Are the new Ohm Walsh speakers Audiophile quality?

Why are you considering them if you doubt the quality?

In any case there is an extended in home audition period so you can return if they don’t work out for just shipping cost I believe.

I’ve owned various OHm speakers among others since 1978 and currently run 3 pair in different rooms along with three other brands in 3 other rooms. The Ohms are unique and the ones I spend the most time listening to by far so call me a fan.

Lots of info in threads here and elsewhere but if any questions ask away.

Which models of Ohm's do you have? I hear a lot of good things about the older models. It's the new models that I have some concern about but only for lack of reviews. Maybe it's because they don't pay for advertising. 

Currently I have 2 Walsh models one generation older than the current line. Refurbed Walsh 2 cabinets with 100 8" driver and refurbed Ohm F cabinets with 5 12" driver. Also my original Ohm Ls that I uograded myself. 1000s are latest and greatest with new cabinets and slightly smaller than my smaller pair. Larger models do more bass in larger rooms if needed.

The newer Walsh models are much refined from the originals first sold in the early 80s. I compared  new versus old walsh 2s with 8" drivers both side by side before trading in my old pair towards my current larger pair.

They will disappear and let the music play.

Do you have a pair? Which model? How do they comparison to other speakers you have owned?

I just got a pair of Ohm 1000s delivered about 2 weeks ago. I'm very pleased with them. While I'm still experimenting a bit with the final placement, I've already made the decision to keep them. No need for any more of the 120 day trial period.

Are they "audiophile"? I don't know as I don't use that word. It is a meaningless term in my book due to the baggage attached to it. However, I do find the Ohms very natural sounding when playing well recorded, un-processed, un-amplified voices and instruments. One of my favorite features so far is the enormous sweet spot. One can move around the room and maintain a stable image -- just like with live music. It is nice being freed from the small "head in the vice" sweet spot many other speakers have.

Schiit didn’t have many professional reviews until they did an ad buy in Stereophile...then their high end DAC was reviewed. Its just how the game usually works. BTW, the Ohms are incredible. 

My Ohm Walsh Tall 2000's are just over 2 weeks old and I absolutely love them. The sound is unique in it's presentation compared to any other speaker I have heard. Speakers typically try to reproduce the music. The Ohm's just present them in a live-like soundstage. The mids and highs are natural yet they are not fatiguing to listen to. These speakers do very well with all types of music, in particular jazz and female vocals. 

I have a few more months before this trial period is up, yet I have no plans to send these back. Good thing, because it would have been a real pain to pack these up and ship back!

Ohm speakers have been in business since the late 1960's.  My brother had a pair of Model Fs. What speakers are you using now? What do you want out of your speakers? I think you will not be disappointed. I own a pair of 3000. 

Greetings,

I am considering a pair of current model 2000. Mostly positive reviews. However, found one thread where a few people seem to think the quality is no where near what it was 15+ years ago, especially the quality of drivers.
I keep my systems for 15-10 years, and plan to not have any upgrades during that time. Quality and long term reliability is important to me. 
Any comments from those having both new and old systems?
I would prefer to buy new models for cosmetic purposes. Older ones look too bulky for my taste and my room. So, would rather have new than buy and upgrade older model. 

Thanks much.

Thanks Joe,
I did get to listen to them at someone else's place. Liked them.
The only reservation I have is the quality comments I mentioned.
Cannot make much out of that. I know parts and materials have changed over the years. Many things are made lighter, but that does not necessarily mean worse quality.
That is why I am looking for more educated comments about the built quality and driver/electronics quality.

Understood. I know there's a prolific poster here that has the 2000's with a pair of Vandersteen subs that swears by his Ohms. Perhaps he'll chime in.

FWIW both pair of OHm Walsh I acquired >10 years ago still going strong.  I use a 500w/ch amp and play loud regularly.

Prior I had Walsh 2s I bought in 1982 that were still going strong when I traded them in for the current ones, after ~ 25 years.

Is that the same as good enough for government work?

So,

IMO the Ohm Walsh are truly a case of the whole being greater than the parts. It’s something I had to get over.  I had some old, pretty beat up PRO 200's I picked up used.  Every time I listened... there was so much I liked that I wondered what new ones would sound like.  Eventually I bought some 5000's

They are an excellent performing speaker for the money. I really, really like my 5000’s.

Are they built as well as my previous DynAudio Contour 60’s - no. The Dyn’s fit and finish were perfect, the components used are all top looking quality etc.

You can tell the OHM’s are built by hand, the veneers are nice looking, but the fit and finish isn’t a 10/10 (say like Salk, who is probably a 12/10). They are in the 8/10 range. If they are in stock, they ship quick. If not, it might be a bit of a wait... or even a bit longer.

When you go online and look for pictures of the drivers and tweeters, you see all sorts of variations, you can’t go based on that.

If you get inside the cans, you can tell they were handbuilt. The tweeters are good quality but not the high priced stuff, the drivers are many times paper cones (which I actually like and feel sound natural, - JBL still uses them also).

But my lord, set-up right - they perform and perform well. They sound bigger than they are, they can take oodles of power, they play cleanly. If you like that live big sound they do it.

They do detail well, they are not bright. They might not be the utmost on perfect image placement but they are good.

But they are fun to listen to. John and Evan are good to deal with also.

I agree with dep14 -- my Ohm 1000s have just an absolutely wonderful balance of characteristics that make listening to music a wonderful experience. They make it easy to focus on and enjoy the musical performance instead of the equipment.

I'll throw in my two cents on the fit and finish -- my speakers, which were delivered in September 2018, are very good. I have no complaints about the veneering, stain or finish quality. They are much better than the Ohm 200s I auditioned some 15 years ago. The finish quality of those was rather so-so. It appears that Ohm has upped their game in this department.

I am seriously considering a pair of Ohm Walsh speakers. I have seen reviews for the 2000's, which have been over the top positive. I currently use a pair of B&W 802D. Should I go with the 2000's or 3000's to be comparable?

Ohm speakers are designed by room size, the sound is supposed to be the same for all of them.  You should choose between the 2000 and 3000 based on your room size.  

I can't speak for the latest Ohm speakers, but if they are anything like the older ones, I would not hesitate to buy them. Last year I bought a pair of Ohm Walsh 2 locally for $250 from a gentlemen that bought them new in the 1980's. I never owned a pair of Ohm before, but I was blown away by their sound. In my opinion the imaging is similar to the Magnepan 1.6 or Martin Logan Aerius that I previously owned, but you are not confined to a small sweet spot and you can move anywhere in the room and they sound the same. They are great for jazz and acoustic instruments, and make them sound like they are in the room with you. Also they seem easy to drive. Of course because they are small, they don't have a lot of bass, so I would not use them for Rock music. and because they are old, I'm sure they could use a refresh (new caps etc.). But taking them just as they are, to me they are excellent speakers.

The latest OHMs are 3 generations of product newer than Original Walsh 2’s from the 80s.

I had original Walsh 2s I owned since ~ 1982 versus gen 3 similar Ohms from 2008 I a/b compared before upgrading. The 2008 model was much more refined and detailed than the originals, so I replaced the originals with the newer model.

There is a calculator on the Ohm site to determine best model per room size. You can also always call or email Ohm and provide the info to get guidance. Be assured this company will not steer you to anything more than what you need.

I remember the Ohm A's fondly....they needed Boulder Dam to power them to really get them going, but I really liked them.

@stringreen 

You are very fortunate to have heard those.   I never had the pleasure.

I remember the Ohm A's fondly....they needed Boulder Dam to power them to really get them going, but I really liked them.

I believe the founder of Ohm said they took 300 watts a channel to power them properly and 301 watts to blow them up.  

One of my best friends has the TLS-1 which is modeled after the old Ohm “F” series. It is produced by HHR Exotic Speakers out of Ohio. These are among the finest loudspeakers I've ever heard.

I'm still working on getting the most out of some new Ohm Walsh 3000 Tall... All I can say is if you are sitting relatively close to them the 3000's are too big...  the 2000's would probably work better for my room.  

I plan on getting a room correcting DSP because my room is just terrible with all kinds of reflections.  Also, the bass is good if these are against the walls.  I use a subwoofer though so I am going to split the bass with a miniDSP at somewhere between 80 and 120 HZ.

I'm still surprised that I prefer my old much cheaper ELAC Debut 2.0 F6.2 for a lot of songs.  I think my lesson is that in a room that handles reflections well, the Ohm Walsh are probably better.  Otherwise, a pair of very directional speakers can work miracles with weird room size like I have.

Regarding the ohm design:

If you took any two channel speakers and pointed their drivers down toward the floor, would you not in effect fill the room with music without being able to point to the source, blind folded, so to speak?

Could be.  Try it and see. Some designs aim their drivers up down and all around trying to achieve that effect.  See the Ohm I, a predecessor to the Walsh CLS design for an example. 

I had the OHM I for 39 years and had the drivers up graded. I loved them but the Walsh is a more modern design and I will keep my 5000,'s

Stringreen (a year ago), a friend had the early Ohm A's, in 1972. It was the most clear-sounding speaker I had ever heard. It was about as big as a small refrigerator, each. Then Ohm held a world premier event of that first Walsh speaker, not too far from my home.

After hearing my friend's A's, I wanted an Ohm A someday for its sound and because its operating theory makes sense. No crossovers, time accurate. I wound up settling for the Ohm F, a more affordable and more practical Walsh speaker. Still have Ohm Walsh speakers today, after several upgrades.

I had a set of Ohm Fs back in 1975 and still remember their magical ability to set an absolutely crystalline image that hung in space. I currently have a set of Ohm 1000s, purchased about 2 years ago, that are excellent, though not quite as magical as my memories of the Fs. However, I'm not sure how much of that is due to my naive impressionability 45 years ago versus my current more experienced self (and certainly aged hearing....)
 
As for quality, my Ohm 1000s are nicely built and well finished, and have worked superbly with no issues for the past two years.

Hello,
Does anyone near Sacramento, CA have current production Ohm speakers that I could audition briefly? Being on the opposite coast from Ohm makes returning a pair expensive on top of the $50 initial shipping charge. Thank you.

Ohm has a long audition period so you can really hear their performance over days, weeks, and a few months. In my experience, the sound is great right out of the box, but seems noticeably to improve the more you play them. Up to a point, perhaps a few weeks, where the sound settles down and just sounds even better. It took me a month or more because I didn't listen very often.

I'll bet that Ohm knows from experience, very likely you won't be dissatisfied, so won't need to send back. 

The current production Ohm Walsh speakers are also great for home theater audiences. You can hear the imaging across a wide sitting area so that many viewers can enjoy the spread of sound across and beyond the video screen. Even better for gamers too. And, I don't even need a center channel speaker, although Ohm makes those too.

I believe that adding a center speaker will improve what I hear beyond what I already hear for movie dialog. The problem is lack of space for placement in my current arrangement.

You can understand from this review:
https://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/
why OW never went back to them. Almost the entire review is spent on troubleshooting problems. I can also only assume that no JA measurements published means they were unfavorable and dropped. 

Much like Magnepan, these unorthodox speaker designs need a unorthodox way to measure quality. 

Since most of the bandwidth from OW relies on reflection from your walls, I wonder about how much sound quality is degraded. Stucco vs wallpaper vs crown molding... Curious, has any one compared direct to ear SQ vs SQ after one wall reflection?

I frankly had never heard of Ohm Speakers until recently AFTER I purchased a new Marantz integrated amp (PM7000n) which is rated at 60WPC into 8 Ohms/80WPC into 4 Ohms.

Based on my room size, I would need either the Walsh 2000s or 3000s. I am concerned that my new amp does not have enough power to effectively drive the Walsh 2000s or 3000s.

Is this a legit concern? Does anyone successfully run these with a decent amp at just 60 WPC? Do I need a bigger amp if I'm going to consider purchasing these speakers? Any help would be appreciated. 

Thanks! 

Regarding power needs for the Ohms, the question is how loud do you listen? 

I'm currently running my Ohm 1000s with a Schiit Aegir amp which is 20 watts/ch at 8 ohms and 40 watts at 4 ohms. (The Ohm 1000s and bigger are 6 ohm speakers.)  I am really enjoying this setup -- my prior amp was a Hypex with 150 watts/ch at 8 ohms (and a Bel Canto C5i prior to that) and I like the sound with the Aegir better. HOWEVER, my average max listening level is 85 dB. When I got the Aegir, I actually hooked up a meter to monitor the amp's output while I listened. I use about a quarter of the Aegir's power with peaks going to about half, with no sign of strain.  

The catch is, if I listened more loudly, say 90 dB or higher, then I would quickly run out of power. So, if you want to listen at anything near 90 dB or higher, you are going to want an amp with much higher power that also has good current delivery. 

I run my ohm100s (8”driver in refurbed Walsh 2 cabinets) off 60 w/ch 8 ohm Bel Canto c5i. Drives them to modest listening volume on a large family room up to upper 80s db which is a decent and safe volume but you probably need more to go louder.
Some use Ohms with active crossover and subwoofer. That can get you up there done right.

I threw the kitchen sink at my larger Ohm 5s (12” driver in large refurbed Ohm F cabinets) and that setup is the bomb at any volume. Bel Canto ref1000m monoblocks, 500 w/ch 8 ohm.

Like most the larger Ohms tend to be more efficient and will go the extra mile compared to smaller. 

I appreciate these inputs as I continue to ponder this purchase. Thank you. 

I have a larger main living area that opens to the kitchen and up to a catwalk above for the upper level. Evan said I need a 4000 for this space. I ordered them new without ever hearing them. Three month wait. Should be here in April. Who cares, it's only money. 

I spent the money on these because I never sit when I listen to music. I move around. I also listen to a lot of live recordings, and loudly. 

I have not settled on my electronics yet. Perhaps @mapman can help me out. I have needs for a setup that is family friendly, so a pre and amp with 12v triggers is intriguing. But, I really think it would be fun to put a PrimaLuna preamp with a solid state amplifier on it. Is a tube pre on these new 4000s a good idea or should I stick with solid state all the way?

I think OP is right to wonder about the power requirements - Ohm told me to go big. 
Class D for the 4000s? Or AB? I've been considering Peachtree amp500, or a Rotel RB-1582 MKII, or a Musical Fidelity M6s, or a Parasound A21+. In all cases I'm at 200wpc minimum per Evan and John's advice. But would 500 watts be too much? Are my kids going to blow these speakers up? Would a Rotel RC-1590 preamp with that Rotel 1582 amp be too harsh in the upper end, or would a tube pre soften things up in a good way? I'm not afraid to use tone controls.

I've also considered Nord Acoustics class D amps. For some reason I'm afraid of class D? 

These are the questions literally keeping me up at night. Nerd alert. 

Tube preamp works great. Just make sure amp input impedance is 40-60kohm or higher for minimal distortion and best results.
200w/ch into 8ohm is good. 500 will only push things further.
My setup with larger Ohms is Audio Research sp16 tube pre to Bel Canto ref1000m Class D amps 500 w/ch into 8 ohm doubling power into 4. Doubling power into 4 ohms is another desirable amp attribute for best performance with larger Ohms.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/96SbeuZEWj5ueG8T8

No reason to fear Class D. Good ones sound great these days and Ohms love it. More bang for the buck and more efficient/cost effective/compact and easy to deal with. God Bless technology and innovation!

I've had my Walsh 4's since 1986; they're rated at 4 ohms but they're actually 6 ohms.  From all the tech reviews I've read on the Walsh drivers over the years they usually end up being a nominal 6 ohm load and fairly easy to drive.  However the Ohm spec on sensitivity has always been somewhat optimistic; my 4's are actually 83 db with all switches in the center position as opposed to the published 89 db, that means 3 times more power required.  My vintage Marantz 2325 with 125 wpc sounds good driving the 4's but my NAK  PA-7A MKII with 225 wpc sounds great. Bottom line: they love horsepower.

I've had a pair of 5000s since 2012. They sound wonderful loud and I do love loud. I have the classic Maxell man poster right above my stereo. You know the one that looks like he is blowing away. With Classic Rock and Grunge the Ohms are supurb. I did blow out a tweeter and ad to send them back for repair. John installed a protection mechanism that lights up and burns excess energy when needed. I haven't blown a tweeter since 2013. I drive them with a Bryston 14b3 600 watt amp that tests out at 680 watts on the bench. I'm a proponent of linear power. The more you have will carry over to a more realistic presentation on speakers that are not as efficient. The properly powered bigger Ohms will make you jump out of your seat during dynamic peaks like JCM drum in "Jack and Diane" or EJ "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" they can pressurize a properly matched room. About the protection mechanism. It hasn't flashed since I swapped out thoss speaker cables with the mystery box.

I started out in 2010 ordering a pair of the Micro Talls.  they took  about a month to break in.  I experimented with the speaker placement until one day I hit the magic combination.  The speakers and room were working together to give me a stunning  soundstage and presentation that surprised me.  I was so impressed that I called John and ordered a pair of the 1000's and shipped the Micro Talls back.  The 1000's go deeper (30's) and handle more power.  I didn't like any of the veneers that were offered, so I had them paint them gloss black.  For me, the fit and finish were fine on both sets.
   I am extremely happy with my 1000's, and if I upgrade it will be to a larger Ohm speaker.  All in all, getting these speakers is the best chance I ever took.

@joefish , I’m new to the forum. I remember listening to Ohm F’s circa 1977 at the local Tech Hifi. Never had the funds to splurge. Gonna retire soon, so I’m considering the 1000’s for myself. What are you using for an amplifier? Turntable, streaming, etc.?

Thanks!

I bought the speakers first and then a Yamaha RX receiver (105wpc) and a Yamaha 5 disc cd player.  No turntable. I spent most of my budget on the speakers and I'm glad I did. Even with modest equipment the OHMS really sing, and I have no urge to upgrade as of yet.  Everything sounds great  The OHMS really surpassed my expectations










yamaha 

Thanks JF. I’m going to set them up as my office system with “decent” power and don’t need to break the bank - entirely. 

Well rebuilt Ohm Fs are the bomb. Perhaps 25 years too early for any power amp of the day to drive, sure would like a second chance at that. Always was like walking on eggshells/rice paper. 

I’d caution against assuming the new Ohm’s are like the originals. The originals had true time and phase coherent bending wave Walsh drivers without electronic cross-overs and had circular dispersion. The originals were also less efficient and less durable. As they aged the sound could change.
The new ones don’t have Walsh drivers, are not time and phase coherent or have circular dispersion, add electronic cross-overs, are more efficient, more durable and more consistent over time.