John Strohbeen from Ohm Acoustics passed away

I spoke with John in person and by phone several times. Always patient and a gentleman. I have been thrilled with my Walsh 2000s since I bought them in 2009. I was one of the first to purchase this model, and it is my exit ramp speaker. He was a giant in American HiFi, who made great sound affordable for many music lovers over the decades. He will be greatly missed. When I heard Ohm was for sale, I fantasized about it for a hot minute. Would have been a dream come true for me a few years ago. A huge loss for American HiFi.

He was a brilliant and seemingly down to earth sincere person who loved music and good sound.

I exchanged emails with JS on several buying occasions and met him only once at Capital Audiofest a few years back. He was also technically my boss for a couple of years, though I never had any direct interaction, back in the late seventies when he started and ran the Tech Hifi chain and I worked at one part time during college in NJ. That was also my first exposure to Ohm Speakers, where I sold many pair of Ohm Es, Ls, C2s and Hs. It was teh house line but I also found them to beat all teh competition for overall sound and value. At Tech Hifi one would also find Advent, AR, KLH EV, JBL, Infinity, CV and other lines most of the popular brands of the day.

He was a leader and innovator, not a follower, firm in his mission to deliver better sound (and support services) for less to as many as possible and he did exactly that for a good 50 years or so. What other speaker company provided parts, upgrades and significant trade-in value for most every speaker it made over 50 years? None I know of.

Ohm itself had the reputation of being a very low overhead, blue collar shop. JS himself seemed to reflect that when I met him.

At the Capital audiofest, it struck me how JS took pride in setting up and competing in the most acoustically challenged room at the show, a two level atrium. He was not one to do things conventionally it seemed.....he semed to relish the challenge and the results while not 100% perfect was pretty darn good.

He also seemed like to demonstrate his speaker's sound with modest electronics that many might actually be able to afford. His mission was to deliver the best sound to more for less and he did. His Walsh CLS design is/was one of a kind......very interested to see where it might go now.

His closing remark in communication I observed was always "good listening!"

For sure!

Hi Mapman

I worked that show with John and set that system up .  I had to splice some speaker wire together for the length we needed .!  To the horror of the audience when I was saying that during a demonstration.  The big space was my demo station and John always liked to watch me present .  
 

it was a great space for the 5000 ! 
 

we must have met at the show. 
 

I actually drove John and Evan down for that show in my giant SUV . 
 

Good listening 

best

bill

@bsohne I do remember you and your enthusiasm at that show and recall having a nice demo and chat with you and JS for about 45 minutes or so. First time ever meeting JS and first time ever I heard Ohm demo at a high end audio show, so overall it was a very special hifi moment for me.

The spliced wires rings a bell.........that's blasphemy at a high end audio show for sure!   Well done!

Such sad news. John was a mensch and a delight to deal with. I was one of those who found errors (and made editorial suggestions) in the Ohm beta website, and got the discount on new speakers. I had a pair of Ohm Walsh 2s that I wanted to upgrade with new cans. John said, "Well, we meant the discount to go towards a pair of new speakers, but for you I'll discount just the cans." And that is how I got my Ohm Walsh 2000s, which retain pride of place in my main stereo system. I always admired and respected John's relentless and persistent refinement of his rather idiosyncratic vision of audio technology and the listener's experience. I do hope Ohm can keep going in his absence, knowing how extraordinarily difficult that will be. Thanks for the good listening, John.