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

Mapman,
I spoke to John at Ohm the other day to let him know that I'd sold the Totems and would be deciding down the road which set of drivers to keep. Since you'd asked awhile ago what John did to the modified drivers, I asked him, and he said, “Boosted the the treble response a bit,” or words to that effect. My neurotic side is bugged by this a little: if the Ohm's are known for their neutrality, is my pair somehow now less neutral? Or is it a matter of how they play in my particular room? Anyway, that's craziness! But I will be interested to see how they sound by comparison when I put the original drivers back in.
As for trading up to the 100-S3's, John told me that the only real difference is that the bigger speaks will ”play four times louder and go 1/2 an octave deeper“ than the MWT's. John said the usual deal is to give 100% trade in value within the first 6 months of ownership if someone wants to trade up the line. I'll see... :-)

The switches on the Walsh 5's essentially allow +/- 3db adjustments in four ranges: low bass, mid bass, midrange and treble.

These are for purpose of adjusting the response to room acoustics or personal hearing preference.

Sounds like the new drivers are more or less like tipping up the treble using the switches on the 5's. I do this on my right Ohm 5 but not my left to help adjust for the crazy acoustics of my L shaped room. That's the main reason I got the 5's instead of the 300's.

Unfortunately, Ohm does not offer these adjustments on the smaller models these days (they used to years ago ).

Decisions, decisions.

Reb,

If it were me, I would try to get by with the standard drivers and use tip-in, tip-out of the tweeter to get the desired effect. I think you indicated at one point prior to getting the tweaked drivers that this had worked to some extent.

If the tweaked drivers still sound better to you over an extended audition duration, then go with them.

Just my opinion.....

This really has been an interesting treat to read all this on the Ohms. I had the old conventional Ohm Model "L" which I recently had the latest upgraded woofers from John Stroben. I inherited them from my brother who bought them in 1977. Even now they are unmatched bookshelf speakers. The new woofers cost $250....worth every dime! John also sent the new port tuning accessories with them. If you find an old pair of Model "L"'s buy them and put the new woofers in them.

Anyway, I have the Ohm Walsh 200 MkII. I run them off my Denon 3805 AVR and Cambridge Audio 640c v.2. After 4 years with them I've concluded that they are the most livable darn speakers. The Walsh's aren't meant to be the imaging champs....its about easy listening and omni present and smoooooooth sound.

I sometimes wonderlust and think maybe the grass is greener somewhere else but I'd miss the Ohms...I know I would. So when I get my Wharfedale Evo2 10's arrive next week, I'll put them up on stands next to my Ohms and I'll choose the speaker I'm in the mood for that day.

Besides, if I want to change something, I could always try different cables, cords, etc with the Ohms. I've done this a couple of times and improved the sound. Silver RCA cables did a beautiful job on my Ohms. And when I wanted more bass, I went with top-of-the-line Monster Cable speaker cable...that tightened the bass up significantly but lost some transparency. You just have to play with it...and enjoy the process.

Condocondor,
Thanks a lot for sharing your experiences. It's cool to hear other people's impressions.