2. speakers
  3. 1258480272

Ohm F remodel options

So, someone has offered me their Ohm F’s- all original parts with no modifications. The cabinets are rosewood, and really look like they’re about 34 years old.

The drivers are in horrible condition. The Right speaker has the surround disintegrated and is virtually un-playable. The Left is in slightly better shape, but reveals its age.

I have no idea what kind of room they will be in a year from now. The current room is too small, and in a 900-sq ft house it is a non-starter. We have no room to even store them at the moment. I would take possession of them the day that we move to Virginia, probably in April.

There seem to be quite a few options.

1) Send them to Ohm for an upgrade. But, an upgrade to what? The 2000 driver seems to be a safe bet, assuming they will be in a medium-to-small room next year. Sending them in for a full 5000 upgrade is possible, but the expense will delay the project for about a year.

2) Have Ohm send the drivers of choice and do it myself. Good option unless I go up to the 4000 or 5000 driver. I’m not that good with woodworking, and would be concerned about screwing them up.

3) Go for the gusto and send to Dale Harder and crew to be updated with their modern Walsh driver. But that expense will really delay the project.

What would you do if given Ohm F’s?
parasound63

Showing 4 responses by unsound

unsound
7,343 posts
 
@mapman, I know this response is quite late 😄, 
but I think part of the reason GP chooses a top down approach is to keep the cross-over out of the more critical higher listening frequencies, Which might be even more noticeable with their time accurate true bending wave drivers. Also bass frequencies tend to be more sympathetic to both DSP and swarm sub-woofer approaches for the more sensitive to room variance bass frequencies.
unsound
7,343 posts
 
Send them to Dale Harder or Miller sound. Forget Ohm. Better yet, send them to me!
unsound
7,343 posts
 
Despite many claims to the contrary, these are unusual and classic drivers, very, very few have the know how to restore them. I've heard about nightmares from others who have had supposed experts completely destroy them. If the cost of restoration has you contemplating an Ohm replacement, please reconsider. Perhaps you can sell them as is, to someone willing to do it right. Original Walsh drivers are hard to find and deserve appropriate restoration. Though Dale's version might not be an exact replica of the original Walsh driver, it appears to be much closer to the original design goals than the new Ohm subsitutes.
unsound
7,343 posts
 
Restoring historicaly correct Walsh drivers is a noble endevor, but I wonder what Licoln Walsh would have designed if he had access to todays technology or just lessons learned. Perhaps presumptious, but perhaps using Lincoln Walsh's design as a platform for the potential that was then not plausible, but currently is, might be just as noble an effort. Of course there is a difference between evolution and devolution. Choose your path wisely grasshopper:>).
More to discover