Ohm Speakers Status Update


Signs of life from a great American loudspeaker brand!

 

https://ohmspeaker.com/news/

 

 

bondmanp

Two years with my Walsh Talls 3000. 11' ceilings in a factory loft setting, brick walls front and 28' behind me. Expansive sound stage and no big deal with moving out of a sweet spot position.  

The new shop is in Bridgeport, Conn. - a block form where I grew up and went to school through 6th grade. 

 

Post removed 

@oldaudiophile Interesting. When I worked briefly at Sixth Avenue Electronics in NJ, we sold Bose and a few decent brands, like NHT and Paradigm.  The Bose were on display only in a separate alcove.  They were not allowed to be displayed where they could be compared to other speakers.  That was the Bose rule!

@veemike Veemike, when you say "(the) new shop is in Bridgeport, Conn.", does that mean there is a shop there where one could hear the new Ohm stuff?  If so, name of the shop & address, please?  Also, do you know if the Ohm factory or headquarters has a sound or showroom?

Also, with respect to room placement, I haven't read much about this relative to the new Ohm speakers.  How do you think they would do in a 30' X 18' living room with wall-to-wall carpeting, the usual comfy furniture, 9' solid wood ceiling and 7.5" solid wood walls (log cabin)?  The wall behind the speakers, however, would be typical sheet rock.  Also, my particular room placement constraints would not allow me to put more than 2' behind speakers and the sheetrock wall and wouldn't allow more than 6.5 feet separation between left & right channels.  Listening position or sweet spot would be approximately 9' from the speakers.  Room placement makes all the difference with most speakers.

@bondmanp You mentioned the names of two speaker bands I adored.  Heard a pair of NHT floor-standers probably around 30 years ago that were absolutely stunning (in a good way, of course)!  Can't remember the model number.

As for the Paradigm, I owned a pair of Monitor 9 that I loved for about 20 years or so.  I upgraded them around 3 or 4 years ago to a pair of Revel F206.  Like my old Ohm C, all my audiophile friends with much more expensive systems than mine were amazed by the Paradigm and just couldn't believe they sounded significantly better than their much more expensive speakers.  Only reason I upgraded them (speakers; not my audiophile friends) was because I upgraded my amp.  This speaker upgrade, like most, was not an easy one!  I, and an audiophile friend, spent the better part of 6 or 7 months on an intensive quest to find something that would wow me significantly above & beyond the old Paradigm, eventually seriously auditioning somewhere around 16 or 17 different brands & models.  I was trying to keep the upgrade budget under 3K (new or gently used).  While I found a few things that were at least as good as my old Paradigm, when most people "upgrade", so to speak, I think they/we want demonstrably better.  Personally, I want that "wow" feeling, especially when spending serious cash.  Ultimately, I discovered I wasn't going to get that for less than 3.5k.  The best I and my audiophile friend heard on this quest within that price point was a pair of used Aerial Acoustics 6T that could have been had for around 3.5K (7K new).  Unfortunately, these babies really require more juice than my amp can provide in order to really make them sing.  This is the major daunting issue about this "hobby", isn't it?  Ultimately, one "upgrade" leads to another until you are faced with upgrading the biggest and most important component of them all ... your house ... or building a dedicated sound room.

The new Ohm facility is around the corner, literally, from where I grew up and went to grammar school 55-60 years ago - 540 Barnum Ave., Bridgeport, CT 06608. They are occupying space in the old Singer Sewing Machine that was HQ and manufactured back-in-the-day in Bridgeport. 

Ohm informed me that they are close to finishing a showroom and listening room. 

With help from Evan at Ohm I ended up placing my Walsh Tall 3000 only about 12" from the front wall and only about 6.5' apart with me in a listening position 9' away. That would not have been (and wasn't) my idea of a proper setup for these omni directional speakers. I was more inclined to set up per PS Audio's Paul McGowan's The Loudspeaker suggestions.  But Evan knew instantly that their speakers break the mold of the typical box speaker.  So they are sounding best 12" from front wall, 6.5' apart and almost 9' from my listening position. 

Keep in mind that these speakers have a wide sweet spot. You are not cemented to a tightly defined listening position.