Ownership and Review of a pair of Ohm Super Sound Cylinder


Greetings all - I recently ordered a pair of Ohm Super Sound Cylinder speakers, or SSC-4900's. They are in the middle of the Ohm Walsh lineup, and are about 38 inches tall and the cylinder cabinets about 12.5 inches in diameter.

Specs are listed at 88 dB for a 2.8 V input, and a response curve of +/- 3 dB from 25 to 20,000 Hz. 

This whole process is part of a "high end, high value, USA made two channel system" thread I started a couple of months ago on another forum. The electronics are the PS Audio Stellar Gain Pre-amp/DAC and a pair of PS Audio M700 mono amps.

The PS Audio equipment has already elevated the Axiom M100's and Martin Logan Electro Motion ESL speakers in terms of performance. The Axioms have a "twin" available in Brick and Mortar outlets from Bryston called the A1's. 

For reference, other speakers which we have or still have in house include: Klipsch LaScala II's, Legacy Signature SE's, Infinity IRS Sigmas, Ascend Sierras, PSB Strata Goldi, VMPS Super Towers and a host of other speakers. 

The Ohm Walsh speakers have been something about which I have read since 1977 (the year I got the audio bug), but have never had the chance to experience. The SSC-4900's sell for $4900 per pair, though the name and pricing are coincidental. The "4900" is due to the idea that the speakers are "almost a 5000", but with less controls - one switch vs. 4 for the 5000, but also a lower price.

John Strohbeen, who is he president at Ohm and who has been with them for almost 40 years, was gracious enough to spend an hour talking on the phone about our room, the associated gear, and also that there would be a review thread. It was after this discussion that we decided on the SSC-4900's. 

I am purchasing the speakers, not getting a review pair. They are under the 120 day return policy. John is well aware that my daughter sings opera, my son is adept at classical guitar, and that live music is the reference. He was actually quite pleased about this. 

This will be fun (at least for me), and hopefully informative. Comments are welcome. 

I honestly have no idea what to expect from the Walsh sound. They are so different from other speaker designs that the only thing to do is set them up properly and hear what happens! 
craigsub
Also, @jstrohbeen - Since we have your attention, have you ever played around with folded ribbon tweeters in combination with your Walsh line of speakers?  I have been wondering what such a combo might sound like.
@bondmanp Yes, our Japanese distributor had us use the ESS Heil Air Motion Transformer ($700/pr). We found turning it into a monopole by putting a good size cavity on the back made it possible to cross over to a Walsh 4000 driver; the problem that we never overcame was the frequency response at different distances from the tweeter. Since in the highs it was rolling off linearly with the distance as a line source many wavelengths long, and the Walsh driver was dropping off at the square of the distance. At one spot, it could sound superb; farther back it was harsh and closer up, it was dull! When we attenuated the front to make it shorter, it didn't have enough highs. All designs are tradeoffs. Our current supertweeter goes beyond 24 kHz on axis, and beyond 20kHz in most listening positions. I think that's high enough - especially for old folks like me. And all CD users.
John, it’s great to hear from you directly!!

One of the points that ohm emphasizes is good sound throughout the room.  For many of us with a prime listening position, a widely dispersed sound is less important than live, realistic, dynamic, music with great pitch and tone with scale and image at the prime listening position.  

Many companies refer to their unique speaker design (concentric tweeter, open baffle, high efficiency, ribbon tweeter, etc.) as the solution to realistic sound.  And frankly all the marketing hyperbole is confusing. 

Can you talk talk a little more as to why the Walsh 2000 or 3000 is an ideal affordable loudspeaker for people looking for a musical and emotional presentation... at their prime listening positions for a wide variety of music at reasonable (under 90 dB) listening levels. 

Thanks!!

@jstrohbeen - Ah! I figured there had to be a reason. Of course, a $700 pair of tweeters, even if they did work well, would skew the price points of the Ohm Walsh line much higher, so, for po’ folks like me, it’s a moot point. I was thinking more along the lines of the cheaper folded ribbons in speakers made by Golden Ear, Martin Logan and even Dayton (Parts Express). But your explanation of why such tweeters failed with the Ohm Walsh design puts the last nail in that coffin, as far as I am concerned.


@snapsc - Dude, even I can tell you the answer to your question! As I often post, I have been happily enjoying my 2000s since late 2009. As I have upgraded my electronics, tweaks and cabling, the 2000s have responded really well, getting better and better. The kicker is that, as a member of my local audio club, I get to hear lots of speakers in a variety of settings, and in a variety of price ranges. So far, without spending at least $12K, there is nothing that I have heard that equals or beats my affordable 2000s. Sure, I can listen to Vandy 7s or Magicos and be very impressed. But then I go home, fire up my own modest rig, and I do not feel like I am missing anything worth mortgaging my house for. Take last night. I was letting my Squeezebox Touch and server pick the tunes on random mode. On came the odd track "Atmospheres" (?) by Ligeti, an atonal mix of vocal sounds, percusive strikes and other sounds. It is an acquired taste, but, oh my, the dynamics!!! Even though this file was from an early 2001: A Space Odyssey CD full of hiss, I was repeatedly startled by the realism of the voices, the attack of the transients (which were never harsh), and the reverb trails of the voices and bells. If your system doesn’t make you jump a few times when you listen to this track, it’s doing it wrong. And all this is through the temporary X-2 crossover unit from Vandersteen for my 2Wq subs, which is not intended to be very transparent, and isn’t. Yes, some of this might be due to my recently upgraded amplifier, but the amp would not have been able to overcome dynamic limitations of the speaker. Listening last night I felt like there were no limitations on the dynamic range of my 2000s whatsoever. Goose-bumps, chills up my spine and a s--- eating grin on my face. What more could I want?

@bondmanp  Thanks for your comments.  Here is the reason I think it would be interesting to hear more directly from John...Most of us can probably say that we know people that own modestly priced Tektons, Zu, Spatials, Kefs, Maggies, Logans, etc. that are very happy with them and recount a similar experience to yours last night.

And, all of these and many other loudspeakers are well covered by many reviews, lots of discussion of their components and technology and lots of posts by owners. 

By comparison, Ohms are "relatively" unknown, not many professional reviews, not many forum reviews (here on Audiogon, only a few of you regularly talk about them), not much understanding of the current state of their technology, and rarely if ever do they end up on someone's top 10 recommended list.

The professional reviews and the Ohm literature seem to go in the direction of "sounds good everywhere in the room" vs "sounds amazingly like real music at the listening position".

The last time I actually heard the Ohms were the Fs 35+ years ago...they sounded fantastic driven by a Crown amplifier.  I'm guessing the latest versions sound a lot better.

Many/most audio enthusiasts are always looking for the next "change" to their systems hoping to improve musical realism.  Based on all the shows and reviews, they are constantly being urged/pulled/pushed (most recently) in the direction of Tekton or Elac or ??????...and at some point, they are going to pull the trigger and buy their NEXT loudspeaker.

I'd like to hear John talk about why not Ohm.

Often times, the final statement is just ...buy a pair of XXX, try them and if they don't wow you, send them back....and I agree that a home demo is the only way to know for sure.  Realistically, though, many people balk at the idea of a $250 and up return shipping unless they are pretty sure up front that they probably won't be making a return.