I did get my 2000s last night! :-)
The boxes were huge and heavy, with triple-boxing and wood and foam inserts. Good thing, too: UPS did their usual best to destroy whatever might be inside. They only succeeded in damaging the outer boxes, however.
I unboxed them (pretty easily), then unwrapped them. There were a few surprises. I have exchanged emails with John Strohbeen to address some issues, and John seems most determined to resolve everything to my satisfaction. For that reason, I will not be commenting on these issues at this time. Suffice it to say that John is dedicated to cadillac customer service.
My basement floor (carpeted cement) is not flat. The speakers wobble significantly. My Vandersteen 1Cs use a 3-point spike base, so this has not been an issue. Ohm is sending me some pads to level and stabilize the speakers, but until these are in place, I cannot fairly comment on the sound of the speakers. I also have to take some time and dial in my Vandersteen 2Wq subwoofers.
Conveniently, the ganged banana plug connector that was supplied with my Vandersteen 1Cs matches the spacing on the Walsh 2000 speaker terminals, so the switch was easy.
After listening to a demo CDR I compiled on my Vandersteen 1Cs, I switched to the Ohms. By this time, they had reached room temperature. The Ohms are 25.5" from the side walls and 37.5" from the front wall (I have very little room to move these closer or farther from adjacent walls). Note that there is a huge 55" SD RPTV behind (by about 10") and in between the speakers, and there are CD cabinets next to and on top of the RPTV. The rest of my gear is in my "System" link.
Space is tight, so for now, the Vandys are placed against the side walls next to the Ohms. This will be changed as soon as possible. Note that the signal from the amp is high-pass filtered, first order, below 80Hz, so it is down 6dB at 40Hz, and 12dB at 20Hz.
Initial impressions were positive. I could tell immediately that the 2000s were better than my Vandersteen 1Cs is two key areas: Timbre and flatness of frequency response. In some areas, the two are actually more alike than different. I am not very surprised by this, since both use designs that eliminate or minimize box and baffle colorations. I also heard a bit more detail with the Ohms, and there was more extension of soundstage into the room. The center image was better defined and more stable, as well as taller, than the Vandys. Most noticeable, however, was the elimination, on certain familiar material, of a tendancy for specific musical notes to jump out and obscure other parts of the music. I had always attributed this to room acoustics (which are far from perfect). But I guess this was due to irregularities in the Vandys' frequency response.
The 2000s are clearly less efficient than the 1Cs, as I tried for at least a general level match using a Rat Shack SPL meter, and had to raise the volume on the preamp roughly one to two "hours" on the dial. I still was listening at a comfortable 9 or 10 o'clock, however.
Naturally, the speakers are not broken in, and I have just begun the lengthy process of burn-in, positioning, dialing in my subs, and critical listening.
I will keep this thread informed, but for now, I am cautiously optimistic.
