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

Sndsrtaud: FWIW, I upgraded to a used McIntosh C220 tube-hybrid preamp last summer. At full list price new, this preamp alone lists for more than my Ohm Walsh 2000s ($4000 vs. $2800). Am I becomming a Linnie, focusing on source and front end gear? Perhaps, but the Ohms really do punch above their weight, and I can't imagine upgrading to other speakers unless I win the lottery. The biggest shock was the Ohm's ability to highlight the differences in digital cables I mentioned above. I now have come to understand that those who say cable is cable are either hard of hearing or lack the speakers and gear of sufficient resolution to allow hearing cable differences.

If you ever want to get back to Ohms, Sndsrtaud, look on this site for used offerings, and talk to John Strohbeen at Ohm about updated drivers in older, refurbished cabinets. The prices on these one-offs can make Ohm Walsh designs even more affordable.

FYI - I have had a lot of "Holy Crap!" moments with my Walsh 2000s. Had another one last weekend.

I was getting ready to box up an old Onkyo Dolby ProLogic AVR, retiring from the den. I wanted to see if was functioning properly first, so I fed it with my MacIntosh C220 preamp and hooked the 2000s to it directly (no subwoofer, full range). WOW! I have never really listened to the 2000s full range much before, but the bass output was amazing. Deep, tight, clean and powerful, subjectively almost as powerful as my Vandersteen 2Wq subwoofers! The rest of the audio spectrum sounded great as well. I ended up listening to some of my Reference Recordings CDs. Although I think my big rig amp sounds better, and the subwoofers to give a nice assist to the amp and Ohm speakers, the difference was not as wide as I would have expected.

Ohm rocks!

My best moments of late come when I listen to some old favorite recording that I have heard so may times with so many different kinds of gear over the years and I cannot find a fault in what I hear.

Its been a while since I have been where I am afraid to change a darn thing for fear of not being able to get back to where I was.

Also, I must say that the Dynaudio monitors are sounding the best ever these days in their smaller room and there is not much more I could reasonable ask of them.

However the difference between the monitors and the OHMs, despite having a subtly different but not dissimilar overall tonality and different way of doing imaging and soundstage, have always been in the impact and "meat on the bones" areas.

Its just not reasonable to expect any small monitor to deliver 100% on hard rock or modern pop or any large scale classical or jazz works. They are just not big enough for the job. They can get to 80% or so perhaps of what is possible, but cannot tackle the last few tough % in that regard.

I am thinking of getting a pair of Micro's for my office....I have a pr. of the new M-5's and FRS 15's I bought new in 1991 and have upgraded the drivers......I will never have any other speaker in my home other than Ohm's as I have never heard any speaker that plays all types of music as Ohms do......

I am fortunate to have many types of well designed loudspeakers, so I can pretty much choose. Of all the speakers I collect, I have OHM acoustics the most. In fact I own a walsh 2xo, 4xo, pro 200 sound cylner and my best, ohm walsh 300 mk 2 rebuilt drivers by ohm upgraded to the 4000 series. For those who don't think it needs a boost in the highs and mids, you can always get an ADD on supertweeter or DIY project by selecting your transducer from partsexpress, madisound, simply sound or ebay etc. I have a janszen z 130 electrostat add on that I am adding to the ohm 300 mk 2 that will put it in another level. To have both the ohm walsh and the ESS HEIL 1D which I modified the bass drivers by adding a sub driver to the front, removing the radiator in the back and using the stock front drivers, the result is awesome. The only think that equals or possibly surpass it among my systems is my modified ohm walsh with the janszen electrostats. It is hard being a speaker collector because I love all my different designs. I am a magnepan and acoustat fan too, because I HAVE THEM also. BOSE hit the dumpster long time ago after the mid 90's when I no longer had any need for them. Bose to me these days is nothing but a joke. In the 70's and mid 80's they were good for the time. Dbx soundfield was far better designed, and I have them too! OHM speakers to me is the MOST versatile and multipurpose loudspeaker every designed. It was way ahead of it's time for critical stereo listening and home theater. The original AR-9 is also the loudspeaker way ahead of it's time. Most of the home theater towers were patterned after the original AR 9 some 30 plus years ago. Heathkit was another speaker design that was way ahead of it's time made for todays home theater. without ohm's, there would be no higher high end like german physiks, mbl, duevel. I think OHM's and ESS are the two of the most revolutinary designs by two of the greatest sound physicists the late dr. lincoln walsh and dr. oskar heil.