Ohm Walsh F Hope of Resurrection

Midwest Speaker Repair in St Paul, MN 

@douglas_schroeder 

Looking forward to more on how they sound.  

Been quietly following this thread, and glad that you got the F's fixed.

There's been a lot of talk about the hair-trigger watt limit to blow up the F speakers. As long as you don't tempt fate, it should be fine. I've run my pair of F's for may years with a 300 W/ch (into 4 ohms) power amp, and really never needed to put more than a few watts to get loud enough in the room. 

Let us know how the speakers sound when you get them fully set-up. Congratulations, again.

pch300, the sound is well, vintage. It lacks a lot of top end sparkle that I have come to expect from superior speakers. But, that is reasonable, given the age and design. They simply never were able to create the shine that is with newer technology. The big call to fame was the mushroom cloud soundstage, and they have that. Am I going to add some super tweeters to open up the top end. No, I’m not putting any more money into them, as there are fundamental limitations that are obvious.

They will be curiosities, something to put in the system when I am bored or want to hear the omni sound pattern. It’s a good thing I have a radically clean rig, or else I couldn’t take them at all, as they would be horridly mushy.

I was fairly realistic in my assessment of what to expect from the repair. I didn’t expect the world, and they have not given it to me. For a few hundred dollars they work fine. I haven’t pushed them yet, but I will at some point. If they die, they die. I’m not going to keep them as a souvenir that is not worth opening up and running. They have physical defects, i.e. the cabinet compromise and some ferrofluid stains on one upper paper driver, so they’re not worth much.

This does confirm once again that most vintage equipment is beneath my expectations nowadays. I have yet to work with any vintage equipment that I could stand in the primary rig for more than a day or two. The sound is simply far too compromised. The price is right, for sure! But I don’t have to settle for bargain speakers. So, why did I in this case? Again, because they were presented to me as a speaker charity case that I knew I could revamp on the cheap. I don’t need another reference speaker, and this will definitely never be close to that. I just wanted a fun project. We’ll see if over time they "blow up" in a good way, or in a bad way. But, I’m not going to keep them forever if they never have the capacity to thrill. Having a unique soundstage simply is not enough to entice me to love them forever. I slowly upped the level and it didn’t seem to phase them. But, I got bored and put the Kingsound King III ESL speakers back into the mix. Much more excitement and prodigious. Who knows, maybe they can take a lot more; I was very light with them.

So, what do I expect for a couple hundred bucks? About what I got. Good enough for now. Next run I’ll push them harder to see if they have more to give, because I handled them with kid gloves this time, and they didn’t really shine in terms of the orb soundstage they can do. They’re either going to bring satisfaction, or be destroyed. I will not harbor low cost speakers that long term do not bring fun. Well, "destroyed" is a bit too harsh; they simply would sit around and perhaps be sold cheap to recover the costs or given away. But, please, people, do not contact with offers to take them off my hands. They're for fun and I don't know how long I'll be entertained. It's not your free speaker project. :) 

I will put the Kingsound King Tower omni speakers back into the rig soon. I want to gain a clearer picture of the fundamental differences between that omni and the old F. I was going to sell the King Tower omni, but maybe not quite yet.

I was going to redo the batting in the bottom of the cabinet, but I wonder if the drivers would react differently, potentially have too much excursion if the fairly solid batting was not kept in place. It would be stupid to remove the pretty solid mass that acts as an air brake, then push the drivers such that they had too much excursion. I think I’ll let that one go.

Nostalgia can be a strong force in the decision making process of the audiophile, but in my experience over decades, in every instance where I put money/effort into a vintage product, it did not yield acceptable performance. After a dozen experiences or more, at what point does the system builder conclude it is a less productive activity, at least in respect to pursuit of extreme sound? I am pretty sure that were I to put the $7-8K into a more extensive rebuild of these, and procured new cabinets, I would still end up at the same conclusion; nice, but not overwhelming. 

After a while, when you have heard hundreds upon hundreds of speaker systems, many in your own home, you are able to globally assess the technology's capabilities. There are fundamental, hard limits on each tech, and with a realistic assessment of the limits, decisions can be made in regard to whether a certain investment into upgrade will be worth it. Most often, I rather enjoy diversification into a different genre, than an attempt to idealize one genre of speaker. Experiences available through a variety of speakers is unparalleled, imo, with focus on one genre. So, my motivation to try to turn the Ohm Model F into "the One," is not strong. I have chased the mirage of the One many years in the past, and it always ended up disappointing, primarily due to allocation of resources into a narrower range of performance. I'm not willing to push on that button again. I have learned to know myself enough as a system builder to avoid what are for me less productive changes. 

However, there is another omni speaker sitting here... I may today put the Kingsound King Tower omni speakers into the rig to see informally how they compare with the Ohm Model 7. 

The story regarding the King Tower is interesting, and as a reviewer with curiosity I was in the right place at the right time. Over the years I spent plenty of my own money attending shows across the country. I was not paid to go as a reporter, so this was extra expenditure for unpaid work! How stupid, right? Except that I knew there was no other way to gain extensive experience with gear except by getting exposure to it. I knew I could pick some winners for my ownership if I could hear them. It was that willingness to spend money that most would consider a waste that led to some very cool outcomes, including the King Tower. If one does not have the vision to invest into potentialities, then the future is more limited. 

It was at one of the RMAF shows that I first saw them. I believe they were shown two years at the show, and they were shunted off to the side in a little system with mbl mono amps. They looked stupid, with bright blue foam balls in-between the bass and midrange modules. No wonder they didn't get attention, as they looked ridiculous. But, as I surveyed the larger design, I thought, "Ignore the stupid blue foam balls..." The design had potential, I thought, so I asked Roger DuNair, the importer at the time, to fire them up for me. He did, and I thought, "Wow! This really has potential!" I also thought that it could prove to be a SERIOUS contender to lower end Maggies. 

I bugged Roger for about two years to review them, but eventually he called and said he was not going to distribute that model in N. America. Did I want the demo pair? YOU BET! SEND THEM! The miracle of the story is that while I have had three other smallish tower speakers destroyed by the likes of UPS, FedEX and DHL over the years, these arrived intact! AUDIOPHILE MIRACLE! So, even though they are not my primary speakers, they have a nice set of memories associated with them. I believe they may be the only pair in North America. 

The first thing I did was apply myself to removal of the stupid foam balls! Thankfully, they were easy enough to remove and as the cabinets' downward wave guides were anodized, I was able to successfully remove the adhesive with zero cosmetic blemishes! YESSSSSS! Now, they look respectable, and sound better. I consider the existence of the blue foam balls to be a reason that they were never sold at the show. It can pay to have a bit of proactive imagination in regard to a product!  :)

The King Tower I already know will have scads more resolution, with its larger omni ribbon tweeter and super tweeter atop. It also suffers from cabinet coloration, as does the Ohm Walsh Model F. No getting around that, but I had thought of perhaps opening up the cabinets on the King Tower and treating them to dampen some of the resonance. I may still do that. 

I am looking forward to hearing the completely kick ass new amp under review with the King Tower. The best part is that the King Tower, unlike the Model F, can be bi-wired. That means I can use two more channels of 600wpc of super-pure power on the King Tower. Frankly, it would expect it to outshine the Model F significantly in some respects, and I would be quite disappointed if it didn't. 

I'll say this; if it were a choice between getting this new amp under review or upgrading the speakers, it wouldn't be a difficult decision - THE AMP, no question about it. I wouldn't dream of opting for upgrading the old speakers and missing out on this amp. The amp is revolutionizing all the speakers I use. That is far more important to me than upgrading one speaker. 

pch300, you sound like you really want to do the upgrade. If you have the means, why not? This thread may be the catalyst for you to realize a dream. If so, great! I get it when it comes to adoration of a certain genre of speaker; I lived that for a long time. So, if it's a dream of yours, then go for it!  :)