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

Ron,
I owned a pair of micro talls for 5 months and never thought they lacked bass. Part of the problem is that most of your music is on vinyl. They just couldn't put that much bass on lp's, or the needle would be jumping right out of the groove, so if you wanted more bass, you had to supplement it with subs and room placement ect. CD's today are capable of almost unlimited low end extension. You might want to buy a few cd's that you know have a lot of low end and give them a listen. This will show you what the micros can do, and you might be a bit surprised at how much bass they can produce by themselves. You will probably want to re-add a sub to listen to your lp's as they will sound rather "anemic" without a sub, but this was the norm for the times and we hade no choice. Don't give up on your micro talls. I just sent mine back and upgraded to the new 1000. I'm breaking them in, but the Ohm magic is still there, great bass(on cd's), soundstage and overall presentation that will improve with time. I really loved the micros, but needed something that could handle more power. I'll be posting my impressions od the 1000's as time and break-in permit, but I'm convinced that I've got something really special with the Ohms, and if I choose to upgrade again, it will be with Ohms Good luck Joe

I'm very interested in hearing people's impressions of the new and improved 1000's series drivers versus the older series 3 drivers that I have in both pair of OHM Walshes and were used in MWTs from the outset, I believe.

Having not heard the latest drivers, its difficult for me to provide reliable feedback on those based on prior versions in that one cannot assume what is similar, different or improved sound-wise.

Joe-
I've always found I got MORE bass with vinyl, esp. the newer, remastered stuff. I actually gave up on cd's and sold my Rega Apollo (everything sounded lifeless on that thing). I'm not sure why- maybe my phono amp is the wildcard (although, it's nothing special- Jolida). Either way, my stereo is basically all analog for me (I have a Yamaha cd recorder to copy albums- I can play cd's if I really wanted, but it sounds similar to the Rega). I'm not giving up yet, but I don't want to go back to a sub- at least, not where I currently live (no room for one).

There is quantity of bass and quality of bass. Amps with higher damping factors tend to work well with the larger OHMs at least I believe. When I was amp hunting, I only considered amps with damping factors > 50. My old Carver was lower and had flat bass particularly at lower levels. The damping factor spec on the amps I'm running now is >1000 according to Bel Canto's specs. And let me tell you, the bass is by far the cleanest and most fulfilling I have heard on OHMs, though when I first hooked the Bel Cantos up, the bass sounded quite lean compared to prior.

My Odyssey Stratos HT3 is rated at >500 continuous damping factor. While run full range the 2000s sounded great, my beloved Vandy 2Wq subs (a pair of them) naturally put more extended, more powerful bass into the room than the Ohms alone. I think the combo of the 2Wqs and the Walsh 2000s is fantastic (although any good speaker that extends to 40Hz will work well with the Vandy subs).

As for the bass on vinyl, IMO, it can be quite deep and full. True, vinyl has physical limitations, but that is what RIAA EQ (and other EQ) circuits are for. Well-recorded vinyl through the MM phono section on my Connie-J PV-11 preamp does not lack bass. Much rock on vinyl is no better mixed and mastered than rock is on CD. Garbage-in, garbage-out, as they say.

For those of you following my Walsh 2000 saga, I am hoping to order the spike cradle bases from Sound Anchors soon.