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

John has even chimed in on this thread in the past if you go back a bit. Been awhile though.

He is a musician as well as an EE though, I believe. They say musicians respond to music differently than others due to extensive exposure to music, and high end audio adds little for them.

I too have enjoyed Johns latest little blurbs, good reading.

As far as Johns take on wanky-wires, I think in general John takes a very solid, but simplistic take on the whole audio thing, use what is capable for doing said job, no more, no less, simple and fuss free. After all, he has in the past used very simple and reasonably priced amplifiers from NAD etc.

I do like Johns approach and thoughts on most things. But, it also doesn't hurt to try things out for yourself and see what-if anything does change for the better. A lot of things may not be better, just different. Isn't this audio business fun? Tim

Almost any change or tweak I try can be heard I find. I think John just likes to keep to simple formulas that can work for most, but some are more finicky or have very refined goals. It can work either way, but I think John like any business person in the end says and does what is best for business, which is try to keep things as simple and affordable as ppossible.

Heard yes, probably so, but are they all better? Probably not. For me, I find wires and cable to be the most difficult thing in general(unless something is really waaaay different or just awful for whatever reason)to try and evaluate. Again, maybe differences, but not always so cut and dried as to define a better or best a lot of the time-again, for me and my cloth ears.

It may be that after all these years, I am maybe just simply more satisfied with the setup and sound it delivers that I am less apt to swap things in and around for the sheer fun of it anymore. Enjoy listening to the music more than I do going through the motions of swap, listen, and all that business. Tim

IMO more people should listen to men like John Strohbeen, and Alan Shaw (Harbeth). If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's all about getting the testing method down, then real comparisons can be made.

We hear about level matching all of the time, but it's true - our ears work in a very non-linear fashion. The ear responds very differently at different sound pressure levels. When making two or more comparisons, the levels have to be matched VERY closely...
But even more importantly, because most comparisons aren't even made at the same exact time, is the issue of audio memory. It's been proven that humans cannot remember what something sounds like (or looks like, for that matter) - after just a few seconds - it's just the way it is. VERY quick comparisons have to be made.
So when someone, anyone says they're hearing (perceiving) that something sounds differently - it's really hard for me trust judgement, unless the comparison had been made properly.