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 - The 7 kHz roll-in for the tweeter, IIRC, was mentioned somewhere on the old Ohm web site.  Next month, I will be hearing the German Physiks speakers, which use a Dick's Dipole Walsh-type driver for all but the low bass frequencies.  No tweeter, just like the F's.  In fact, a dealer told me the inspiration for the German Physiks was the Ohm Walsh speakers.  The designer wondered what could be done with fewer cost constraints than Ohm was under.  They do roll off above 18 kHz, but I see no reason why the Ohm Walsh drivers can't go higher than 2 or 3 kHz.  The beaming you would get from a full range, forward radiating 8" driver should be ameliorated by the Walsh omni radiating pattern, I would think.  I would bet that listening to Walshes without the tweeter would not be as treble-less sounding as the graph suggests.  That said, just looking at the Fs is instructional.  It has no tweeter, but the tall cone shape of the driver suggests it can reproduce higher frequencies from the narrower portions of the cone, near the top.  Current Walsh drivers appear to be conventional, shallow cones that lack the tall profile of the Ohm F drivers.  Hence the super-tweeter.  That John was able to adapt the Walsh principles to a design using conventional drivers speaks volumes about his ability to design speakers, and to keep costs down, which is probably the reason for the change in driver design.  And, I fully agree, the proof is in the listening.  John simply knows how to voice speakers.  A production version of what Peterr53 is going to end up with would probably be priced in the $20,000 range, or more.  

Peterr53 - While I have no doubt the Ohms can be improved by using a higher quality tweeter, I do question the wisdom of moving the crossover from 7 kHz to ~2.5 kHz.  One of the things that makes the Ohm Walsh speakers special, IMHO, is that there is no crossover in that critical 2-5 kHz range.  Very few conventional speakers that I have heard with crossovers in that range sound good to me in the upper mid/lower treble range.  But with your digital crossover, you will have total flexibility to dial in the crossover as you feel it sounds best.
peter I appreciate that but I am getting the sound I want and no time or interest in dabbling inside my Walshes at present.

My goal when I got back into this stuff several years back was to find the right speakers first and do whatever needed to get exactly the sound I wanted from there. My path was from OHM to Maggie to B&W and back to OHM in my bigger room over the course of about 25 years.   I’ve done many tweaks around the speakers to get exactly the sound I wanted since I got them almost 10 years ago now (wow). I will say the sound can vary widely based on all the typical suspects that affect how speakers sound and what I have now is in another league from when I started. Many ways to skin the cat.

Maybe if something heads south, but I gotta say that I’ve owned OHM Walshes since 1982 and the only issues I have ever had were the internal braces on my original Walsh 2s come loose inside and have to be reset. Those speakers did move around the country in the back of my car a lot in those days. I am more settled now and my current OHMs mostly stay put.

I did refabric the hoods of my old Walsh 2s as well using a beige colored loose wove wool fabric mainly to please my wife aesthetically. Those were part of teh trade in I did for my current F5 series 3.

peter,

Are those folded ribbons the same or similar to those used in Goldenear Aeon speakers?

I have heard those.  Much different top end from any soft domes I have heard.   Very polite is the term I used to describe the sound.   I could easily live with a pair of the Goldenear Aeon speakers in the right room.

I find the OHm Walshes quite easy on the ear and not fatiguing though they can go somewhat that way in some cases.   But not nearly as much as my Dynaudio Contour 1.3mkII or Triangle Titus monitors.

I recently acquired BelCanto C5i Digital Class D integrated amp in my second system.   None of my speakers have any sign of hotness or edge ever with this amp.   Its the first I've owned (and the newest with latest greatest technology) that I could say that about.   It would be interesting to hear a good speaker with folded ribbon tweeter on that.

Many factors that contribute to sound.

My very first "good" speakers (Criterion) had Heil air motion transformers.   I bought these when working at Lafayette Radio circa 1977.   I was a newbie then and liked those over other speaker brands sold with other tweeter types.

Problem was they would always blow out at modest volume even off 40 w/ch lafayette integrated amp I had at the time so I dumped them after about a year (for OHM Ls I heard at tech Hifi).

I'm sure the modern equivalents are much superior.   There are many speakers from those days I would bet could sound in another league these days with modern digital and amplifier technologies in play.

Good morning Bondman and everyone else......

The Walsh driver is not crossed over at 7k, look at the frequency sweep (pink noise)
there's just not enough energy to go past 4K let alone 7k. I will hook up one of the drivers
today run a sweep as is, then I'll use the parametric equalizer to see how far I can push the
frequency extension. It'll be a fun excercise.....
The other thing is the tweeter used is not a super tweeter. A super tweeter would pick up
after the regular tweeter drops of, let say 18k and above.

Espresso my drug of choice.........🇸🇪

Mapman:  Lafayette Radio!!!  I worked there one year in college, 1982-1983.  They were already owned by Circuit City, but still doing biz as Lafayette Radio.  I was in the store on 45th St. in Manhattan.  That street also had a number of other hifi stores.


Peterr53:  You are correct about the "super-tweeter" definition.  But consider that different models of the x000 might go a bit higher before handing off to the tweeter.  And, again, I remember that the old Ohm web site did mention something about a 7kHz crossover (actually, just a resistor on the tweeter, as the main driver rolled off naturally above 7 kHz).  A very rough phone app RTA showed that my in-room response did indeed tilt downward as the frequency rose.  I actually expected this, and I am quite pleased with it.  I do not feel as if I am missing anything in the higher frequencies at all.  They are just a little subdued, which makes the system listenable for hours and hours with no fatigue.  Could they be better?  Sure.  That's why I am following your posts so carefully.  While I could never do what you're doing, I might pay someone who can to do these things.  A bit of a risk, but if the results are as significant as you suggest they might be, maybe it's worth it.