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

New member of the Ohm fanboy club here. My first and only truly "good" audio system was back in the early through mid 70's. I had heard a pair of Ohm A's or Ohm F's a few times in a Tech Hi-Fi listening room but as a high school senior with a part time job (at $1.65 hourly!) the big Ohm's were just a dream. I ended up with the much maligned but better than you'd expect Bose 501's (original - not the II's,) a Lenco turntable and a 65 wpc Onkyo integrated amp (Onkyo was unkown to the mass market at that time but a kindly hi-fi nut who worked in a local repair shop steered me to Onkyo.) A variety of circumstances (bad lifestyle choices, becoming a parent unexpectedly at age 25 etc.) resulted in my selling off my system and I've had naught but small integrated amps and bookshelf speakers since then. Some bug caught me this Christmas... I stumbled across a nearly mint pair of Ohm Walsh 2's for $300 locally and my next chapter in audio began. Grabbed a used Adcom 545II (100 wpc) at the same time for $130 and was initially please but not wowed by the sound (was using my NAD integrated amp as a preamp.) A few short weeks later I scored a Harmon Kardon Citation 22 amp from the late 70's/early 80's (200 wpc) and a vintage Conrad Johnson PV2 preamp. My turntable (Technics SL1400 with Shure V15 Type IV cart) has been pulled out of mothballs... and I'm now on the hunt for a good CD player. These speakers with this amp and preamp... even with a crappy Yamaha cD changer or 320kbps mp3's from an iPod as the source... sound EFFING incredible! I'm floored every time I listen to music now and for the first time in close to 30 years I find myself really engaged by the music. :-) I have a problematic living room with a big open archway on across the back, a fireplace with glass doors flanked by deep wall to wall bookshelves and another open archway just a foot in from the front left corner. Have only played a little bit with placement as I have few options but I'm thrilled - truly thrilled - by the sense of life and space that music now has with the Ohm's. They'll even upgrade my 2's to the new generation of drivers for $1400 (versus me buying anew pair of 200's for $2800)but I think I don't want to mess with success. I'll just kick back and enjoy this for awhile!

I had an Adcom 545II in place for a couple weeks with the preamp section of my NAD 3155 integrated amp. It's hard to sort out which new item has the most impact but I think the slightly warmer characteristic of the Citation 22 amp (along with 2x the power of the Adcom) has helped a lot but I think the huge improvement in the sound of CDs is mostly due to the Conrad Johnson PV2 tubed preamp. It's the first time since I bought my first CD player 20 years ago that I've actually been able to sit down and listen directly to CDs at a decent volume level for a few hours. I have a line on a pretty decent NAD C541i CD player and think that will also make a difference. All in all... I'm thrilled.

Thanks for the thoughtful comments and suggestions. I did just acquire a used NAD 512 CD player here on Agon. It's a fairly low end unit but distinctly better detail, tight and fuller bass and less bright than the Yamaha CD hanger I already had in place.

A couple of other recent tweaks and a new accessory have also made a noticeable difference. At a discount home improvement I got two 12" square concrete patio stones that are about 1.5" thick and look like stone. Put one under each speaker on the hardwood floors (there is a thick oriental rug with pad in room but it does not extend to the area where the speakers sit. Bass response is tighter and deeper. The second tweak may be sen as snake oil by some but I swear the sound - especially with vinyl - is a bit more open and has clarified and even slightly deepened bass response over what it was... all from a new turntable mat. I have Technics SL-1400 (kissing cousin of the Sl-1200.) The stock mat is a thick rubber and many seem to feel that rubber mats - or at least this one - don't allow the sound to open up as much. A lot of research on different mat materials... synthetic plastic, metal, felt, cork etc. yield the overall impression that most folks here no difference between mats which I believe.) The one exception was deerskin. Nearly every thread I found that discussed deerskin/leather mats suggests that they have a positive impact on the sound. Only place I could find them for sale was a few UK vendors and prices were high. I bought a compass style circle cutter with cutting wheel for drywall - at a hardware store,) an X-Actoknife, a roll of self adhesive cork at a craft store, and a 1/4" hole punch and a scrap of soft grained leather at a leather supply shop (deerskin was too pricey for an experiment but I will now buy some based on my sing the rubber mat for size I scored two circles of cork, one of leather and carefully cut them out. One cork circle was then cut to remove a 4" circle of material in the center. That piece was the center of the "sandwich, the smoother side of the leather faces up and the third piece of cork on the bottom. Careful pressure and pounding with a soft rubber mallet got the layers adhered and the center 4" area of leather is slightly depressed due to the cutout under it (for the label depression.) Last steps were to punch the center spindle hole and trim the edges even. I played Side A of Steely Dan's Aja on the rubber mat and then on the new leather mat. There IS a difference and the leather mat yields better sound. I was surprised that I could hear it but am convinced that it isn't my imagination. Followed up later tonight with side B of the Sony Legacy 180 gram reissue of Axis Bold as Love and damn!

Last change... I got an $80 Spin-Clan manual record washer and built my own jerry-rigged vacuum system form and old portable vacuum. I can clean about 15 records in one hour and the results are astounding. Thrift store finds and even vinyl from my own remaining old collection (much of which is gone) sounds so much better. Surface noise that I attributed to worn records was just dirt embedded in the grooves. Great investment.

I'm giving thought to keeping the Ohm 2's and moving them to the bedroom for a second system... with a larger pair of Ohms for the first floor/LR system. Spotted a used pair of Ohm I for sale (not Ohm 1's.) These are conventional speakers in the sens that they have five forward firing drivers but unconventional in that they have an additional three upward facing drivers on top of each speaker. If I drop the hammer on these it is a sale at a distance - no chance to audition them. have any of you heard these and can share thoughts on how different or similar the sound is to the Ohm 2 design and its ilk?

Oh gosh... I did it now. Drove four hours each way yesterday from Syracuse to Philly and back... returning with a pristine pair of restored Ohm F speakers! I've been watching them get re-listed on Craigslist for a few months with no action - likely because the owner was holding firm at $1300 and wanted to sell them with local pickup only. He mentioned that they had new surrounds etc. but didn't specify who did the work. We agreed on a price of $1200 based on successful audition and only them did he mention that the rebuild was done by Bill LeGall of Millersound. Google him and you'll discover that he is one of the only two people routinely mentioned as having the requisite skills and experience to properly restore Ohm F's that have failed internal and external foam. Dale Harder of HHR Exotic Speakers is, of course, the other qualified guy but I have the impression that most of his time and energy these days is focused on building his own line of TLS speakers using the Walsh design principles with new materials and some design improvements. Much as I wish I could afford a pair of Dale's speakers it's not int he budget right now so these F's were my best bet.

In addition to putting in new silver wiring from the banana plug receptacles to the inside of cone (or so it appears,) Bill redid the foam and rubber surrounds, removed the goop of the old internal foam damping material and then used strategically placed placed pieces of Dynamat for damping on the internal side of the metal portion of the cone (I'm not sure but I think maybe this is done only on the titanium section?) Perhaps most promising is that he added an additional spider that relives some of the workload of and stress on the original spider. The purchase included the top hats (grilles) which are still in reasonable shape although I may recover them in black grill cloth or perhaps even build a new set from scratch. They also cane with base assemblies that allow them to be raised about 14" higher off the floor. I'm trying the bases for now and will then remove them to compare sound. Good thing I don't have Spousal Acceptance Factor to contend with - these things are huge to begin with and the bases have them coming in at five feet tall! The cabinets were stuffed with some good quality cotton acoustic grade batting for dampening but the seller advised me that Bill said to remove 1/2 to 3/4 of it after the rebuilt cones had been broken in. I took about half of it out but saved what I removed - just in case.

On to what counts: the sound. Holy Crap! I fell in love with the original Ohm Walsh sound back in 1973 or 1974 when I was in high school and heard a pair of A's or F's (not sure which) at a Tech Hi-Fi store. Despite the challenges of my smallish living room - which has bookshelves, a fireplace and the audio gear shelves on the wall behind the speakers, a four foot wide open archway into the dining room to the side of the left speaker, and an eight foot wide open archway across the back (with an entry hall and stairwell behind) - the sound is still incredible. I have the speakers roughly eight feet apart (cone center to cone center, just under three feet from cone center to back wall, and finally the left speakers is about two feet in from the open archway and the right speaker is just over three feet from the side wall.

Bass response on the right material is staggering... notes seem to hang in the air... soundstage is holographic... and placement of individual instruments is so precise that with eyes closed it's easy to think you are in the recording studio or in front of a stage in a small venue - hearing it live.

Yes.... I finally have my speakers for life! Still need to sort out a few things. I was advised that there is an audible improvement if one plugs speaker wires directly into the banana receptacles on the back side of the driver assembly instead of the external ones at the cabinet base that lead up to the ones at the drivers. I've been running them that way today and can't really tell if it is more transparent with better highs as the tweakers suggested it would be (could be my aging ears just don't hear it.) I'm looking for some 18" square concrete pads (the ones that are used as garden walkway pavers and look like stone) to go underneath. I have a set of 12" square pads for the Ohm Walsh 2's and there was a noticeable tightening and improvement in bass response when I added those. Dale Harder strongly recommends using cones - I might try that instead. I've also seen some comments that amps capable of direct current power can be dangerous with these speakers. My HK Citation 22 (200 wpc at 8 ohms) has a "high current mode." Do any of you know if this is an issue of concern? The seller was running them with a 60 wpc solid state Bryston but they really do sound better now through my HK and Conrad-Johnson PV2 than they did at audition.

By the way... the seller is a former full time musician who moved on to another occupation but tinkers with audio as a hobby. His ongoing "project speakers" make the Ohm F's look like little toys - and they're powered by a 7 watt SE triode amp! He has horn loaded Altec cabinets that are just under eight feet but has added external Electrovoice mid-range horns (the mid range horns alone weigh about 60 pounds each,) replaced the tweeter horns with ones of a more modern design (German brand whose name escapes me) and even clamped some external piezo super tweeters on the outside edges. They sounded HUGE although he didn't crank them as he's in a side by side duplex with neighbors. For me they lacked the presence of the F's but the sales i my gain :-)

On a related note - I recently acquired a second pair of Ohm Walsh 2's. They had the old style brown cloth saggy grill covers (easily replaced as Ohm sells the nice tapered black ones on their web site.) They sound exactly like my other pair of 2's but the metal cans don't have the black dampening fabric on the back side or the top - you can actually see the entire tweeter assembly and everything else inside the can (which is cool to look at.) I'm interested in selling either pair of my Ohm Walsh 2's if any of you are interested. I want to keep one pair for a second system but have to sell one to help pay for the F's.

I had their original series Bose 501s in my college dorm and although they had some real limitations - for the $250 I paid (used) they had a great soundstage in a small room and served the purpose at the time. The Bose 901s used too much reflected and not enough direct sound for my taste. I listened to them back in the day around the one and only time I heard Ohm F's. My buddy's parents had 901's with the active equalizer, McIntosh for power and a high end turntable. Within a month or so of hearing their system I listened to the Ohm F's at a tech Hi-Fi store. They demo'd them with the grilles off. I was sold on the sound and the pair I just acquired.... 39 years later... sound just as good to me as when I first heard that sound. That was a great article on Bill LeGall - sounds like an amazing guy. Apparently he was only doing one set of F's per year and now no longer does them at all. The seller I dealt with lives 20 minutes away from Bill and bought them directly from Bill so I know the provenance is legit.

I repositioned them yesterday to be across the 14.5 foot long wall and they are now roughly 21" in (at the base)from the back and side walls. The only material I threw at them that was problematic was Shirley Horn's album "The Main Ingredient." Steve Novosel's acoustic bass lines were going so deep that I was getting funky resonance from the hardwood floors and the bass was crazy boomy (played a dozen or more other albums over the weekend and this was the only one where it happened. Today I bought a couple of 18" square concrete pads (look like stone but are cast concrete.) Painted them satin black, put self adhesive furniture "Super Sliders" on the bottoms and put the speaker bases and cabinets on top. Boominess is gone and the bass on Shirley's disc. although to still goes insanely deep, is taut and controlled. An audio forum I perused suggests to use two of these pads with a barely inflated inner tube between them (just enough air so that it forms a 5mm gap between them when the top pad and speakers are in place. Not sure I'll even bother with that - the improvement is so dramatic with the single pad. That being said... I think I need to start trying some homemade tube traps etc. and see what else will improve this already stellar sound.

I suspect it is indeed different with the F's. I tried them without the stands and found that unique spatiality to be a bit diminished. Seated on the couch or walking around... I find this height to be perfect for my ears and these drivers. Hope these links to Photobucket work. You'll need to cut and paste but the stands are in the first photo (before I added the concrete pads)

http://i1203.photobucket.com/albums/bb394/phaelon56/Audio%20Gear/IM
G_0249-001.jpg

http://i1203.photobucket.com/albums/bb394/phaelon56/Audio%20Gear/IMG_0236.jpg

I keep tweaking the position of my new F's slightly and playing a bit with other cheap tweaks. Now using two 18" square 2" thick concrete pads under each. The bottom pads have plastic/teflon coated furniture sliders under each corner and i have pieces of dense foam pipe insulation cut into rectangle and placed between the pads for isolation. Mine came with the original stands - which elevate the speakers about an extra 14". I was still concerned about the little round metal buttons under each corner of the stands so I put some small double up pieces if Dynamat under each corner - between the stands and the top pad. There was a bit of tightening in the bass but it got markedly when I stapled R-19 fiberglass insulation into the three basement ceiling joist spaces that are under the front end of the living room - where the speakers are located. I think the only remaining tweak will be some homemade tube traps or other room treatments.

Listened to Maiden Voyage on a out on loan from the library. Holy crap... that was recorded in 1964? The Verve engineers sure knew their stuff. it sounds as real and live as anything I've ever heard on speakers. I also dug out my copy of Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies album "American Metaphysical Circus." The opening track, Sub-Sylvanian Litanies, is by far the trippiest piece of music I have ever heard. It swirls and goes out beyond the edge of the speakers in a way that nothing else has - even more so than "And the Gods Made Love" from Electric Ladyland. I am just loving these speakers more every day and listening to more music of more genres than I have in years. Kudos to Bill LeGall for a phenomenal rebuild on these. I have the impression that he no longer rebuilds F's - and I feel blessed that I was lucky enough to get a pair that he did.

First link above got fouled up but the second one - to the photo of driver - is okay. Let's try again for pic of speakers with stands.

http://i1203.photobucket.com/albums/bb394/phaelon56/Audio%20Gear/IMG_0249-001.jpg