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

PSB Synchrony 2's?

Excellent choice. As I think I've posted around here on A'gon somewhere, these are one of very few speakers that I could afford that I have heard that I could live happily with long term I think if I had to. They are a reasonable alternate to the OHMs I would say. Not many others I have heard in the same price range are.

FWIW Rebbe, I don't think there are any affordable monitors out there that can do things as well overall as the OHMs, at least when it comes to large scale orchestral or other works that require some low end muscle, at least not without a sub.

Rebbi - It sounds like you gave the Ohms a listen for a long time, but it's you're time to move on. Once in a while I get the bug to try something else, but it passes. You have to try things out, glad to see you found another speaker that suits you.

I'd have to guess that because your room is on the live side, the Ohms, as great as they are, are less forgiving than more directional speakers. I've owned psb's before and also liked them a lot - nice speakers!

The truth of the matter is, I've been hitting the audio forums a lot less than I used to - with the exception of this thread, so thanks Rebbi!

the ref1000mkiis arrived yesterday just in time for me to be snowed in with them and get some listening in.

i'll leave a teaser and say that things have changed significantly. details to follow once i have more time to tune in.

reb, your room does remind me of a very lively room with wood floors that i had my original walsh 2s in almost 30 years ago. lets just say it was a very unique and challenging environment to get things tuned into!

Bondmanp,

With your participation in a local audio club, maybe someone there has some amps they'd bring over to try out -- just for grins...

Its striking to me how much the sound of both my OHM Walsh pairs changes whenever I make a change to electronics. The difference now with the Bel Canto Ref 1000mkii's is perhaps the most striking of all. The sound is exceptionally lean and mean now. Everything is rock solid tight and dynamics and transient response has improved markedly. The difference is most apparent with well recorded drums but is in play most everywhere.

A good example is Ringo's bass drum on "Come Together" from the newly remastered release of Abbey Road. It sounds like a real bass drum now as a result of improved dynamics in combo with improved portrayal of harmonic overtones.

I also heard the foghorn blast that is typically buried in the mix of the tune "yellow Submarine" (from the remastered album of the same name from a few years back), it was quite distinct and clear.

You can often tell when things are going well when the music draws you in and you just want to turn up the volume and the toes start tapping or you reach for that air guitar! That's what I was doing yesterday afternoon. But things were also shining brightly at even the lowest volumes more so than ever before.

These amps are the bomb so far!

On the down side, I noticed a barely noticeable bit of what I believe to be some intermittent low level high frequency tube noise apparently on one channel of the pre-amp that I had never noticed before. Nothing horrible, but barely noticeable as a slight high pitched whine when sitting idle. At first I suspected a problem with one of the new amps, but switching inputs to the amps switched the problem to the other speaker, so the amps appear innocent. It may be time to open up the ARC pre-amp for the first time and dabble with the tubes.