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

Moon,

No ill effects from the wide range driver that i am aware of. I believe the Walsh driver confguration has a lot to do with its effectiveness from top to bottom, a fairly unique capability of Walsh drivers i would say.

Hi Mapman,
I'm seriously considering booking the odd 1 week holiday here and there and taking in demos of the 2 speakers I mentioned (Duevel's full omni vs Ohm's quasi-omni).
Matthias, the European distributor is a very helpful chap and has offered the facility of User demos if I'm ever in the neighbourhood. I missed the chance to hear them during a recent German hifi exhibition (and to be honest he's probably given up on me thinking I've gone elsewhere but I simply take reasonable time to evaluate and choose products). No point in pestering the man when we have a Forum like this. :)
I believe he also does his own active-crossovered version of the 5K which even John is impressed by relative to the top performing passive Ohm 5K.... :)
I don't know how many people own them but the bass performance is clearly enhanced by this method.
(Can you buy the "upgrade kit"? Food for thought :)

Hi guys, nice to see this thread still moving along. I think with the image height as others have said, is very recording dependant as is soundstaging(althought the very nature of the Ohm makes these things even better in my mind). I notice varying image height very much when I am playing around with my MWT/omni's. Last night I was listening to many different types of music, from Yellowjackets, Pink Floyd, and then decided to listen to some Who. On "Who's Next", image height was to the top of my 8' ceiling, whereas the other recordings I had been listening to were more about the 6' foot or so height. The omni MWT's are very interesting, the stage is more set back from the front plane of the speakers, yet pretty much blows the wall behind them away. My Ohm 3000's tend to be more all around the speaker. The MWT kind of challenged my preconceived notions of what they would sound like in a 2-channel setup-I had purchased mine with more of a surround/rear duty in an A/V setup.

Moonglum, the next time you see or talk to Mathias, give him a "hello" from the USA for me. We corresponded a couple fo times via e-mail quite awhile back. He seems to be a very wonderful guy and has a passion for the Ohm's. I too would be intersted in hearing an actively driven pair of 5000's myself! Enjoy the music! Tim

Interesting how different recordings sound with the Ohms, isn't it? I just put on the remastered vinyl of Are You Experienced. On a conventional system, Jimi's sound effects bounce from speaker to speaker; on my 5000's, it seems to swirl- very cool to listen to. Then I put on a new version of Abbey Road (vinyl), which while very enjoyable seemed to have the top end of the treble muted. Just seems that the record is biased to the bass side.

I've noticed that in my setup if I sit close, about 8 feet from the speakers, the bass is less noticable than if I move to 15 or 20 feet back. My particular room has an open dining room behind my listening area, with lower ceilings than in the main room, and also two steps up from the other floor. The net effect is that if I shift into the dining area I get the "blacony in the concert hall" sound. Nice to have these options, depending on my mood. James

I think the recording is a big factor in staging/imaging/height more than we care to admit. I do find it interesting how each recording in general is different in certain areas.

Before I bought the Ohm MWT'S omni's, I had this idea that because of the way the tweeter was pointed straight up at the ceiling, that music would be splashed all over the place and not have much of an image or staging to speak of. I was so very wrong on this account, and in some ways prefer the omni presentation to the "normal" Ohm speaker. Probably the thing it does give up to the normal Ohm driver config. Is the ability to have that same sweets pot no matter where you are sitting. You tend to have to be sitting more centered to get the affect, but my, what an affect it is. On some recordings, the omni can be a tad bit overblown or slightly un-natural in it's presentation, but it is a rare thing and again, more recording dependent. I typically have the "hot seat" anyway, so doesn't really matter much to me.

Either way, the Ohm's are just a lot of fun to listen to, maybe not so much the defining and spot-lit definition overall, but thoroughly and utterly enjoyable. I probably just enjoy my tunes more when listening through the Ohm's. My Magnepan with subs are maybe a bit more used as an analytical tool, but still very musical and enjoyable. Really a big toss-up at times, I enjoy them both for different reasons I suppose. Tim