Ohm Super Sound Cylinder SSC-4900 initial thoughts kinda review


Recently, and partly on the basis of what I read in these pages, I purchased a pair of Ohm Super Sound Cylinder (SSC-4900) speakers. By sharing my thoughts I aim to give back here but also to provide some information I wish I could have found out when searching high and low for information on these speakers. 

Long story short I am getting back into high-end audio. I once had a pretty impressive and well curated system. For years I lived without. In the Fall of 2019 I upgraded to Amazon Music HD, which led to a pair of Audeze headphones and a headphone amp/dac. After a while I wondered how minimal of a good sounding system I could build. Some parameters I set for the speakers were they had to be full range, play loud, sound good, image well with a wide sweet spot, look good, and be less than $8000 per pair. Oh, and they had to work in a large room with hard surfaces.  

Somehow I stumbled upon Ohm. What little bit I could find suggested they were possibly right for me. More than anything the overall gestalt that they were uniquely good drew me in. That, and the seemingly reasonable price helped seal the deal. It is, however, a major issue that even though I live in the seventh largest city in the nation there was no way to see or even audition these (or really anything putatively good) before buying. Mail order is not how I bought expensive audio stuff in the past. Well, some things change. Another issue was a near complete lack of audio press on these speakers. How can a company so old, and so well thought of not have oodles of reviews from the usual suspects? 

Ok, so, after some back and forth email with Ohm I resolved to get the Super Sound Cylinder aka the SSC-4900. For some reason the speaker is listed as a Beta product on the website. Seems to be a sorted consumer product not a beta. Anyway. Clearly, any interaction with the website affirms that Ohm cares little for the website, which I can dig but it really is quite frustrating. I even had to email to find out what the switch on the back of the speaker does. I'm still not totally sure, but the switches are in the upper most position for what it's worth. Something to do with deep bass EQ and my large room size.

I had plans for a media server/dac/amp all in one. That seemed a wonderful in a minimal way. Some products of the sort are supposed to be pretty good. Well, some don't yet work with Amazon Music, and some seem to have clunky software interface, but none were powerful enough to drive the Ohms (by all accounts). Ok, so, have to get a beefy power amp. Bummer right? Big money coming on a Krell or whatever the kids buy these days. Extensive search later I ended up buying, again on very little information, an Apollon AS1200 ICEPOWER class D amp from Slovenia. Mail order all the way. Go big or go home, right?

Another long story short I bought a Bluesound Node 2i. I had, in fact, demo'd this product so I had seen it, and knew a bit about it. Importantly, it works with Amazon Music and the interface was not too clunky. I hoped it would actually work okay and drive the Apollon with at least a moderately functional volume control. I could always get a separate DAC and preamp later, right?

Got some 12-gauge MonsterCable and some cheap Audioquest interconnects. Played the cable game before. Not again. 

Speaker one arrived. A week later speaker two arrived. Had the Bluesound. Did not have the amp. Crap, okay, so I hooked up an old-ish Denon receiver the AVR-X1100 with 80 W for each of 7 channels. Great functionality in that amp btw. Before the sound, however, a word about my first impressions of the speakers. Arrived in big boxes that barely protected the speakers. Obvious hand work/cost savings. One of the metal hats was bent slightly but I'm not gonna fret. Unnervingly lightweight speaker for its size. I paid five grand for what? Honestly, the materials don't feel very magical, the fit and finish is not stellar, and the appearance, well, subjectively not too awesome. The wife did not even notice the lone speaker hanging out in the corner at first. In short, these do not look or feel like five grand well spent. But, how do they sound mister long winded?

Through the Denon receiver the Ohms did not sound very good on average. Sometimes sounded kinda okay but generally not. The Bluesound was a breeze to set up BTW. Nice bit of kit that. Perhaps the Denon could not handle the Ohms low sensitivity or impedance or so I wanted to believe.

Miraculously, the Apollon showed up two days later. Nice build, or nicer than I expected, and 620W per channel. SIX HUNDRED AND TWENTY WATTS PER CHANNEL. If, as they all said, the Ohms needed power I should clear that up with this thing. Yes by Jove, the Ohms need power. The Apollon is there and not there. I can't hear it, but it made the Ohms stand up and fly right. Things were looking up. 

I've tweaked the speakers position to be closer to the wall. They need that, they really do, which is actually good for the wife acceptance factor and with having a 5 year old kid around. Imaging is funny. It can be precise. It's not all that deep (yet?), and it's not as wide/listening position invariant as everyone says. For sure, it makes a difference where you sit. That said, the best listening location is bigger than what you get from a mini-monitor. Treble is nice. Inoffensive and perhaps lacking a bit of sparkle but far from bright. Bass, deep bass that is, is listening position sensitive. These do not plumb the depths the way I wanted them too or, indeed, the the way I was led to believe. They may benefit from a sub, which I am loathe to add. Midrange is pleasant and present, perhaps somewhat seamless maybe due to lack of crossovers. I like vocals on these speakers. Seems like they will play loud, but I've not really gotten a chance to try that yet. 

So, to sum up my first impressions... These Ohms sound better than they look. They need tons of clean power, are best close to the wall, and are not champions in any one area. They do seem quite musical as they say, but I would not go as far as some reviews and say they are super close to "being there". I like the sound, but I really had to give them a chance. They have gotten their two fair shakes. I still have about 110 days to return them. Probably won't. Need to play around a bit with placement and hear more music. Maybe I will try a big pair of Maggies. What? No, can't/won't pull them out into the room. For now, it seems I have a pretty nice and pretty minimalistic setup. Two speakers, one amp, and one other box that plays the music from a huge online library. Clean, cool, and never have to turn it off. 

Did I get what I wanted? Will the Ohms make me forget and just play the music? Maybe. I might still be an audiophile after all and the Ohms, while seemingly good, are not unicorns with sparkles and glitter farts.   
 



monstertruck9882
Hmm well be sure Magnepans are completely different beasts from Ohm Walsh. One of Ohms strengths is versatility with any kind of music. Magnepan not so much with pop music. Setup and amp matches totally different also. Magnepans like power similar to Ohm but not as fussy about current.
Thanks @mapman  I think I will look into those pads.  I did get the speakers yesterday and have been playing with them.  They don't react how I expect so there will have to be some experimentation.  The changes can make significant changes to the sound. One very interesting thing I noticed is I have perfect imaging in the kitchen through the passthrough which is perfectly in line with the right speaker and 30 feet away.  

Honestly, I was a bit of a loss with amplification.  This was my first serious upgrade in 33 years.  My current amp...heck every amp I have ever owned was Class A/B and the current one only had 70 watts at 8 ohms.  Reading through the forums it seemed a lot of power and class D work well with these speakers. I was looking a separates but at a certain point (and a $1000 off the price) I just grabbed a NAD M33.  It is my first Class D amplifier it sounds good, it seems have enough power and I can plug everything I already own into it.  Although to be honest most of the time unless I have time I will stream my music from a service or my network which the M33 does well.  
@jrosemd   You know they were on the list.  I had basically narrowed what I wanted down to three speakers I was interested in.  These ohm walsh, a set of magnepans and a pair of tektons but they had to pass the wife acceptance factor.  I will leave you to put the comments to the appropriate speakers but the maggies and tekton failed on these two questions.  "They have to be how far into the room?" and "They are how big?". :)  She also like the looks of the Ohms the best.

I plan on looking around for a good used set of LRS's for the downstairs stereo.  It should give me a taste of the sound and I have the ability to pull the speakers out down there.
Well tour current amp could do just fine for most listening. .  What amp is that?  M33 is one On my would  consider list.  That should be the bomb!   Keep us posted. 
@mapman About 8 years ago my original amp crapped out and I grabbed a Onkyo 9070 that was on sale and it worked well enough to get me through. It is rated at 140 watts @ 4 ohms. I really struggled to find the specs for it so I have no idea what its damping factor or current is like. I hope it has enough current to push the LRS I plan on placing by its new home downstairs :) From my desperation in purchasing a new amp so fast, I realized I more or less listen to music all the time unless I am watching TV or something that needs quiet.

It was probably time to get a better unit to go with the speakers. I was really looking hard at a Hegel 390 but I just couldn’t make the stretch. Used 390s are a $1000 more than I paid new for the M33 and $4000 more if new.

Has anyone tried Dirac with Ohm Walsh Speakers?

I mean I am going to do it if just to see how the sound looks in the room but I feel like it probably is not something that would help these speakers much. Should be a fun experiment once I get them in their final position.