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

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.

FWIW, I have read reviews from MWT owners that indicate bass levels is not a problem even in larger rooms. Certain recordings that plumb the lowest octaves and do it well benefit most from adding a sub. A good pipe organ recording is a typical case.

For a lot of popular and mainstream rock recordings, a sub may not do much in terms of delivering more bass that is also "clean". Its contribution will certainly be less in most cases.

I use an old M&K sub with my OHM 100S3s in my large family room/kitchen area. The 100s are somewhere between 1000s and 2000s in size as I recall. All are larger than MWTs. The sub is set at a very low level and crossed over as low as possible with that sub, at around 40-50hz or so. The level setting is quite minimal, around 1 or 2 out of ten. I could probably live without it 98% of the time.

One other thing worth noting with all OHM Walshes and bass is that they are all bottom ported and can interact with the common wood particle board floors used in many modern homes including mine in ways that strongly affect the bass.

In my case with the 100s, that sit on the 4 factory installed wooden feet, I find the bass a tad "boomy" when sitting directly on the thin carpet 2nd level particle board floor. There is some resonance that occurs. This could vary home by home, room by room, but having owned OHM Walshes in one form or another since 1981 I would say it is typical. I solve the problem in my case by placing each ohm on a 12'X 12" ceramic tile from home depot. This provide just the right amount of additional dampening in my case.

My much larger OHM 5s are on the factory provided castors (great for tweaking location easily) and on the first level and sit direct on the house's thinly carpeted concrete foundation. Floor interactions from the bottom ports there are a non issue and the bass there is reference standard quality in my assessment.

The damping factor of the amplifier used is another thing that can strongly affect how the bass sounds. I like the highest damping factor possible with mine. My Bel Canto ref1000m amps have 1000 damping factor and the bass is deep, full and articulate, just right! My TAB 125 Hibachi's have somewhat lower damping. WIth that, the bass is just a tad not as "tight". SOme bass fans may like that and some may not. It's a judgement call for the most part I would say.

I find damping factor still matters with my smaller 100S3s, but less so. The TADs sound just right with those.

In general, I would estimate any good SS amp, 80 watts/ch or higher with damping of 50 or higher should be a good candidate to drive MWTs. More power up to 250 w/ch or so might benefit bass as well, in particular at higher listening volumes.