Ordered my first ever Ohm speakers. I went with the super sound Cylinder with a 10" driver. I will keep you guys posted once I receive them. I had a pair of Tekton Double Impacts on order and my wife made me cancel them due to their LARGE footprint. My expectations are high and hopefully these speakers are going to exceed my expectations :)
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Thanks Peterr53 and bondmanp!
I recently purchased an Arcam SR250 to serve the speakers. They are only rated at 90 watts per channel but from what the Arcam rep and John told me, those receivers are rated very conservatively and they should not have any problem driving the Ohms. they run in pure class A for the first 20 watts or so.
Has anyone attempted to try room correction software like Dirac with Ohm speakers? I am guessing that omni-directional speakers won't work very well with room correction software since the whole idea of pin-point calibration of the speakers for the listening position goes against the core competency of omni-directional speakers. |
Thanks guys,
My setup is going to be 2-channel with no sub.
I am going to play with Dirac and see what type of results I am going to get. As you guys have suggested, room correction really comes in handy when blending the sub and other channels together. I will certainly give it a shot and let you know my findings with just having a stereo configuration. In general, what is your guys' take on ohm speakers (stereo mode) without having a sub used in home theater? I am hoping that the 10" driver will produce enough bass that I would not want to consider adding a sub. I have never been too crazy about the surround channels and don't care for subs when it comes to music playback. |
Thanks Bondmanp.
Now, I have to anxiously wait for them. By second week of June I should have my hands on them. |
Bondmanp and mapman,
Thanks for your quick inputs. your suggestions are spot on. I am going to play with the Ohm and Arcam combo for a few weeks and then decide if I really need more power.
Just did a quick research on the bel canto and sure enough it appears that they are also using a custom Hypex module, possibly the nCore NC1200 or the older UcD models.
From Mapman's experience with the bel canto and the fact that Ohm speakers are not very sensitive speakers (88db @ 2.8v ), Class D amps should be a good fit. |
Hi Guys,
I am still waiting for my Ohm super sound cylinder (10" driver) to arrive but since a few people here have mentioned that these speakers need loads of power, I have started looking at power amps as potential add.
I am using an Arcam SR-250 stereo receiver rated at 90W per channel into 8 ohms.
I was thinking about using the Arcam as my preamp and add one of the new Hypex Ncore based class D amplifiers as the main driver.
Seems like the Ncore modules by Hypex have been very well taken by the audio community and companies like NAD and ATI amplifier technology and Nord acoustics have released products based on these Ncore modules. Has anyone here have any experience with this relatively new class D design? would it pair OK with the Ohm speakers? I guess a phone call to John S would also be helpful.
The company that I am mostly interested in is the Nord acoustics. They seem to be very open about all the components that they are using in the amplifier and they can put together a true mono block design (separate power supply and amplifier channel) with Op Amp of your choice (front buffer) into a stereo box for relatively "affordable" price tag.
Any feedback or first hand experience with these products?
Thanks,
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Hi Peter,
Yeah, I know what you mean. I am sure the 400W/channel mono blocks are going to be more fun and dynamic. I think to be fair to my wallet and to not get myself in trouble, I am going to hold off on the mono blocks until I get familiarized with my setup. meanwhile, I am going to do my homework and see what option will suite me and the wallet best. |
Thanks guys,
My intention of getting the 10" driver was to have enough bass to not need subs. Unfortunately, my wife is not into sound systems and her ears are extremely sensitive to bass, she has an "allergic reaction" to the word "sub-woofer" and the only time I can actually watch movies the way I like is when she is not home :). I found a thread on audioshark about the Hypex N500 based amps (class D amps) that I am reading. it's a mere 100 pages long so I have my work cutout for me.
Mapman,
Do you have the bel canto black series amps? If you are satisfied with the performance of the bel canto and the ohm 5000s that should be an indicator that the new hypex class Ds are up for the task. |
Thanks for your input mapman.
I think for music playback I definitely don't need a sub in my room and when it comes to movies, I think, I can "live" with not having the couch and the entire surroundings shake. I am however, seriously considering the Class D amp. should be getting the speakers by next Tuesday. it's been a loooong wait. |
it'll be very interesting to audition a set of Ohm speaker for the first time.
From what I have been told by John S, I would not be disappointed by selecting the cylinder shape if I can live with the aesthetics. Growing up, my dad had a pair of Bose 901 series 2s and I really liked the sound presentation from those speakers. just like Ohm speakers, the placement and distance from the wall and room orientation was very important. Despite of not being very detailed in the highs, I found the base and the mids to be more than adequate and they could handle as much power as you could throw at them. Immediately after learning about the Ohm speakers it reminded me of my dad and how he spent hours fiddling with the placement of the speakers and somehow I knew, I got to give these speakers a shot. it reminded me of my childhood memories and put a fat smile in my face. |
Well, The sound cylinders are at last here and I though I would share my experience with you guys.
As some of you had mentioned, these speakers are indeed power hungry. I am cranking the Arcam receiver to about 60% volume to get good dynamic sound out of them for music and with movies I usually have to go to 65% volume to really get them singing. During explosion scenes my receiver clipped a few times but these speakers are definitely able to handle loud explosions.
Overall, I have to say the speakers are an absolute keeper. I have to agree with your findings about the sound stage, the sound presentation and best of all the fact that you can have them blasting for hours without getting ear fatigue and headache. I can’t say, I could do that with any of my other speakers. They are not the most handsome speakers out there but for the money they sound extremely pleasant. They are probably not for super analytical listeners who are looking for the slightest or the most minute details.
I ordered a pair of mono block Ncore 500 Class D amps to really give the Ohms some juice (Nord one SE up). I will give you guys more feedback when the new amp is added to the system.
Thanks again for all your feedback. |
Will do mapman! I am sure as the speakers and the new class D amp break in, the sound gets better and better. I just have to be patient. From what I have heard, both devices need extended break-in time.
After reading the comments about folks adding a super tweeter to their speakers, I was a little concerned that the top end of the Ohms is somewhat dull but It definitely is not the case.
Oh BTW, there is plenty of bass available with the 10" driver for me. I have no need or desire to add a sub. Even for HT duty, there is ample bass.
I think, these speakers are bottoming out at about 35-40Hz which is fine.
Not being able to go down to 20Hz is not a problem for me at all. |
bondmanp,
I think you are absolutely right. We were listening to some piano playback and my wife (which is not into sound systems at all) came over from the adjacent room and said, I almost felt someone is playing the piano in here. I don't have as much freedom in placement as you do. Right now, I have them about 4 feet away from the side walls and close to 2 feet gap from the front wall (maybe a little less). They sound pretty good. The bass was a little boomy before running Dirac but, I fudged the frequency response curve and lowered the peaks around 50-100hz and it completely eliminated the boominess.
I am sure the new amplifier is going to make a big difference.
The nCore modules are rated at 400 watts into 8 ohms per channel (although not continues), I will keep you guys posted as the system is going through changes.
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On the cylinders the Ohm logo is placed where the tweeter is located. |
Hi Guys,
I have had my Ohm super sound cylinder for over 6 weeks now. I ended up purchasing a Nord One up class D amplifier to provide it with some more juice. The Arcam SR-250 receiver did an OK job but now I can tell the extra power helps tighten up the bass. Overall, I am very happy with my purchase. Thanks to everyone that helped me with making my decision. As you guys know, these speakers can get pretty loud. I was very impressed at how loud they can get without getting distorted or sound compressed. As for the bass, I am more than happy with the amount of base I am getting. I gave up my 10" powered subwoofer and have no regrets at all. |
I've had my Ohm cylinders for a little over 4 months now and wanted to share my thoughts with folks that already have Ohm speakers and those who may be interested in purchasing Ohm speakers.
I use the Dirac room correction software that comes with my pre-amp (receiver).
In my opinion, the room correction does wonders for Ohm speakers. Depending on the geometry of the listening room and placement of the Ohms in respect to the surrounding walls, the Ohms can sound a bit boomy, the room correction really cleans up and tightens the bass. On the high frequencies, the Ohm speakers are also a bit soft. When I looked at the frequency response curve, there is a clear drop beyond 10Khz, which I bumped up a little in Dirac. I have compared the equalized vs direct signal on multiple occasions and the difference is very noticeable. The bass gets much much cleaner and the high frequencies also get "brighter". Overall, I would not want to use them as studio monitors but the Ohms certainly have a lot of good attributes. The soundstage and imaging of these speakers are flat out amazing. you can listen to very broad range of music genres with these speakers and it does an admirable job. In my opinion, these speakers really shine when you listen to live music recordings. A little bit of bass management and bump in the higher frequencies go a long way to make these speakers an absolute blast. I would also like to mention that I am by no means a seasoned veteran in audio gear critique. In total, I have had 7 pairs of speakers and the Ohms would definitely be my favorites so far. |
bondmanp, If you don't have an ideal room geometry and you can't have a wide gap between the speakers and the front walls,
the room correction definitely helps in cleaning up the lower frequencies. Most audio gurus don't recommend room correction for higher frequencies but in my personal experience with the Ohms, the boost in the higher frequencies is a welcome change.
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