Ohm Walsh vs. Mirage OMD 28

My Ohms sounded good in a number of positions, but careful placement will bring out their full potential, as will acoustic treatments to your room. As usual, Mapman makes some excellent points.

yes, the OHMs are not hard to place compared to most designs, but careful placement is still needed to yield the best results possible. You can put them most anywhere and they will sound fine for background listening perhaps but imaging accuracy and detail and bass levels may not be optimal.

Is it recommended to use damping materials at the first reflection point?

I have seen Ohm setups with a lot of absorptive materials not only at the first reflection points, but almost all around the front and side of the room at ear level. Remember: the "first reflection" point for an omni is not the same as for a conventional dynamic cabinet loudspeaker. I have the traditional first reflection point more or less covered, as well as the front ceiling corners, but plan on adding more foam panels along the side and rear walls at ear level in the future.

I think need for use of damping materials will depend on the room and user preference. I have never used any nor been strongly tempted to.

Historically I've found wood or other lively floor materials to be the main issue in that the OHMs are bottom ported and a lot of energy is directed towards the floor.

"Remember: the "first reflection" point for an omni is not the same as for a conventional dynamic cabinet loudspeaker."

The first reflection point for an omni is variable depending on listening location I believe since you can listen from a wide range of lcoations and not just the "sweet spot". For the "sweet spot" the first reflection point on the rear wall would be the same as for other speakers in teh same location essentially I think. It would change depending on where you listen from. So it might become a difficult task to treat the room optimally in this way in a manner that works best for a wide range of listening locations.

I always view omnis like OHMs as best applied in scenarios where you want to use the room as it is as your concert venue as opposed to typical audiophile scenarios where you become obsessed with modifying the room to avoid interactions with the speakers.

Of course, some rooms can just make flat out lousy concert venues, so in these cases, you might want to think twice about using more omni designs like the OHMs.