Ohm Walsh speakers; Anyone have any experience

Here are a few websites that discuss the Ohm A's, F's and later "Walsh series" of Ohm brand speakers. As a side note, i've included a link that discusses modified Hill Plasmatronics. Since Plasma drivers are "mass-less" and radiate in what is basically an omni-directional pattern, they are theoretically the most accurate transducer available. Only problem is that they aren't capable of high spl's, have phenomenally limited low frequency response, produce harmful emissions of ozone and are generators of mass levels of RFI ( in most cases ). As such, there are drawbacks involved : )

Brief overview of Walsh design from Singapore. This one kind of combines info on the original Walsh drivers with the later "Walsh series" type drivers that i commented on above.

Ohm A, F & Walsh series written about as being "unique speakers". Also includes comments about "skinny speakers" : )

Modified Plasmatronics, comparisons of Ohm A cone vs Ohm F cone Let's just say that the results obtained with the modified Plasmatronics make ANY other speaker known to mankind look "really bad"... The owner of the Hills that runs this website sold his Ohm A's after getting the Plasma's to do what he wanted out of them.

There was a Walsh driver based website on AOL that is no longer running, but it may have been moved and i simply haven't found it yet. I do know how to contact the person that ran the site and am working on finding out the current address, if still up and running. Sean
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I have had a couple of pair of the newer "Walsh" designs by Ohm, both purchased used on Audiogon. The first pair were Ohm 4X0 cabinets that had been upgraded with the newer Walsh 200 MK2 drivers. The second pair are the newer Walsh 5 Mk2 speakers, about a year old.

I bought these speakers to see if they would sound better than the Ohm Model I speakers that I have had for 22 years. (I recently upgraded all the drivers in these speakers). I wound up keeping the Model I's for my primary audio system, and relegating the Walsh 5 Mk2 for HT duty. I sold the Walsh 4/200's on Ebay.

The biggest problem I had with the Walsh 4XO speakers was how they reacted with the hardwood floors in my living room creating 10+db spikes at certain bass frequencies. The downward firing speaker ports (comb filter effects)had something to do with it and Ohm offered to send me a modified Walsh pyramid cabinet with a front firing woofer to take some of the load off of the main driver. I did not take them up on that. It sounded too ugly.

The Walsh 5's in my HT room do better with the ceramic tile floor versus the hardwood in the living room (audio room). I think they would probably sound best in a room with wall to wall carpeting. Also, the Walsh 5s are big, about 49" tall. Needs a large room to look good and sound best. The Walsh 5 sounds good, strong mid range, very clean and smooth, especially with female vocals and strings. I am happy with them.

I still prefer my Model I's for the stronger bass and highs. I have yet to hear any speakers better than the Model I's I have. When I bought my Model I's 22 years ago, I compared them side by side with the Model F. I prefered the openess of the Model I's by alot over the F's, which probably were not powered as they should have been on the demo.

Overall, Ohm Acoustics is an excellent company to deal with. I have purchased sat speakers, center channel, and various upgrades for my speakers from them. They are easy to work with, back up thier products, and if something doesn't work out, take returns without a hassle. I recommend them. All that it costs to home trial a set of speakers is shipping.

Regards,
Rick

For a short time, you'll probably be able to see the inside of a set of Walsh 5's as they have a pair partially pulled apart on Ebay. I will only say that these look a LOT neater and better put together than the set of Walsh series that i previously saw. Sean
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look and listen to german physiks, with a good powerful amp these are very plesant speakers that can do a hi spl and great with eq and a sub. There are some pairs of unicorns for sale for about 5k worth it.

I would love to be able to listen to the German Physiks Walsh "Bending Wave Transducer" ( Dick's Dipole Driver or DDD as they call it ). I am curious as to if the driver uses some type of internal damping material inside the driver to damp the titanium from ringing. So long as they covered that aspect of performance, my thoughts are that the bass would probably not be up to the task given the design that they are using. Sean
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