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

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1267197063&read&3&zzlMarkeetaux&&

Vertically mounted/downward firing speakers (like OHM Walshes) can interact strongly with the floor, particularly acoustically lively floors like wood floors, etc.

The thread above talks about this scenario which is more common with subwoofers but also applies to the OHM Walshes, so I though it would be of interest to those in this thread.

I just ordered Microwalsh Tall SE's in Rosewood... gotta wait 2-3 weeks for them. Heh, I'm kinda banking on being able to sell my current speakers in that time-frame, otherwise I'll have some explaining to do, seeing as my main motive was to save space. ('Um, why are there 2 pair of speakers in here, now?')

Ron - My wife asked me the same question! I actually have TWO pair of vandersteen 1Cs sitting in my basement (I replaced one pair with the 2000s, and the surround pair with the used MWTs I bought from an Agoner). When I told her the 2000s came with a 120-day in-home trial, so I needed to keep my Vandys until I decided whether to keep them or not, she understood. Good luck!

hehe. I had the same issue. Luckily my wife likes how they look, and managed to tolerate the clutter for a couple of days.

Congrats on you MWT's!

Aktchi,

FWIW, I've had the Verity Parsifal/Encore and the Merlin VSM (uprgrade to near current status) in the same system as my Ohm 100/Rythmik sub system. I can't compare the speakers with the subs on-line and I only ran the 100s full range for a brief time - but here's the comparison off that short full range audition:

ALL THAT FOLLOWS IS JUST MHO:

The Ohm is about as neutral tonally as the Merlin (to my ear, anyway). It's more neutral than the Verity, which is to say that the P/E is noticably warm in tonality and consequently often sounds more acoustically "lifelike" than a nearly dead neutral speaker like the Ohm or Merlin(particularly on a lot of source material that leans bright - i.e 90+% of pop and rock recordings).

The Ohm is less revealing of things upstream than either the Merlin (considerable margin) or the P/E (noticeable margin).

The Ohm is less dramatically dynamic ("jump factor") than either the VSM or P/E.

The Ohm goes a bit deeper in the bass than the P/E and is about as extended as the VSM.

All of these speakers are remarkably "seamless" in their presentation.

The Ohms might be a bit "dry" at the top vs the P/E - that is "might", as in subtle.

The Ohms image with both specificity (as do the VSM and the P/E) but with a sense of weight and body that the other speakers can't quite match. It is this quality which really distinguishes the Ohms.

Since I use (room corrected) subs (troublesome room issues), the bass comparison isn't particularly important to me in this application, so MY OWN PERSONAL bottom line is:

The Ohms are about as neutral as it gets. When run full range, they have real bass extention - sufficient form most recordings. They don't have quite the dynamic jump of the best competition. They aren't as "transparent" as the best I've heard, but they aren't slouches either. They are as seamless as I've heard. Their top end is very good, but some who are more sensitive in this range may demand a half demerit vs. the best competition. Their imaging and staging is unique to Omnis and that provides the special character that makes the speakers essentially irreplaceable to some listeners.

As always, YMMV

Marty