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

Mapman, Thanks for the defintion on the whole current thing...I was just about to write looking for that when you explained how to look at it. All this discussion is making me think I need to come up with an interim solution on the power side. I already know I want to go for something higher end in the $2-4k range down the line but that is probably a year away. SO, I am going to have to look at what I can get in the $400-500 range used probably not new for the interim. I saw some stuff from NAD and Cambridge Audio on A'gon but I am guessing this wont pass the "current test". I will have to post and see what ideas people have....this is turning into an obsession.

Well after reading this for months I pulled the trigger on some Walsh 2s then had them refitted by Ohm. Set them up yesterday right next to my Ohm C2s. Very interesting. Not blowing me away out of the box but definitely good stereo separation, bottom end. Listened to a variety of things yesterday....Alison Krauss, Shelby Lynne, Diana Krall...all pretty good. Bill Evans...a little tinny on the piano sound. Hotel California...just ok. Tommy Emmanual-great acoustic instrument sound. Running off an old Mcintosh MA5100 integrated. Will work on breaking them in and finding the right placement. Not an ideal room as I have them about 15 inches off the front wall but there are shelves on both sides loaded with cds about 20 inches away. I will have to keep my ears open and maybe even run them off my separates later and see if there is an improvement. There does seem to be something of an "Ohm" sound but at this point the C2s seem to have more detail but less of a clean and low bottom end.

My Walshs are retrofitted with the 100s3 transducers so per John S they are like buying a 100S3. I am guessing that part of the issue will be electronics. John felt I would be ok with the Mac but at 45 WRMS its just at the low end of what the paperwork says I should have. I will upgrade my amp in time but it will have to wait a bit having upgraded 2 pairs of speakers, CD, rack and a pre in the last 6 months. My wife has her eyes set on granite counters as a "higher priority". Until then I am going to focus on getting them broken in and setup correctly. BTW, Map, the C2s were upgraded with Ohms new woofer and sub-bass activator a few years ago and that helped in extending their life and bottom end. They may be a little bright but given my living room setup they sounded pretty good to me even when compared to some friends Rogers and Spendor speakers side by side. I may just have to get used to the sound of this kind of Walsh design. I am going to borrow a friends Mac tube amp and see how that changes things over the 4th weekend.

Marty, thanks for the Underwood lead. I will check them out. I am in Hawaii so its still a phone call and freight but some good used equipment is fine.

I understand the 45 wpc comment. I think the old Mac MA 5100 is actually doing a decent job at lesser volumes. BUT, that said my sense from the different postings and a couple of emails to John at Ohm is that I would be much more satisfied with more headroom, overall power, current etc. I am a little conflicted on tubes vs SS especially as I really liked the sound of the Mac tube amps I heard back in DE near my in-laws but those are out of my short term reach financially if I want to stay married. So I am thinking interim 6-12 month solution.

I have them setup per the "manual" with the tweeters oriented to the listener and the boxes more than 1/2 in front of the rack to the side of each speaker. I havent tried orienting them out. That could be interesting. The placement ahead of the rack definitely helped. Unfortunately, it is not the perfect room, if any is, and its not a dedicated audio room. However, the C2s I had setup before and the Spendor S3/5s setup behind the Walshs both have more highs. John did not and I understand that box speakers sound different.

3 months into ownership have just upgraded the amp to an ATI 1502 @150 wrms per channel fed by an SAE preamp with Parametric eq. Definittely an improvement from the MAC 5100 and the old SAE amp which sounded pretty good anyway. Straight thru the Ohms sound pretty darn good tho' I keep wanting more highs? When I listen with the eq in I can get that. Emailed John and he advised to use the eq if I liked it. Also offered to build me custom supertweeter to achieve the sound I like basing it off the equ settings. A bit frustrated as I am wondering if my 50+ ears are just off and dont get the sense of true music sound or if others have also felt the Ohms a little lacking on the top end? I thought I saw some of that referenced previouslyl but the success of this thread now means its hard to find stuff in it. Anyone else feel the Ohms need a little more highs? BTW Walsh 2 w 10023 drivers.

I dont think walls are the issue here. They are 20 inches from the front wall and 4-5 feet from the side wall. The room is pretty bright as there are windows to the side and behind me nearly floor to ceiling. I also get more highs when I use the eq in line so I think its the nature of the drivers themselves. And, again my ears may be too attuned to the box sound and artificial highs that are not natural to music. I think that Rebbi originally wrote of getting a different set of tweeters installed in his MWTs, from the 100S3 units. I should have that already so it may simply be that the speakers are softer and my ears overly sensitive.

Anyone have experience using wyred amps with their Ohms? I am curious about the new mInt and how it would drive my 100S3 Walshes? Also what are people using for speaker cables? My Anti cable's seem bright now that my room has changed its flooring (the to the SO).

The both of you who responded. The quest shall go on..

All this discussion about Class D makes me wonder how many of the Ohm owners on this site are running those kinds of amps and if so what? I havent heard a lot, just W4S and Wadia and I wasn't taken with either. The Wyred was 4 or so years ago and the Wadia more recently. I am looking to upgrade my amp ,whether as a separate or integrated to something modern (vs McIntosh mc250) to get more from my ohm w2-100s3. Be interested to hear others comments on this direction and products below $2k.

Thx for the feedback. It might be time to check out class d more deeply. The idea of a tube are or buffer with it is conceptually intriguing. I was looking at various Rogue integrateds awhile back but got scared off over reports on quality being variable. There are no techs in HI and shipping stuff for repairs gets really costly. My last experience with that added $400 round trip for a $1200 piece of gear. Reliability is as important as sound especially on heavy pieces.

Wanted to pose a question about how Ohm owners feel about the quality of upper midrange and highs they get from their Ohms? I moved to mostly late night listening and found the W2-100s3 didn't work well at low volume so I got a pair of Kef r300 monitors which work well for late night. The thing I discovered was that the Kefs are much richer in midrange and high content? I had not felt I was missing anything with the Ohms but now I wonder...I have found that when I can I run both speakers and the sound is much fuller. Is this the difference between box speakers and the Ohms? I had bought a Marantz PM8500 to try modern hardware out. I was partly swayed to that because it allowed for two speaker hookups. I had not planned on running two simultaneously just was tired of having to swap out cables when I switched between day and night.