibrate you have a problem.   Your room essentially "rings like a bell" except at a much lower frequency.
bondmanp
1,811 posts
 
Roger that, Mapman!  I have my 2000s on Sound Anchor craddle bases, tri-spiked into the shallow carpet-over-cement-floor in my basement Man Cave.  Bass is tight, well-defined, powerful, extended and bloat-free (I crossover the 2000s to my pair of Vandy 2Wq subs @80Hz).  Bases are required for stability.  That cement is solid, but not flat.  Basement man caves rock!!!
accurus
40 posts
 
Well been doing a lot of reading and finally took the plunge and purchased a set of Ohm Walsh 2000s with cherry veneer. I am a long time Magnepan owner and currently they are replacing my Magnepan 3.6s. Need to down size some stuff with a baby on the way. 

So far the break in process is going well with about 20 hours on them thus far. I am fiddling with positioning and by and large really enjoy their sound. There are only a couple things I am not quite getting out of them vs the 3.6s. Vertical height happens but isn't quite as big and broad on a consistent basis as the Magnepans seems recording dependent. Also there are points where instruments like cymbals are clearly coming from the tweeter in the speaker lose that in air feeling. They are lack the finesse and air of the ribbons. Overall though an extremely musical speaker and they make me rethink what a cone speaker can do in terms of producing a sound stage vs big planars.

Any thoughts on placement to solve the couple of issues above?
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