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

Note that there are what are described as mint Ohm Acoustic Walsh 5 mkII limited additions up for sale here right now. Not associated with the seller and so on....

Thank you Mapman....

I can see how the switches adds a certain "ease of use" for most people, and being
able to shape the tone curve to your needs and environmental complications is very
satisfying.
Im coming from the school of change the environment to meet my needs kind of guy.
with that said I'm old enough that Loudness buttons, tone controls, and other secret sauce
was part and parcel in most pre-amps or receivers.

As for these switches........got to be honest Mapman, nothing good can come from
adding these in the audio circuit, it might sound "fine" but every time the audio signal is processed "shaped" filtered or otherwise manipulated to meet a certain criteria, a sonic degradation will be the end result. I do love the concept of the Ohm's and I know that deep
inside of the crossover is a path, a pure path a path of no resistance, adding some thing to the music that can be explained as........ Nothing, nothing at all my friend.

If the speakers a boomy, pull them away from the corners, back walls or any other
room boundaries. If the sound harsh, you might need to soften the surfaces in the room
add art, plants or area rugs for a less sibilant perspective. Etc etc

So looking at these switches, the surface area, and quality of the the said part
I hate to say it but all those expensive speaker cables are funneled in to a switch
with the surface area of (maybe) 30 gauge wire or worse. We will find out when I take one apart later today.

Its late enough that I can start doing some tone sweeps without hearing from some
upset teenagers lol ......🇸🇪 







peter part of the value of the switches for me is I can place the speakers in a location that provides cleanest soundstage and imaging and then use teh controls to adjust the tonality without having to move them again. The same location rarely works out best for both without additional tweaks to room acoustics and or some other kind of room equalization.

Its just another convenient and effective means to an end. Many ways to skin any cat.


Its a big cat indeed...

Just ran some pink noise for the hell of it and found some surprises.

Got to take my darling daughter to lunch but I will explain when I get back.

Damn this is fun....🇸🇪

Holes will be drilled......

Before I continue with my writing I like to make sure that everyone understands
Im doing this for fun and my written word is just that. No implied or down playing of 
anyone else's speakers, sounds or what ever else I'm covering or uncovering when
re-building these speakers. Everyone hears differently and everyone perceives quality of
sound and workmanship in different ways......😄❤️

After that love fest....💥

Its amazing what what music masks while playing a wonderfull piece of composition
might it be classical or pop and everything in between. I'm actually having Amazon Alexa
playing me some great classical while typing these words.

Now pink noise...really changes everything, certain issues gets uncovered, a small change
uncovers strengths or downfalls in the driver. So I de-coupled the tweeter from the unit
I.E. I played the Ohm driver by it self with no help from the tweeter, and first I listened 
without touching the switches (set at my normal positions) sounds OK I guess, not much
high frequency energy but a surprising amount never the less.

I move the room size switch: Almost no changes I might hear a less then a db change
in all 3 positions.

Room location:  Free position has a small boost which is to be expected. The room size switch "small" position bumps high frequency by a small amount

Perspective switch: from close to far I'm getting almost 3.5 db difference in output
I would say that's a fairly substantial difference.

Now to the frequency output of the Ohm driver. Looking at the trace I'm not seeing 
a whole lot of output as it starts to roll of fairly fast after 2.25khz, this measurement 
was taken with the perspective switch in highest output (close) setting. Now I do believe there's a perceived output to about 4.5k but it's about 20db down or worse.

As for the crossover for the Tweeter my guess is as good as yours my friends
as I have not taken the time to by pass the big driver due to the crossover architecture.
Im sure it's crossed over at 2.5k or somewhere in that neighborhood.

Good news, bad news? I think it's mostly good, as I have a great platform to work from.
I love the concept but I think JS has left a lot of possibilities on the table, the crossover 
is coplicated beyond what I've ever seen.
What am I expecting from these changes? That's in the next installment.

Now I'm going to drill some holes...🇸🇪