Circa 1989 I was living in NYC doing my medical residency. I didn't own a stereo system and never desired to - reproduced music didn't do it for me. I was an amateur musician playing dozens of concerts every year since high school all through college and med school with various symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles and wind bands - I was always saturated with live acoustic music.
A musician friend invited me to his home to listen to some vinyl on his Vandie CEs driven by Manley tubes: I was hooked! I didn't know reproduced music could sound that real. I spent the next few weeks visiting various stereo salons around Manhattan listening to monitors, floor standers, electrostats and planars. None of them really grabbed me: they all sounded like boxes and gadgets making sounds - I didn't hear the live acoustic my ears were accustomed to. I recall that in the sweet spot the Vandies came close - in the sweet spot. Also the B&W 801 were very nice - but not in my budget nor WAF. There was a Newmark & Lewis across the street from my apartment on Park Ave IIRC midtown so I meandered in one day and asked the kid to play some loudspeakers. No magic occurred. Then I spotted these cyclindrical loudspeakers - hmm - intrigued I asked the kid what they were. He said they're Ohms (pro-200 sound cyclinders). He turned them on and whamo; I heard that live airy acoustic that I was immersed in daily at rehearsals. The speakers disappeared and the music just floated above and behind them - effortless, detailed yet natural, just lovely.
I bought those cylinders and boy oh boy did I did I go to town building a library of recordings to play on them. I was driving them with a first generation Sony CD player (oh Lord did it sound bad on certain classical recordings) or turn table and a JC Penny receiver. I loved my sound cyclinders. I proceeded to read Absolute Sound and learned about the Walsh 5's - they became my dream loudspeaker. When we moved to LINY in 1990 I got the big house and nice size den. Two years later I spotted an ad - someone in Florida selling a used pair of Walsh 5's for $2400. Bam- I called the guy, made the deal and sent the check. Two weeks later they arrive - in cardboard boxes badly damaged by UPS ( the idiot delegated the job of shipping to his wife who packed the Walshs in boxes filled with just styrofoam peanuts! UPS (pronounced OOPS) finished the job all but destroying my beloved Walshs). One can was partly collapsed. One cabinet corner was pulverized. Damage everywhere. I was upset but I had to hear them! I propped one speaker on some books, checked the speaker terminals with an ohm meter, then hooked them up to my Rotels. Wow - they sounded amazing. Just beautiiful - a big wide deep airy soundstage and a bottom octave I had never heard before. You know I listened to them, beaten and bruised they were, for days and debated whether to get them repaired because I didn't want to live without them!
Eventually, I called Ohm and told John my tale of woe and he chuckled, unsurprised by the UPS gorillas. He assured me that he could make them right - and so he did! I drove those babies to the factory in Brooklyn myself and John was so gracious to me - he gave me a tour of the factory and I had a wonderful day surrounded by parts and gadgets and speakers. Long story short I eventually got my Walsh 5s back, all fixed up and pretty and was thrilled with them for years. I eventually upgrade to the Walsh 5 Series 3 (improvement!) and circa 2011 the Walsh 5000s (big improvement) and I am listening to these amazing loudspeakers playing a Haydn organ concerto as I type this long winded response. These speakers make music. I listen to them at least 3 hours per day as I am retired from my practice - life is good.
The thing about John - you can tell that loves building speakers. And he has a amazingly analytic ear - he can listen to a loudspeaker and describe it's frequency response, power response and damping/alignment without needing a measuring device. It has been said that Tchaikovsky and Schubert were incapable of composing a tune that wasn't beautiful and memorable. I think John has that gift vis-a-vis voicing a loudspeaker. Not only do his loudspeakers always sound musical - they are also rock solid reliable. I have never had an issue with the Walshs I've owned - and I drive them hard sometimes. Lately though, I'm thinking about buying a backup pair of head units for the Walsh 5000s, just in case! I could not go a day without listening to them make fine music
To the OP - you have made a wise choice in loudspeaker with the Ohms.
