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

"An issue I still can't get past is that from album to album, artist to artist, the volume of bass will vary hugely. "

That's inherent largely in recordings.

Each recording usually requires unique processing in order to get all to sound a certain way. There is no single or easy solution. Pursuit of this will likely be time consuming at a minimum and fruitless at worst. Recordings are what they are, not what people might want them to be.

I shoot to avoid too much, fat or inarticulate bass with any recordings, even the most bass heavy ones. THen the rest will fall in line as best possible and usually quite well from there bass-wise. A sub can help but can also be quite hard sometimes to blend in by ear. Patience and good ears are needed!

I suspect some of the most frustrated audiophiles that can't get off the merry go round out there are those that are bass focused and have unrealistic expectations of their recordings to all sound exactly the way they would like.

That actually makes me feel better to know I'm not having a problem with the equipment and also that I'm not insane. Fortunately I like just a touch of bass so I can keep the settings toned down the majority of the time.

I good "training" exercise is to go to a local high end audio dealer that you might be interested in doing business with and ask to listen to a variety of recordings on their biggest best system. That can help give you a frame of reference for what different recordings really sound like and what can be expected.

Many never achieve the goal of having realistic expectations in regards to how specific recordings actually sound. Most all recordings are different and inherently sound different, although over the long term with experience you might be able to put them into some general categories that work in regards to how different types of recordings sound in general.

Expectations that are not realistic will doom anyone every time.

One thing I can say with confidence, is that when set up well and with the right gear behind them driving, the OHMs themselves should never be the bottleneck in regards to getting the best possible bass in all cases. They can take almost anything you throw at them to a greater extent than most any other speaker in their price range I am familiar with.

Rbf1138 - I feel partly responsible for your dissatisfaction, since I suggested the Velodyne to you. But I think the regulars on this thread have given you sound advice. I'd lower the crossover a bit, since I bet your Ohms go below 100Hz, at least to 80Hz and probably lower. Don't attempt to make the Velodyne your bass driver. Just have it to fill in on those rare moments when true deep bass is present in the signal. Ideally, shutting off the sub should not result in a huge apparent difference in the balance of the sound.

And, absolutely, bass content, amplitude, and extension varies tremendously with each recording. Find a happy average setting, and then you can make small adjustments on the fly with the Velo's remote. But remember what your baseline reference setting is.

This is why I am glad I have tone controls on my preamp. Purists will attack me, but it is nice to know I can make adjustments if needed, even though 95% of the time, I bypass those tone controls.