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

Another report from Ohm 100 Land...

The 100s are sounding terrific. One of my favorite "demo discs" is the LP version of Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms." "So Far Away," sounded wonderful... the thump and pluck of the guitars was enchanting. "Walk of Life" and "Why Worry," were also marvelous. Then, this morning, I had the opportunity to listen for a few minutes to some of "Promise," the LP version by Sade. What the 100s did with the opening cut, "Is It a Crime," was nothing less than jaw-dropping. I mean, this is a very highly produced, multitracked, studio recording... nothing "audiophile" about it, in the normal sense. But the effect of that "Ohm magical presentation" was really something. The track opens with a loud, raucous saxophone solo with lots of plucked electric bass and crashing drums underneath and around it, with lots of studio reverberation surrounding the whole package. The 100s really made it dance and come alive. Then suddenly, the track goes quiet and you are left with just Sade singing accompanied by leisurely chords on some sort of keyboard/organ. The organ chords reach out and envelop the room... you are just getting swept away in the music. I don't know how else to describe it. This, by the way, was one of my favorite albums when I had my old, Vandersteen 2C loudspeakers. As justifiably lauded as they are for throwing a large soundstage, they never brought this level of drama out of that album. Just marvelous.

I'm going to have a lot more time next week to play around with positioning. I'm finding this aspect of things a bit frustrating... I'm not always sure what I'm looking for. I'm not convinced that I've got my positioning optimized yet... the "phantom" center image seems a little skewed to the left... and I'm not sure I'm getting the best tonal balance out of the speakers. I will say, surprisingly, that as much as these 100s are considerably larger than the Micros, I haven't generally found them to be overly bass heavy in my listening room. They have more of what you might call "authority" than the Micros, but generally speaking they're not really "boomy." I started with them about 2 1/2 feet off the back wall, and I've gradually been inching them backwards toward the wall, because the width of the soundstage seems to bloom as I move them back. But, beyond that, I'm not sure I've got anything else quite right yet. Any speaker positioning advice any of you experts can offer will be warmly accepted! :-)

If you're soundstage/imaging seems skewed to one side or the other due to placement and/or room acoustics, try toeing out the OHM on the weak side only to direct more high end energy from the tweet towards your listening area from that side.

That is what I do with my 5's to help balance things out in my listening area in the long area of my very assymetrical L shaped room.

You can see an example of this in the "theBigOhms" photo on my virtual system.

The right F-5 is toed out more than the left to fire more forward than normal so as to balance out the sound stage which otherwise is skewed significantly to the left and extends well into the short length of the L shaped room to the left of the left hand speaker.

Map,

Ellington's extended compositions/theme albums are my favorites. While this is not "Take The A Train", I find the music readily accessible despite the more involved structures. My personal 3 faves are:

Far East Suite
Intimacy of The Blues
Queen's Suite

The last 2 I own only on LPs (Pablo) which sound great, but I can't comment on the CD versions, sonically.

All 3 are definitely worth having.

Marty

Everybody,

I'm sorry that it's taken me such a long time to post to this thread. I've been very busy, but I also wanted to wait until I had something interesting to share. Here than, is Installment #2 of my Ohm Speaker Shootout.

I've been running and attempting to break in and optimize the positioning of the 100s for the past few weeks. It's pretty clear to me that they are not really even close to being broken in at this point. But coming out of curiosity, I disconnected them and hooked up the Micros again for a comparison.

Here's the interesting thing: it's rather amazing to me how little the Micros give up to the 100s in terms of smoothness, tonal accuracy and sound staging. True, the 100s have a somewhat fuller and more authoritative feel, particularly in the lower registers, but in spite of the substantially larger diameter of the driver in the 100s, it's pretty astonishing how much the Micros are able to capture and deliver the bulk of the essential sound of the 100s. Indeed, even in the realm of bass response, although the Micros don't have quite the power and authority of the 100s, as you would expect, there is nothing anemic about them by comparison!

I've had the house to myself for a few days, and so had a rare opportunity for some extended, late-night listening last night. (I'd forgotten how nice it is and how much it enhances the "live performance" delusion to listen with the lights off...) I broke out some vinyl that I hadn't spent time with in years. Rickie Lee Jones's self-titled debut album sounded AMAZING... as trite as this sounds, I couldn't stop listening. And Norah Jones debut album (man, that woman can sing) was glorious... the Micros really show off their coherence in the way that they render the female voice.

I also ought to comment that the 100s, visually, are a good deal more imposing looking, especially in a small room, than the Micros. (The footprint of the 100s is 9" x 9", while the footprint of the Micros is 6" x 6".) After looking at the 100s for several weeks, when you put back the Micros they look like toothpicks, almost laughably small. But man, with the right material, they really sing!

If I had to make a snap judgment right now, I might actually end up with the Micros rather than the 100s, but I'm cognizant of the fact that the Micros are currently more broken in and that they need to give the 100s more break in time.

I guess I'm posting this primarily for anybody who is thinking of putting the Micros in a small room but is worried that they'd be "giving up too much" in comparison to the 100s. As of now, I'd say, "Don't worry about it!"

More to come...

Reb,

Your observations are similar to what I observe between 100s and 5s in my larger room.

Don't forget to break out the pipe organ music though.....