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

A while back I wrote a review about the Walsh 5's wherein I likened their soundstage to Carnegie Hall (the old hall that is, the one that the architectural genius Tuthill designed and built, before Stern and his nouveau renovators ruined it into just a 'good' hall), front mezzanine center to be exact. I performed at Carnegie and attended concerts there. The magical quality about Carnegie is the combination of tons of scintillating air, a vibrant yet critically damped acoustic, and astounding lucidity of instrumental and vocal articulations. In the old Carnegie, one could sit on stage rear and hold a conversation with someone sitting in the balcony without hardly raising the volume of one's voice. The Ohm Walshs recreate that magical acoustic space in my listening room. Mercury Living Presence and RCA Living Stereos, as well as live recordings from Carnegie Hall itself, enjoy a special synergism with the Walshes.

Mamboni, thanks for sharing that.

I picked up the recently recovered Monk/Coltrane recording from Carnegie at the Hall's gift shop. It is a real treat.

One of the most amazing sounding recordings I own on the Walshs is the "Classic Concert" recording with Mel Torme and company from back in the 80's.

I think it is at the end of "Round Midnight" on this recording where Torme hits an extended high note that seems to come from behind and above me off the Walsh 5's. There were a few moments sitting in the hall involving a celeste or cymbal of some sort where the high frequency sound did a similar trick while I was sitting a good ways up and back, front row, Dress Circle. It was very cool!

Well after reading this for months I pulled the trigger on some Walsh 2s then had them refitted by Ohm. Set them up yesterday right next to my Ohm C2s. Very interesting. Not blowing me away out of the box but definitely good stereo separation, bottom end. Listened to a variety of things yesterday....Alison Krauss, Shelby Lynne, Diana Krall...all pretty good. Bill Evans...a little tinny on the piano sound. Hotel California...just ok. Tommy Emmanual-great acoustic instrument sound. Running off an old Mcintosh MA5100 integrated. Will work on breaking them in and finding the right placement. Not an ideal room as I have them about 15 inches off the front wall but there are shelves on both sides loaded with cds about 20 inches away. I will have to keep my ears open and maybe even run them off my separates later and see if there is an improvement. There does seem to be something of an "Ohm" sound but at this point the C2s seem to have more detail but less of a clean and low bottom end.

J - I started out with an MA6200 on my MWTs, then upgraded to a Cyrus 8vs2 and the speakers went up a notch in performance. Deeper bass, more detail... Surprised to hear Bill Evan's piano sounded tinny - his touch is anything but that. Plus, I always dig how the Ohms resolve piano.

Keep breakin' 'em in!

Joe, I sold many C2s years ago and still own L's.

I recall the C2s having the brightest inherent timbre of any OHM speaker save perhaps the E, which was a much lesser speaker. Not sure what the OHM C2 upgrade does in this regard, though I am certain it extends the low end.

My L's have the OHM sub bass activator tweak and a custom Morel woofer upgrade I installed myself. These sound best with good SS amplification I have found. Until I upgraded my amp from an older Carver m4.0t to the current MF A3CR (higher Current), I actually preferred the Ls to my Walsh 2s (100S3 drivers)for certain pop/rock recordings. The MF is lower watts (150w/ch) but higher current than the Carver (360w/ch) was. The OHM Walsh speakers need this to really shine.

Also, the Walshes need to break in and are inherently less efficient than C2s I believe, so they do require more power to truly thrive. I am not familiar with your Mac, but it is possible that an amp that does fine with the C2s may not do as well with the Walshes.

Aside from this, the presentation of the Walshes is totally different than the more conventional OHM box designs. That will never change.