Ohm Walsh F Hope of Resurrection

Doug, depending on how old the F drivers are, your surrounds rotting is expected but quite overdue. I had F’s from 1977, and surrounds rotted in 1995. The spider suspension also sagged from the years under a heavy cone. Both are non-repairable by Ohm Acoustics. Furthermore, the inside of the cone has foam damping on the aluminum section. That also was flaking off on my speakers, but only if I touched those parts.

I first tried to repair the surround by ordering a similar sized surround from a place in Florida, if I remember. Installation was easy, took some patience, working methodically, and carefully scraping the old glue off the paper/cardboard part of the cone periphery. Gluing the replacement surround was about the same, making sure it’s centered so the voice coil doesn’t scrape against the magnet, and the edge of the cone is circular, not oval from the handling. This was the cheapest fix for me.

The completed surround repair will let you play the speaker. Ohm says it won’t sound as intended, due to the specific absorption of their surround to properly mechanically terminate the cone edge, that an aftermarket surround couldn’t do.

The other two options were to trade-in the drivers toward currently available speakers at a discount, or trade-in for the F3 driver to mount on my F cabinets. The F3 was clearly the most value.

I decided to upgrade to another Ohm Walsh speaker, and also take the F3 option. All four are in play, two as stereo, or all four as theater main and surround speakers.

Ohm currently appears to have 5 options for upgrading the F now. Good luck.

I was in a similar situation but I have a big room and I was encouraged by John to go the F-5015 route.  Here is how it played out for me.  John and Evan of Ohm and I started discussing changing a pair of Ohm F's that I had into some F-5015s starting in 2018.  I ended up deciding to trade in my F's, received the standard 25% off of the list price, and I ordered new F-5015s with one inch thick birch plywood cabinets.  I also had the option of sending in my F's and having them changed into F-5015s at a lower cost point where my cabinets would be rebuilt and re-veneered.  They actually encouraged me to do this and said the sound would be the same except at very high levels, but in the end, I decided to spend more for completely new.  I recall that it cost around $250 to buy all the packing material and to pay UPS to send in the two cabinets and the driver magnets to Ohm in Brooklyn from Michigan.  My traded in cabinets were in very good shape with the only damage being that the lower corners were very slightly rounded due to contact with objects.  There was no damage to the particle board under the veneer in these locations.  These were acceptable to Ohm for the trade-in.  Never asked what they did with my traded in cabinets.

I was a bit shocked that the newer Ohm speakers are not true omni. I had never bothered to look,  and it's radically different  than the Walsh.  I am only interested in a true omni. 

Should have known by visual assessment; you can't do true omni when you have a metal  plate and electronics behind. As I'm after an actual omni, I wouldn't consider it. It's either fix this or replace with similar. No longer interested in current Ohm products for this project.  

Doug, If you are referring to the 4 switch control on the grill, this is only on the 5000 series and the 4900 (1 switch control) speakers. The 4000 series speakers and smaller do not have this. Presuming you have a decent sized room, you can get 4000 or 3000 series with their upgrade program. Just send in the F magnet assemblies / cabinets and pay the amount cited on their legacy page - slightly less than $3k for the 4000 series and slightly more than $2k for the 3000 series. If you want to consider this, contact John or Evan at Ohm and tell him your room size. He can recommend which speaker would work best for your situation. I also thought that they could sell you a current technology replacement driver that sits on top of your existing cabinet. Not seeing that option documented on their website now unless I have incorrectly interpreted the cited offers/costs above as being for completely new speakers and they are really for drivers for your existing cabinets.

Doug, consider asking Ohm whether they are willing to make the speaker omni, by not installing the damping pad on the back side of the cylinder, and turning the supertweeter upward as for the surround speakers, for example. I also preferred a full omni (as in the F) vs. the newer Walsh drivers (thousand series) with controlled directivity design. However, with a full omni the central image does shift when you're not along the centerline between the two speakers (the F), whereas it is remarkably near center with the latest Walsh drivers. The latter is of great advantage in a home theater setting, as well as stereo listening if you're casually listening while sitting off center. I get an enjoyable sound even sitting beyond the left speaker, but not past the 90-degree line from the supertweeter axis.

With true omni designs, your choices are more limited. As mapman wrote, call Dale Harder for his versions of the F and A speakers. Otherwise, it's  either MBL or German Physiks, as far as I know.