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

Rebbi- do you miss them?

Oh- and I hooked up a working pair of F's two days ago :)

D110 wrote:
The speakers that have jumped to my attention for this task have been the Shahinian and Ohm speakers and I was wondering if anyone had listened to both?

Yes, I have.
The Shahinians I auditioned were older Obelisks (for a short time) and Hawks, which are my current speakers.
The Ohms were a pair of Walsh 200's (mid 90's model).
The Ohms and the Hawks were driven by either one or two Plinius SA100/MkIII amps (Ohms cannot be biamped).

I listen to and carer about mostly orchestral classical music so my comments reflect that.

The Shahinians, both Obelisks and Hawks, produce an enormous sound stage and image, with sometimes remarkably rich and lively violin sound, woodwinds (esp. clarinets and flutes) of great beauty and fidelity to the real thing (or some real thing). In addition, they both have explosive, very dynamic bass with a definite presence in the upper bass/lower midrange that provides a fair sense of the power in that region an orchestra produces. Low brass and strings,
bassoons, tympani, harp--all of these have a solidity and body rarely captured in reproduction. Shahinian's design goals include the achieving of this kind of physicality.

The Walsh does not share the Shahinian's bass power, rich tonal balance, or (most sadly for me) timbral accuracy. Winds, brass, and strings all sound tonally less rich than reality. But the Walsh 200's have a more detailed and tighter bass, a "cleaner" sound, produce a soundstage and image easily as impressive as the Hawks with better specificity of location (a characteristic not heard live).
I listened to one jazz record, Cassandra Wilson's New Moon Daughter) which features extreme presence, beautifully defined bass, a gorgeous fullness and complexity in the voice, and, as a bonus, some darn good tunes. The Ohms outdid the Hawks in bass definition and presence but the voice was richer with the Hawks. Almost like cd vs. lp or SS vs. tube, the Shahinians are warmer and more lush, the Ohms are crisper and leaner.
The Shahinians can deliver a physical punch that the Ohms cannot approach.
I do not know if the new Walsh drivers change any of these things, not having heard them. If they were a little more uncolored and a tad richer sounding, I'd happily live with them-- but I'd keep the Shahinians, too. My bottom line is "beauty of sound" and the Hawks are hard to beat there.

My impression is that all the Shahinian designs share the characteristics I have pointed to, to greater or lesser degree. The Walsh drivers, it is said, are all the same except for size so, presumably, the same is true for their line.

By the way, the Hawks will play rather louder and handle lots more power than the Ohms.

Questions?

Rpfef,

Plinius SA100/MkIII is 100 w/ch correct?

That's OK, but probably not enough to bring out the best in any OHM Walshes, particularly in regards to bass impact based on my experience with them.

I would think that would go pretty loud still though large scale classical music like you describe in particular may not be up to snuff.

I can say with confidence that the more recent OHMs with a high power, high current SS amp behind them matches the best systems I have heard in this regard. Recent Class D amp breakthroughs raise the bar in terms of amp size and power consumption needed to drive them to the max for music that requires a lot of power behind it to deliver.

Always have heard good things about Shahinian but unfortunately have never heard those. thanks for sharing!

One thing I notice about Shahinian versus OHM is Shahinian has a forward firing woofer I believe. The OHM Walsh driver fires downward. A forward firing driver might impart more low end impact that can be felt to a listener sitting in front than a downward firing in that more sound reaches the listener directly, all other factors aside.

This difference in the presenation of OHm Walsh speakers is something that people should be aware of and I believes help drive the need for higher power amps. Those who are used to speaker or subwoofer drivers firing directly at them might be put off by a seeming lack of impact by the Walsh drivers in comparison. A smaller percentage of the sound produced reaches your ears directly with the OHMS or even other mostly omni designs, like mbl. Once you feed these enough power to really energize the entire room (not just your listening position), things start to really shape up.

"Rebbi- do you miss them?"

I don't think Reb will know for sure until he has evaluated the MErlin monitors.

From what I know, I think those are a good choice for assessing what is possible with monitors and the Merlins are probably a good choice for what appears to be a pretty lively room in Rebbi's case.

I tried to end my hunt with the Dynaudio monitors, and they came close, but no cigar in the end. I still like them enough to keep them though. They work as good as anything as a matter of fact in our small sunroom, which also happens to be the most lively room in our house.