Amplifier advice from Ohm Walsh 100 Mk. II owners

Hi, Anonymoustao -

Tried the Exposure 2010S2 with Epos ES12, Audio Note J/L, Reference 3A Veena (which are still breaking in). Works well with all, altho AN J/Ls may like tubes better. I would say the 2010S2 is a best match with speakers that are articulate even to the point of being slightly bright. Tone is outstanding with the Exposure. Actually, so is everything else, including bass.

The 100 MKIIs were set up along the 17' wall, about 7' apart, altho they can be separated more than that; my room is in a state of flux, so not an ideal setup - they sound good anyway. Among the easiest speakers to set up - move closer to wall behind them for a meatier, full sound; further away for the opposite effect. Love the wheels; no spikes!

State of flux...I can relate to that. :) I've also heard from folks on the Harbeth owners' forum that the Exposure works well with Harbeth speakers, but have no personal experience of that match. I was considering purchasing a pair of Compact 7s or SHL5's a while back and was researching amp options for those. And I believe Stephen Meijas from Stereophile uses an Exposure 2010 with Devore Gibbon 3's. I've never heard the Veena but have read good things about it, and can imagine that would be a nice pairing.

So true about the Ohm set up. Those casters make playing around with placement a breeze. Experimenting to get a proper set up with the Ohms has been a joy, especially compared to the Vandersteen 1Cs I had before the Ohms. I have hard wood floors and dealing with spikes and discs and getting the tilt set properly was a bit of work, made especially slow because I was doing it alone. It's too bad they dropped the casters from the newer Ohms.

Here's to speedy break in on those Veenas. Cheers, Irc3479!

"It's too bad they dropped the casters from the newer Ohms. "

I agree, but I suspect they could be done by special request, especially with refurbished cabinets, or they may not be hard to add yourself.

I was never a fan of the casters on the Ohm Walsh speakers. Although very practical for speaker placement the casters just looked cheap. IMO it took away from the looks Walsh speakers which already some find not so visually appealing.

Now as soon as I have the money for a pair of Ohm Walsh 100s or Micro Talls I'll pounce on them. Power wise would a rebuilt Sumo Nine or a rebuilt Hafler DH-220 be enough to power them? I would only be sitting at most 6ft away from them most of the time. Thanks

What are the power, input impedance, current delivery and damping specs on the Sumo and Hafler amps?

Most any amp will drive them if used in the correct matching size room (see OHM web site for model to room size mappings).

To drive and CONTROL them to their max however (can be a BIG difference in results) in a properly matched room, I'd recommend a beefy 80 w/ch or higher amp with good current delivery capability and damping factor of 50 or higher to be safe.

Similar for larger Walshes but for those I would throw as much power and current with high damping as is possible at them. Class D amps are an excellent choice to accomplish this with reasonable cost of ownership these days.

Because the OHm Walshes have ben reasonably affordable over the years, a lot of people (including myself) have made the mistake of running them of similarly affordable receivers or integrateds that work OK but are not able to drive and control them to the max, which is needed to get the results that might be considered competitive soundwise with many of the "big boy" higher end systems out there.