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

In summary, I have heard where my OHM 5s in my room with the right gear in front of them can do an excellent job alone on the lowest notes of pipe organs, shaking hte rafters in the process. Top notch low end extension in source gear and enough power to go along with it are the keys.

Power demand increase exponentially at lower frequencies, so I would think 250W/ch or more for larger OHMs in a larger space to start to be where one would want for pipe organ notes that shake the rafters (as they should).

Damping factor of the amp is also significant for this. Higher damping might make bass tighter and more articulate, and lower damping will loosen things up more and help to get teh room vibrating.

My current setup is more towards the former than the latter these days.

But when I started out with my 5s off Carver m4.0t power amp (tube like sound, low damping) and matching Carver pre-amp, the rafters shook to the point where I would be concerned about things starting to fall off the walls and other similar problems.

Now its leaner and meaner, and not as loosely damped in the bass, but when I get things up to proper level for pipe organ and such, the lock key sitting on a narrow ledge nearby usually ends up on the floor still. And the sound is rock solid and clear, with no sign of breakup or distress EVER.

That is all with no subs in the picture.

Toss a couple of those in then get them set up right and you will likely take a nice shortcut to the place you seek.

So far, I have not felt the need, but do I do get the urge to try to push the limits from time to time....

I also just thought to mention that cabinet volume is a big factor with teh OHM Walshes along with driver size in terms of being able to deliver the goods down to 20hz.

I have never seen John advertise any Walsh models to extend below 20hz (few if any vendors ever do), but I am not sure it is not possible with the larger Walsh cabinets and drivers.

I like the older pyramidal shaped OHM cabinets in this regard in particular in that they tend to be wider and have greater volume per height accordingly, compared to the newer sleeker looking cabinets. Not to mention no || sides. All Walshes sound best when listened to from driver level or above, so narrower cabinets must be taller to have same volume. Taller will not work as well if listening from typical chair level closer to the speakers rather than at more of a distance, as is more possible in a larger room.

I prefer the older pyramid shaped cabinets on paper for all these reasons myself. Not to mention, they can be had for less than new ones in that when available they are essentially recycled and refurbed.

JS hit the bullseye with his Walsh design. Same sound scales as needed, old cabs can be re-used to offer a discount, plus all the rest. Very smart. No other speaker line can make those claims, I think.

32-ft pipe = 16Hz. Not that uncommon in large organs.

No argument, Coot,

I was merely pointing out that, of the half dozen or so pipe organ recordings that I own, only one - an SACD I purchased at the Cathedral in Passau, Germany (home of the largest pipe organ in Europe at that time) - actually has meaningful signal below 35hz.

One of my hobbies over the last several years has been measuring in-room response with my RTA and StudioQ software. Just to see how low my recordings go, I measured the pipe organ recordings (Sudio Q can be set to show lowest frequency/highest frequency, etc). On sweeps, my system will hit 25hz with no roll-off at 80db. The SACD referenced above is the only music recording that I've tested that dips below 30hz, tho it did get down into the 20ish hz region IIRC.

Lots of soundtracks go very low, and there's no question that a pipe organ can go that low, but there's a major question in my mind how many pipe organ recordings go that low.

The Jean Guillou rendition of Pictures at an Exhibition on Dorian CD is the recording I have that seems to plunge the depths the most and is the one I use for testing low end extension specifically.

Not sure how low it goes exactly in that I have never measured, but it goes the lowest it seems of any recording I know of on certain pipe organ notes that may or may not be audible depending on the rig setup.

I also have some older E. Power Biggs recordings on vinyl that are decent tests as well, but only if ones phono rig is up to it.

20hz is the lowest frequency spec one tends to ever see referenced in audio gear over the years. I have never really considered anything below that to be of significance musically, at least on a recording. Usually anything below that on a recording tends to be noise and not music, especially with vinyl, and might be best filtered out so as not to drain power that would be available for the music otherwise.

Frankly, I would not want to reproduce anything below 20hz with a 180 w/ch amp in that it will run out of steam fast reproducing anything at that frequency.

Larger, fairly high efficiency speakers would likely be needed to do anything below 20hz if present justice at high volumes with "only" 180 w/ch.

One lives dangerously in general below 20hz which is why it is usually off limits for most all recordings and playback systems.