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

Map, thanks for the advice. I think I will give John a call.

Long time lurker first time poster. I've been reading almost all of the posts in this thread and it's funny that even though it was originally for the micro talls it became the go to thread for all Ohm Walsh posts. Anyway I just wanted to share my experience with the ohms and this could be long so I apologize but I have to do this because I have some questions to the experts. Also, I am just starting with this game so I don't have a lot of good gear yet. I have a marantz sr5005 going to a 20 year old b&k sonata video 5 amp. Interconnects are regular acoustic research cables and speaker wires are the DIY white lightning.

So..I started my hunt for better speakers coming from polk monitor 70s. Listened to klipsch too grating for me. Tried B&W - while it was pleasing and presented a lot of details, it was not for me as I find something is missing. Tried psb T6 - reminded me of polk monitor but in a more smoother and pleasing way. Listened to the monitor audio rx6 and found it too bright and fatiguing. Then I listened to the martin logan esl at paradyme and wow this is what I was looking for, the music just seems to embrace me ... but only if you are in the sweet spot. I then I asked the sales person to put it outside the dedicated listening room where it more closely resembles the family room at my house and it was connected to just a plain receiver and blu-ray player and it lost it's magic, the life just got sucked out. I learned with this experience that source gears are that important if you want the best sound possible.

Still looking for the correct speaker for me I chanched upon Don Lindich's website (soundadviceblog.com) and how he really likes Ohm's. Emailed him about how I felt about the martin logans but told him about my concern regarding the limited sweet spot and he told me to try the ohm walsh. Googled ohm walsh and found this thread and started reading reviews and posts.

Called ohm and it was John who answered. Expressed what I was looking for and told him about my room which was about 4200 cu. ft. but only had a budget for around 2K. He suggested I go for the sw2.2000 which was the older walsh 2 cabinets with the 2000 drivers. I did some research about this older model and I dig the looks and the wheels...at least when there is an earthquake the speaker will not topple and just move from side to side..cool. John even sent me veneer samples of different types and colors...what company would do this? I proceeded to order the sw2.2000 in rosewood thinking that even though it was a little small for my room that I can supply the low-end with a subwoofer.

Received the sw2.2k in about 2 weeks and all I can say is that the packaging was like a russian doll, it was box within a box within a box within a box - I would imagine that even if the UPS truck flipped, the speakers will still be okay. Plugged it in for the initial listening and it sounded closed-in so I let it break for about 100 hours and I remembered the drinking cool aid by the gallon comment on a review about the ohm 2000's...it really was real and painful to wait for it to break.

Finally, it setlled. The sound coming from it was not like the martin logans where the image just projecs in front of you, it is more of a live stage type where you are listening as an audience. I have an irregular shaped family-kitchen setup where the right sound coming from the right gets pulled due to the wall, while the left is open to the kitchen. Fixed this by putting a sound pannel on the right wall but no more absorptions at the back as I find it takes away from the live experience. Optimal spacing for me is about 5.5 ft in between and 2 feet from the back wall. Any wider spacing between the speakers and the "whole backwall becomes a speaker" does not happen and I will notice the sound coming from each speaker. I like the magic of this speakers where it makes you feel like you are not listening to speakers at all. Very natural and music just flows, unlike the regular box speakers where I feel the music being pushed to me. The closest speaker that had this character but at a higher price that I have auditioned is the Broadmann Acoustics festival speakers - really nice speakers.

The combination of the sw2.2k with the 100 watter b&k amp is very good for me at regular listening levels. Louder and it sounds constrained and grating. My favorite albums when listening to these speakers are the regular cds of dire straits' brothers in arms and Muddy Waters' folk singer - very good quality from these albums - theses albums made me realize how important the source is and now I hunt albums with good quality recordings. While the b&k and the sw2.2k is forgiving, it is really pleasurable to listen to good recordings.

Now my question...I read that the ohm's sound better with more power...do I really need to upgrade my amplifier? I have it crossed at 40hz and let the sub take over from here. Once in a while I put these ohms in the bedroom where I have a parasound zpre2 and a niles si 245 (45 watt @8ohm and 70 @4ohm) and it just sounds glorious as well. It makes me really ponder on whether I need to spend more on the amplifier, and now I am always on the hunt for a good deal specifically at the parasound hca 1500a. Please good experts..sirs.. provide your feedback! Thanks and sorry for the long post. I still have a lot to tell about these speakers but maybe on a separate thread.

Drakef5: No need to apologize for a very interesting post. Welcome to the Ohm club! As for the power issue, as you can see, I recently had this answered for me with the loan of a pair of 500 watt monoblocks. Remember, I also have my 2000s crossed over to powered subs (80Hz, 1st order). My 150 watt/channel amp, the very beefy Odyssey Stratos HT3 w/cap upgrade, was actually clipping audibly in the midrange on vocals! I was surprised by this, but hearing the Ohms with massive power was an epiphany. John Strohbeen recently told me that as long as I don't go overboard with the volume control, I could upgrade to a 1500 watt/channel amp, and I am thinking of doing just that as soon as I can afford it. Mapman uses 500 watt/channel Bel Canto amps, and agrees that the extra power allows the Ohms to perform their best. Ohm never claimed that the Walsh speakers are high-efficiency models. But with class-D amps getting better, massive, quality wattage is becomming more affordable and practical. Although in a very small room, modest power will work, you just have got to hear what the Ohms can do in a large room with really massive power on tap. There is nothing quite like it!

I am convinced that there is more to the Class D amp sound I hear with the OHMs than power and current alone accounts for.

There is a tube amp-like aspect to the amps ability to go loud without causing fatigue or overall brightness. I have read (in an article published by a gentleman from SPectron) where this might be due to unique negative feedback design advantages with switching amps that can help keep the timing delay when applying NF minimal compared to other amp designs. Its consistent with what Ralph from Atmasphere regularly cites as an advantage of no NF amps. Or in the case of switching amps, ability to apply negative feedback more efficiently. I do not understand the technical details of how this works, but what I have read there and similar accounts from other reputable sources tells me that this might be a unique positive attribute of CLass D amps.

ALso, latest generation Class D amps appear to be pushing the bar significantly higher still in terms of switching frequency possible, which enables better low pass filtering needed with switching amps and on paper at least would seem to raise the bar in terms of technical capabilities of Class D. Can things get even better? I suspect so, though CLass D amps already seem to bring a lot of unique benefit to the table IMHO.

Thanks Bondmanp,Mapman.

What about those crown xls amp? Anybody use this before with ohms? I read that they getting better as well and cheaper too.

I can pickup a used parasound hca 1500 for $400 today but now i am having second thoughts...i might have to just save a bit more for the class Ds.

Got additional info on the sw2.2k regarding the bass settings. Apparently for those who dont have the external controls (micro,1k,2k,3k,4k) there is a way to tweak the bass on the ohms if you find it too boomy or not enough. You can remove the cup where the speakers are connected to and there is a switch to adjust the bass. By default it is set to middle. I adjusted mine after telling John that i was having too much bass with the ohms and he instructed me to do this.

It is a hidden setting so that you can adjust the dynamics if you ever move it to a different room in the future. Turns out that the issue with mine was due to the dynamic audessey setting where i need to adjust it to 15db so i moved it back to the mid seting.