New York HiFi Show: Tubes and Turntables

@mapman the Ohm room disappointed me more than any other.  Honestly, if what they displayed represents the product accurately, I cannot even consider these speakers to offer anything approaching high fidelity.

Now, it's not that I don't consider myself an Ohm supporter.  My friend has one of the few (11?) pairs of Walsh A, that Lincoln Walsh began putting together prior to his sudden and untimely death.  My friend is a well known loudspeaker magician, and got the speaker working as he felt it should.  I've been around more speakers than I can count, and these are the single most impressive loudspeaker I've encountered.  In fact, when he illustrates how the speaker works in comparison to everything else, every other loudspeaker design doesn't seem to have a prayer.  Now, that's all well and good, but the important and obvious question is how do they sound?  Well, it's the only loudspeaker that I've experienced that can take hold of your insides and literally scare you to death.  And going up from the low frequencies, everything sounds as good as it gets.

For what it's worth, I found a couple of rooms that offered what I considered good sound, despite their usual affordability, Cambridge among them

Uh, oh! Maybe Ohms are supposed to be pro audio now. 😀

Trelja,

What was the problem?   i was not there but most comments to date have been positive so just curious.   What are you comparing to?

It never surprises me that different people come away with totally different impressions of the same thing.    Happens every day.

@mapman you're right.  So far, I've read nothing but praise for the room.

During the time I spent at the show, playing the material they did, at the volumes they did, the Ohm room won my title for worst sound of the show.  And the distance between that and second place is more than I can put into words.  I even visited again after a while just to see if anything had changed.  Often, as in the Audio Note room, among others, you catch them at a bad moment, and one that doesn't properly convey the capability of a component.  I feel such a situation deserves a second listen.  As stated, I hope this sound represented some sort of anomaly, as no one could consider that high fidelity, or so I hope.

Both times I listened, the Ohm speakers played at a (not all that high) volume that completely overwhelmed the drivers.  The best description I can use is how a television or clock radio sounds when my family turns it way up so they can listen 3 rooms away.  Distortion attained a level I've not heard in a high-end audio loudspeaker in a very, very long time at those volumes.  Within that, low frequency extension didn't seem a heck of a lot better than the aforementioned non-audiophile implementations.  This coming from someone who's familiar with a properly set up pair of Ohm A that seem to go all the way down to DC.

What am I comparing it to?  Just 40+ years of hearing countless audio components in a variety of settings.  If that wasn't what you were asking, could you rephrase the question, please?

Interesting. The OHMs I have never break a sweat no matter how much power is thrown at them. More so than most any other speaker their size I’d say.

Something was awry it sounds like but your guess what is as good as mine. I’ve never heard anything close to what you describe.

What you describe sounds like an amp clipping but I would not expect that with the 100w/ch amp at most volumes in a smaller room. Possible though. I would not run any OHMs with any less than that in most cases for best results at higher volume. I use high current 500 w/ch BEl Canto ref1000m amps with my similar size OHM 100s. A bit of overkill perhaps but the speakers never complain. My larger 5s love all 500 w/ch.

I also run them off a 60 w/ch BEl Canto C5i integrated.    That definitiely has some volume limits but should have no problem with volumes most people would employ regularly.  

The BEl Canto Class D amps essentially soft clip so sonic effects of clipping are not generally outright offensive, just limiting in dynamics.

THey did use a receiver although a very well reviewed one. Chances are the current delivery is not as good as it might be even with 100w/ch with a receiver versus separates. They used the Outlaw receiver because it was well reviewed recently in Stereophile according to the post on the OHM website about the show.  THat might be a typical Class A/B amp that hard clips and clearly distorts when pushed too hard.

Any idea who was running the room when you were there? It would surprise me if John Strohbeen would allow what you describe if it were him. THere were others from OHM at the show as well according to the article on the web site.

Go figure?