Ohm Walsh Micro Talls: who's actually heard 'em?

I'll have to give mine a try with my old M&K sub sometime!

Hi, Gang,
Sorry it's taken me such a long time to give you guys an update on my speaker adventures. I've been ridiculously busy at work and with family responsibilities...
I'm finding myself in what you might call a bit of a conundrum these days. On the one hand, with my new phono preamp up and running, I'm having a ball digging back into the miles and miles of vinyl that I can finally play again. It still amazes me how wonderful those black discs can sound.
On the other hand, speaker wise, I'm in a bit of a no man's land at this point...
Both the Ohms and the Totems can make amazing music, that's for sure. What I'm not sure about is what I'm hearing, and although I know that ultimately, I'm the one who has to enjoy and live with the system, I find myself wishing that one of you guys lived in my neighborhood so we could get together and tweak this thing!
Here's the thing: the Totems seem to have the edge over the Ohms when it comes to a sense of detail or transparency. I just find myself noticing details in the music, with some tracks, that are getting lost or muffled when I am listening to the Ohms. Now, the question is: is what I am hearing really "transparency," or is it more like an upper frequency tilt in the Totems? And are the Ohms, by nature, more "neutral?" I have read in some reviews that in the Totems are a bit "hot" out of the box, but that this "sizzle" settles down as they break in.
In this regard, I am also not sure whether I am hearing all of the midrange clarity that the Ohms are capable of delivering. I'm not sure exactly how many hours of playing time they have on them -- I haven't been clocking it -- but I'm guessing it's not much more than 25 hours or so. So, by any measure, the Ohms should still have some opening up to do, correct? By the way, I think I read one person post in Audio Review.com that Micro Walsh Talls sounded as if they were playing from under a pillow until they opened up, at which point, they revealed all kinds of additional detail.
The other thing I'm not sure about is whether I have either set of speakers optimally placed for imaging purposes. On some source material, the Totems present a very "etched" or precise sense of each voice or instrument in space. By contrast, at least as I have them placed currently, the placement of instruments with the Ohms can sound a bit more vague, for lack of a better term. As I've been switching the speakers in and out, I have used some pieces of tape on the floor to mark what has seemed to me to be the optimized position for each different set of speakers, otherwise, obviously, I'm not comparing apples with apples. But, again, I wish I had one of you with an experienced set of ears to help me with this task of speaker placement.
I would like to add, that, in general, the Ohms present a "fuller" or "meatier" sound, especially in the bass note regions.
Interested in your thoughts and advice...

Rebbe,

My best advice is trust your ears to determine which sound you will live with most happily over an extended period of time with the music you enjoy.

No two speaks will sound the same with the same benefits and disadvantages. This is particulary true when comparing two radically different designs as is the case here.

Avoid wishing one did things the other does. Just listen to each on its own terms for as long as it takes and decide.

The Ohms will cost you a premium at this point so be sure you are comfortable with that as well.

Regarding speaker placement, I recommend carving out a few hours to tweak and listen continuously as much as needed until you settle in on what sounds best.

My gut feel is that the Ohm MWTs will do better on larger scale more complex recordings at more realistic listening levels particularly in a nearfield listening scenario, but the Totem Arros will be hard to better at the other extreme, ie lower to more moderate volumes, simpler more acoustic music types.

Reb,

I base my gut feel above on the assumption that the Arros will play out against the MWTs similarly to how my Dynaudios play out against my 100s, more or less.

With more acoustic, less dynamically demanding material, sitting in the sweet spot, the Dyns give up nothing to the Ohms at least in my smaller rooms.

For larger scale, more dynamically challenging recordings, at more realistic listening levels, the Ohms not only rule but compete in a bigger league only with other much larger speakers.

Of course the Ohm 100s are somewhat larger than the MWTs, so that has to be considered as well.

Anyway...sounds like a win/win situation for you which ever way you go. Keep us posted!