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


Hi,

I'd love to hear the impressions of people who've actually spent some time with these speakers to share their sense of their plusses and minuses. Mapman here on Audiogon is a big fan, and has shared lots on them, but I'm wondering who else might be familiar with them.
rebbi
Thank you guys for your comments. I have no plans to move to tubes, just something I have not seen mentioned wrt amps for Ohms. Really a moot point as I plan on upgrading my 5000s to some form of the powered F with the 15", keeping my original cans.
Coot, a SET would not work for the Ohms. A push-pull of high wattage (such as a McIntosh, would need about 150 wpc for the 5000) tube would be fine. My approach with inefficient speakers is to concentrate on a tube preamp with a powerful SS amp. That way one can play around with tube swapping without busting the bank (preamp tubes are relatively inexpensive), and tubes last much longer with the modest amount of amplification of the preamp. Some of the tubes are cheap, and some cost upwards of $1200/pair, like the Sophia Electric Royal Princess 300B, and with amps you might need to replace the tubes in as little as a couple of years with heavy use.
Bond, that was why I said "within an amplifiers capability and not clipping" bit. Once that happens all bets are off, but I do understand what you mean, tubes are a bit more graceful when they clip, or can be, and I suppose the argument could be made that tubes even when running within their limits, still have distortion figures quite a bit higher than solid state in general, it is just a more pleasurable distortion if you will. Still I find so many claims of tube amplification sounding like "more watts than solid state" to be somewhat silly. Anyway, I should just let it slide really. No big deal.

I am sure John will do you black finish on your surrounds/rear channels too still. It is too popular to not do it. It is just good to see the website take on a major improvement after all these years!

Take care Bond and all. Enjoy the tunes. Tim
I got my 5000's back a couple of weeks ago and they sound bettter than ever. Tweeter fixed and more protection. Bass is tighter also. Also toe'd them out a bit and treble more audible. Also upgraded to Bryston BP25 preamp to drive my Bryston 14BSST. A great speaker company. I look forward to each and every listening session.
I remember when I ordered my WMT's, John was not thrilled with another black ash order, and he tried his best to guide me into choosing another finish. Not that he was hard-selling me, just using his gentle suggestion approach.

But it's still my favorite finish. With the lights out, they really do disappear quite nicely. Four years later and I am still amazed at how elements 'float' across the soundstage. These speakers are just uncanny- I've yet to hear anything quite like them!