I have not looked at the innards of my Walsh F5 Series 3 speakers since they arrived.
Cab came in separate box from driver (which connected via a single connector and mounts using 4 wing nuts that I do tighten on occasion) and separate box for the cover. Been too busy listening (and tweaking elsewhere as needed). Must be fun though tearing these things apart to see what makes them tick. Mine have original refurbed OHm F cabinets probably from the 1970s which were pretty darn heavy I must say as I recall from having to lug them downstairs to their new home.
They sit on easy to move and lock casters so size and weight has not been an issue since when tweaking placement. Very practical!
Floor is concrete foundation with thin dense padding and carpet. No need for additional platform there.
With my smaller Walsh 2 size models upstairs, I set those on Auralex subdude platforms which cost about $100 pair and work great to clean up the bass (by isolating from lively floors there).
No doubt setting most any speaker on an acoustically inert platform however one achieves it is a good move, but even more so perhaps with the bottom ported OHMs.
I do value the castors and level adjustment switches on my F5s. They make it much easier to get the speaker tuned into the room properly which is always task #1 for best performance out of most any speaker. That alone makes my OHMs hard to ever replace in my challenging (and not dedicated) L shaped room. Not an issue with headphones of course. :^)
I too tend to favor simplicity in design but the F5s sound pretty spot on as I have them set up so for me at least the value of the onboard level adjustments outweigh any possible downside. The F5s and smaller Walsh 2 models with same driver design but smaller (8" versus 12") driver and no switches tend to sound pretty much alike when set up well in the same room (I’ve actually done this comparison) so the switches are a net + for me. Definitely one of those things where YMMV.
Cab came in separate box from driver (which connected via a single connector and mounts using 4 wing nuts that I do tighten on occasion) and separate box for the cover. Been too busy listening (and tweaking elsewhere as needed). Must be fun though tearing these things apart to see what makes them tick. Mine have original refurbed OHm F cabinets probably from the 1970s which were pretty darn heavy I must say as I recall from having to lug them downstairs to their new home.
They sit on easy to move and lock casters so size and weight has not been an issue since when tweaking placement. Very practical!
Floor is concrete foundation with thin dense padding and carpet. No need for additional platform there.
With my smaller Walsh 2 size models upstairs, I set those on Auralex subdude platforms which cost about $100 pair and work great to clean up the bass (by isolating from lively floors there).
No doubt setting most any speaker on an acoustically inert platform however one achieves it is a good move, but even more so perhaps with the bottom ported OHMs.
I do value the castors and level adjustment switches on my F5s. They make it much easier to get the speaker tuned into the room properly which is always task #1 for best performance out of most any speaker. That alone makes my OHMs hard to ever replace in my challenging (and not dedicated) L shaped room. Not an issue with headphones of course. :^)
I too tend to favor simplicity in design but the F5s sound pretty spot on as I have them set up so for me at least the value of the onboard level adjustments outweigh any possible downside. The F5s and smaller Walsh 2 models with same driver design but smaller (8" versus 12") driver and no switches tend to sound pretty much alike when set up well in the same room (I’ve actually done this comparison) so the switches are a net + for me. Definitely one of those things where YMMV.