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Ohm Walsh Talls and amplification

Ok, I am perplexed and I would appreciate any feedback you can give me. I am interested in getting a pair of Ohm Tall speakers. Initially (based off from Steve Guttenberg's and Zeos' reviews) i assumed that the 2000s were the ones for me. I don't see where Zeos' or Steve's rooms are any bigger than mine but, I measure the square footage of my room last night and it's only 353 square feet! Zeos himself even said that the 1000s were the correct size for his room, but he just wanted to go bigger. So, my first question is: Can you use a bigger Ohm Tall than what your room requires (as Zeos does)? Also, these speakers seem to love power. Steve drove his with a Mytek amp and a big Pass Labs amp. I cannot afford  Pass Labs and, the Mytek...well, I *could* maybe swing that but, Zeos uses a pair of Crown amps that are not made for audio but for DJs and live entertainers, etc. Obviously, he's very happy with the results. I finally did call John Strohbeen and he confirmed that the Talls love power... he suggested Mytek, Peachtree, certain NAD models, and Emotiva as affordable amps that have good results. I then asked him about Zeos using the Crown amps and he said, "Yeah, that's another way to go that's very affordable." I asked him if the sound was good and he said, "Yeah, it sounds good. In fact, we used something like Crown that here in our factory for quite a while." So, my second question is: what success have you had in the way of amplification with your Ohm Talls? 
128x128redstarwraith
snapsc
674 posts
 
Not sure of your budget....but....here is an absolutely fantastic sounding amp...sort of a blend of tubes, class A and Class A/B....normally $1700 new but being offered for $1100...and maybe they will take less.  I own a CherryAmp and can't say enough good things.

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=166431.0
oddtodd's avatar
oddtodd
2 posts
 
  Redstarwraith, I was wondering if you could let me know the specific amp's John Strohbeen recommended? I also have a pair of 2000's and thinking I'm in need of a upgrade.
redstarwraith's avatar
redstarwraith OP
17 posts
 
Oddtodd, in my conversation with John, I made it clear I could not afford something like a PassLabs amp, so I asked him to talk in terms of affordable gear. Like was mentioned above, he readily told me about driving the 2000s with the (very affordable) Outlaw receiver. I asked him how Ohms sound with Class D amps as a lot of them are affordable. He said they sound fine and told me a number of customers had success with Emotiva amps. I specifically mentioned Zeos' driving his with those Crown PA amps and John said, "Yeah, that's another way you could go." And I laughed and asked, "Yeah, but...I wonder how that SOUNDS?!" And he said, "We had something like that same set up for quite a while here in our shop. It sounded good!" 
bondmanp
1,810 posts
 
As I have posted elsewhere, I recently replaced a broken Odyssey Audio Kismet Reference amp (A/B) with a class D amp from Arion Audio.  The Arion is actually smoother and cleaner than the Kismet, by a very noticeable amount.  The combo of the Arion S500 with my 2000s is wonderful, and the Ohms clearly showed the many differences between the two amps.  Bottom line, John's speakers will sound good with almost any amp of sufficient power, but ever better with better amps, including really good ones that cost more than the speakers.
dep14
336 posts
 
Given how much I like the Pass Labs with mine, if I were on a budget I would look for a used BAT VK200.

They can be found in the 1k range, sometimes even less.  They sound very similar to Pass Labs IMO and would do a great job.
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