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

Are Ohms less capable of true imaging than non-omni types?

Thanks for sharing in detail Coot. Hopefully someone will have an idea or two for you. First, let me say that Ohm loudspeakers are certainly capable of presenting a solid and believable center image with wonderful depth and width to boot. Like any speaker, placement is key and Ohm’s are generally considered forgiving in this regard. The room has perhaps the greatest impact on sound quality and can be especially troublesome for those of us without perfect dedicated listening spaces. Like you, I’m one of the unfortunate. Please allow me to share my situation as it’s similar to yours and will hopefully offer some encouragement.

My typically appointed living room is 13’ x 18’ x 8’. My gear is racked on a Salamander Synergy unit smack in the middle of the speakers and wall. Measuring as you did from the middle of the driver, the Talls are 26” from the front wall, 38” from the side walls, with 80” between them. My sofa being the prime spot puts me at 9.5’ from each speaker. While facing the gear, I have a large picture window (with treatment) to my left, a 68” archway to my right, and a 69” archway behind me. The back of the sofa measures 58” to the back wall and archway. The archway behind me opens to a foyer and stairway. The archway to my right opens to another room .. a fairly open design and somewhat problematic.

This arrangement also includes a bookcase, liquor cabinet, chair, tables, lamps, and artwork, etc. There was a lot of experimenting, moving stuff inch by inch until I locked it in. It took a while and it wasn’t easy, but the results are great. It’s all there .. imaging, depth, and width. Coot, if I can achieve this in my room, I’m sure you can achieve the same. That being said, you have whole lot more space adjoining (13,000 cubic ft. - wow!) than I have. However, I encourage you to reevaluate the space and start with speaker placement or perhaps moving your sofa forward a bit. It’s surprising how much difference a few inches can make. Perhaps snapping a few photos of your space and emailing John for guidance might be helpful.

Best of luck. Sorry I couldn’t be more help to you. Cheers.

Thanks for your suggestions, W. I believe I will follow your advice in the last line.

Re Amarra/iRC:
Did you get the setup on the first try? Was SQ immediately an obvious improvement? Did you experience any sparkle missing? I have no knowledge of any other Ohm owners using iRC. Perhaps some will chime in here now.

1st try? You must be joking ;-)

As easy as the measurement process is I ended up doing several. In fact, each time I swap anything in/out of my system I feel the need to remeasure, realizing, of course, it's the room I'm measuring and not the gear. Still, I can't help thinking everything matters.

I do hear immediate and obvious improvement with no problems in the higher frequency spectrum, no missing sparkle. Honestly, I'm experiencing more clarity and focus which makes the top end sound more detailed, more believable. Have you played around with the gain settings at all?

BTW, I wasn't sure if the omni presentation of the Ohm's would work well with room correction. I'm hoping there are more of us too.

Tweaking is key to getting things right with any setup, including with OHMS.

In general, less separation between speakers and/or distance from rear wall helps with center imaging.

Imaging and soundstage with OHM omnis is significantly different than what most are used to with more conventional directional designs. The soundstage tends to be more detached from actual speaker location and more based on room acoustics and location relative to listening position than more conventional directional design speakers.

You have to listen more to the room and not the speakers in order to get a handle on things. SOundstage and imaging is typically totally detached from actual speaker location and more determined by room geometry when things are going well.

For example, my OHM 5s are both located right of center along the wider base wall of my L shaped room, but sound from mono recordings tend to come from dead center between the walls, almost to the left of the leftmost speaker.

US a good quality mono recording to help get a handle on center focus and imaging. Generally, when a good mono recording sounds well focused and centered, stereo recordings will also naturally come into their own as well.

Furniture or other large objects between speakers can definitely have an effect as with most any speaker.