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

Again, you have a good point, Mapman. I have a Parasound 2205A, running 220 watts @ 8 ohms w/60 amps of current available. Could have something to do with the presentation I'm getting...

My co-worker/budding audiophile stopped by Monday evening. Unfortunately, his burned CD-R of his favorites wouldn't play, so we will try it again some evening. But we listened for a while to both the Vandersteen 1Cs and the Ohm Walsh 2000s. No question the Ohms were easier to listen to, if a bit less dynamic (still not broken in). Before he left, I hooked up the Vandy subs again. Just needed to feel that bass again.

I have two question for Ohm Walsh owners:

Once fully broken in, were the vocals from your Walsh's still very laid back?

Also, and I'd never thought I'd say this, I am bothered by the feeling that the 2000s are a bit recessed in the brightness range, 4-8kHz. This lends cymbals, for example, a more tizzy feel, and a less metalic feel. It seems as thought the Walsh driver rolls off too soon before it hands off to the tweeter at ~8kHz. Is this another burn-in issue, or is that a characteristic of the later Ohm Walsh designs with added tweeters?

I was listening to some R.E.M. last night. The electric guitar, while clear & clean as a bell, overpowered everything, especially the vocals. I could barely hear the vocals. I am sure it's a lousy recording, but the sense of being laid back was extreme. Also listened to Ani DiFranco - "Evolve" - on CD. Here, the laid back quality of the 2000s combined with the CD's in-yer-face mix to balance out very nicely. The horns on several tracks, intentionally set low in the mix, were very sweet and real sounding.

Yes, Parasound, the Vandy 2Wq subs run parallel to the mains, in a setup similar to REL. However, unlike the RELs, the Vandy does provide hi-pass filtering for your mains via an in-line filter between preamp and amp, and a compensating curve in the subs' built-in amp. A truly seemless blend, at least in my experience.

"Once fully broken in, were the vocals from your Walsh's still very laid back? "

They are very neutral, not inherently bright or forward I would say, but
I think it will depend on room, setup, electronics and other factors, but no, not inherently.

Break in will make a lot of difference in this regard, whether its the speaker breaking in or your ears adjusting to the new sound or a combo of both (most likely the case).

The OHM Walshes are inherently more laid back than forward sounding in general, but the vocals themselves are not relative to the rest. They are generally very clear and right there where they should be on my system.

Now the Walsh 5s are highly adjustable at the speaker, including presence/midrange, but I do not find myself using these much to compensate for anything.

The toe-out trick, exposing the tweeters somewhat more directly in fron of you main listening position, can always be used to brighten things up a bit as well if needed.

IC tweaks can also have a good effect if needed.

Tizzy cymbals should not occur in any case.

At locations well off axis from the tweeters, the top end will drop off but everything else should remain clear and highly coherent.

Lesser recordings in general will sound more laid back than others, I would say.

The Walsh woofer is deficient at the extreme ends of it's bandwidth until it is fully broken in. So before breakin, you will not get the extreme bottom end thundering bass. And the upper treble range from 4-8 khz will sound recessed. Rest assured, this range will become quite vivid and nuanced when the driver is fully broken in. My suggestion is to play lots of piano music - let a CD repeat at moderate levels overnight. This will break that woofer in nicely at the top end. Better yet, get a CD of Bach music and run that for 24 hours at moderate loudness - you will hear a difference!

I find the treble on my Walsh 5000's to be clean, resolved and extended. But it will all depend on what's going on upstream. My expereience with the Walsh drivers has been that the highs can sound recessed if gear upstream does not match well and if your amp is lacking in current. The 5000's require current, watts, the right cables, you name it. I have been going through trial and error to dial in the sound. Now that it appears to be dialed in the supertweeter up top is the cleanest and most grain free of all the speakers I've had. These are super smooth in the top end but you can sure here the blat of trumpet or the grit in the reed of sax.