Ohm Walsh Micro Talls: who's actually heard 'em?

Drakef5: No need to apologize for a very interesting post. Welcome to the Ohm club! As for the power issue, as you can see, I recently had this answered for me with the loan of a pair of 500 watt monoblocks. Remember, I also have my 2000s crossed over to powered subs (80Hz, 1st order). My 150 watt/channel amp, the very beefy Odyssey Stratos HT3 w/cap upgrade, was actually clipping audibly in the midrange on vocals! I was surprised by this, but hearing the Ohms with massive power was an epiphany. John Strohbeen recently told me that as long as I don't go overboard with the volume control, I could upgrade to a 1500 watt/channel amp, and I am thinking of doing just that as soon as I can afford it. Mapman uses 500 watt/channel Bel Canto amps, and agrees that the extra power allows the Ohms to perform their best. Ohm never claimed that the Walsh speakers are high-efficiency models. But with class-D amps getting better, massive, quality wattage is becomming more affordable and practical. Although in a very small room, modest power will work, you just have got to hear what the Ohms can do in a large room with really massive power on tap. There is nothing quite like it!

I am convinced that there is more to the Class D amp sound I hear with the OHMs than power and current alone accounts for.

There is a tube amp-like aspect to the amps ability to go loud without causing fatigue or overall brightness. I have read (in an article published by a gentleman from SPectron) where this might be due to unique negative feedback design advantages with switching amps that can help keep the timing delay when applying NF minimal compared to other amp designs. Its consistent with what Ralph from Atmasphere regularly cites as an advantage of no NF amps. Or in the case of switching amps, ability to apply negative feedback more efficiently. I do not understand the technical details of how this works, but what I have read there and similar accounts from other reputable sources tells me that this might be a unique positive attribute of CLass D amps.

ALso, latest generation Class D amps appear to be pushing the bar significantly higher still in terms of switching frequency possible, which enables better low pass filtering needed with switching amps and on paper at least would seem to raise the bar in terms of technical capabilities of Class D. Can things get even better? I suspect so, though CLass D amps already seem to bring a lot of unique benefit to the table IMHO.

Thanks Bondmanp,Mapman.

What about those crown xls amp? Anybody use this before with ohms? I read that they getting better as well and cheaper too.

I can pickup a used parasound hca 1500 for $400 today but now i am having second thoughts...i might have to just save a bit more for the class Ds.

Got additional info on the sw2.2k regarding the bass settings. Apparently for those who dont have the external controls (micro,1k,2k,3k,4k) there is a way to tweak the bass on the ohms if you find it too boomy or not enough. You can remove the cup where the speakers are connected to and there is a switch to adjust the bass. By default it is set to middle. I adjusted mine after telling John that i was having too much bass with the ohms and he instructed me to do this.

It is a hidden setting so that you can adjust the dynamics if you ever move it to a different room in the future. Turns out that the issue with mine was due to the dynamic audessey setting where i need to adjust it to 15db so i moved it back to the mid seting.

I'm reading Crown XLS amp IS Class D. Don't know much more about them though. Might be a good value + worth a try. Crown is mostly used for pro audio applications these days but home audio use should be possible. They use older Crown amps at my gym for classes + such.

I have a question for the inveterate amp swappers out there. What effect, if any, does a higher damping factor have on Ohm Walsh performance?

Rather than opt for massive power increases, could one get the same/similar (or different) improvements in the drivers' sound quality through an amp with more damping? Alternatively, is higher power somehow the functional equivalent of a higher damping factor?

I've got a vintage Sansui with 90 (honest, conservatively rated) wpc, and a damping factor of 100. I'm thinking of using it as a pre-amp and running it into a NAD power amp with 125 (also honest) wpc but a damping factor of > 200. I'm not sure the difference in watts would make that much difference, and the Sansui is a much, much faster amp. I'd like to hear some opinions as to whether it would be worthwhile before I lug that NAD beast upstairs and hook it up.