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

First let me say that all I care about  is the sound, not the parts used to create it, and perhaps WAF to some extent.    

Yes its notoriously pretty ugly inside an original Walsh 2. Good thing its all out of sight. I doubt the newer ones are much prettier inside the cans but the sound is competitive now with other modern speakers whereas original Walsh 2s are not.

I know because I a/b compared my original Walsh 2s against my ohm 100s in original Walsh 2 cabs when I acquired those before trading in my 2s for newer bigger 5 series 3, that I still use in my main system. The 100s are in my second family room system.

I also run small Kef ls50s and just recently now Vanatoo Transparent One encore monitors in other smaller rooms off the same system as the Ohms. Just prior recently, I ran Dynaudio and Triangle speakers in those rooms. Triangle still uses paper drivers I’m pretty sure because those still offer unique advantages these days in terms of speed and transparency. Those were not characteristics of original Walsh 2s, though definitely more so with the newer models.

Its the cabinets that have trade-in value. So I believe you can still pick up an old pair cheap and get up to 40% off new models just by trading in.

I did that when buying my Ohm 5 series 3 speakers back in 2008. Traded in my old Walsh 2s and picked up a pair of old C2s on ebay for not much and had them shipped straight to Ohm for 40% off trade in. The final cost of the Walsh F5 series three speakers to me in 2008 was ~$2400. These are the 12" drivers of the time with 4 built in 3-way level adjustments in refurbed OHm F cabinets. They listed for ~ $5500 at the time whereas same driver in new cabs were $6000 at the time.

Building speakers for a living in NYC these days can’t be cheap. I know John Strohbeen strives to offer the best sound possible per $$$ and has been in business now for over 40 years so he must be doing something right.

@mapman has the right idea: buy and pay Ohm for maintenance or upgrade and sit pretty for dramatically lower investment.
Someone picked those up at auction for $200 yesterday.  Hopefully, it's someone on this thread who can appreciate them.
-austingonzo

The special thing still about even original Walsh 2s, besides the usual big sweet area etc. is how robust and coherent they are. The drivers are protected well by that can. Also they can deliver a lot of fairly wide range sound compared to most anything else in the price range. I’ve told the story how I once used them on the porch of a farmhouse at an outdoor event with listeners in a field 50-100 yards away, run off a 80w/ch Tandberg tr2080 receiver and it was like the musicians were playing on that front porch. Plus I owned and used mine from ~1981-2008 before trading in to replace my Magnepans (which I bought ~ 1987 and went to the factory for a complete refurb less than ten years later) at the time and they still worked perfectly. Pretty good for for a $5 design! :^)

@fyusmal: If you want to listen to a pair of Super Sound Cylinders "beta" you are welcome to stop by, I am in Walnut Creek, CA (3 hr. drive from Lake Tahoe). The amp is a ClassDAudio SDS-470c. I only have digital sources.
If interested, send me an email to "misc AT blin POINT com" and we can arrange the details.

@blin116...  Interesting.  I was ready to order an amp from Class D Audio when I was offered a great deal on another class D amp from a guy I know that builds them. Do you feel the SDS-470C is a good match for the Ohms?  That amp seems to offer a lot of bang for the buck.