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Review: Ohm Acoustics Walsh 5 Series 3 Speaker

Category: Speakers

Bottom line: Yes, I think these are world class speakers that are relatively affordable, that work well with good or even great electonics, without spending a fortune, and despite the modest price, and pre-requisites in term of the supporting system, can compete with the best at most any price.

About 1 year ago, after several years of living more or less happily with my then current system, I got the urge to investigate whether my system could be improved to my ideal. Like most, I am not in a position to throw tens of thousands of dollars into my system. A few grand max is the most I could rationalize spending to achieve my ideal.

I have had the opportunity to audition many systems and components over the years, and run different speaker systems in 6 different rooms of my house.

When the urge to explore upgrades came, I had a pair of B&W P6 floor standers in one room, a pair of Magneplanar MG1.Cs in another, a pair of Triangle Titus monitors paired to an M&K v1-B sub in another (for A/V), and a pair of original Ohm Walsh 2s in yet another.

Each of these speakers had different strengths and weaknesses.

The B&Ws were beautiful, had good bass and a nice warm sound, but I could never get the transparency, imaging and detail I heard with my Maggies or good electrostatics when I heard them, like the Quads.

The Maggies were attractive looking, had the transparency, imaging and soundstage, but were lacking somewhat in the bass and hard to place optimally without being obtrusive and lacking in WAF accordingly.

The Triangle/sub combo was very smooth detailed and transparent wit good low end good, very fulfilling, but perhaps a bit lacking in soundstage and the "live like being there" soundstage factor, which the Ohm Walsh 2's owned.

The older Ohm Walsh 2's had the most lifelike soundstage and imaging but the detail and balanced timbre was not there compared to more modern designs.

I realized at this point that the unique "live like being there" factor of the Ohm's were the most distinctive feature of all and would be the hardest and most expensive to achieve with other lines.

So how to get all the best aspects of all this into 1 affordable package?

The solution, at least based on reading, appeared to be current line of Ohm Walsh (Series 3) speakers. From what I read and heard, these retained the unique live performance characteristics of the older Ohm Walsh drivers + 20 plus years of refinement by Ohm in timber, balance, soundstage and detail.

Ohms current line of Walsh speakers are designed to provide similar levels of performance from small rooms to large.

So if your room is relatively small, in theory you could get no compromise sound with the smaller Walsh speakers that start at about $1000. THese would be the Micro Walsh models that received a sixmoons Blue Moon award (http://6moons.com/audioreviews/walsh/micro.html).

For larger rooms, the larger Walsh 300s Series 3 at about $5000 is the solution. The Walsh 5 Series 3 at $5000-$6000 dollars provides level adjustments that enable these to go in any room, small to large, and adjust the drivers to the room acoustics as the user sees fit.

So after some further lower cost experimentation with high quality monitors and the smaller Ohm Series 3 speakers in one of my smaller rooms, I determined that the Walsh 5 Series 3 drivers were the solution for me. But the $5000 and up cost was prohibitive. The solution: John Strohbeen at Ohm offered up a pair of refurbished F-5 Series 3 speakers with new Walsh 5 Series 3 drivers for lower cost. These went straight into my largest room which is about 30'X18' but L shaped, not rectangular.

Getting the high end sound I was looking for in the L shaped family room was a unique challenge. An advantage of the Ohm Walsh CLS drivers (particularly the adjustable Walsh 5 drivers) however is that they are fairly easy to place and still get excellent results.

The F-5s replaced the Magneplanars in the big L shaped room. I loved the Maggie sound but these were very hard to place for optimal sound.

The Ohm F-5's have all the great qualities of the Maggies, but are even better and provide better impact and dynamics, particularly in the low end.

So what do the F-5s sound like?

Well, without, trying to be coy, I'd say they sound like whatever source signal you happen to put through them should sound like in your particular room. I honestly cannot fault them in any way I can think of. Maybe they do not have the nth degree of detail of a good pair of monitors perhaps. But if so, it really doesn't matter because when you listen, you do not get the sense that you are missing anything.

What the Ohms do perhaps better than any other speaker design I've heard is transform your room into a concert hall. If you think about what more can you ask from a pair of speakers than to provide the best sonic rendition possible in your particular room? Take any recording on any system or any live performing group or ensemble and put them in different rooms or concert halls to perform, and they will sound different in each room everytime. There is no ideal concert hall just like there is no ideal speaker or system. Each is different. Furthermore, you will hear something different in even a great venue depending on where you sit. So location in the room relative to the performers is a factor as well.

The F-5s sit about 4 feet apart and about 3 feet from the rear wall. The rear wall is about 20 feet wide. The Ohm CLS drivers seem to work like what I would call sound projectors.

Much like a video projector projects a picture onto a wall, the omndirectional Ohms project the sound in all directions, upward and 360 degrees around, similar to how the sound eminating from a live act is projected in all directions, reflect off the walls and other solid surfaces, and eventually reach your ears.

As I indicated earlier, what reaches your ears with the Walsh 5 Series 3 drivers is for all practical purposes whatever the music signal input was.

In my case the soundstage extends fully from left to right wall, about 20 feet, even though the speakers are only 4 feet apart. Despite the fact that my speakers location is skewed about 3 feet to the right of center, mono signals occur exactly at the mid point between the walls and extend to the walls fully both left and right. The soundstage extends well back behind the rear wall as well.

Individual instruments and recording mix elements are crystal clear and balanced from top to bottom and can be picked out easily due to the huge soundstage.

Furthermore, the soundstage and overall clarity of presentation holds up no matter where you sit in the room. Like sitting in different seats in a concert hall, you will get a different somic perspective in each location, but the presentation is full, complete and yes coherent regardless (hence the Coherent moniker in the driver name?).

The Walsh 5 driver are only 87db efficient, however my 150 w/channel Musical FIdelity A3CR has no problem driving them to realistic listening levels. I've found both the Walsh 5 series 3 drivers in the F5s and the smaller 100 drivers in the super Walsh 2's can take whatever power you thow at them and deliver the goods.

My only wonder with the F-5s is what they might be capable of if I threw a top notch high current monster amp at them. This may be the next frontier for me to explore someday.



Associated gear
Musical Fidelity A3CR power amplifier
Carver c-6 preamplifier
Harmonic Technology Truth Link Interconnect (re-amp->amp)
Denon CDR 1500 CD
DNM Reson interconnects (CD->pre-amp)
Linn Axis with Basik tonearm and Denon DL103R low output MC cartridge
Roku Soundbridge with Audioquest G snake interconnect

Similar products
Ohm Walsh 2
Ohm Super Walsh 2 Series 3
Dynaudio Contour 1.3 MkII
Triangle Titus with M&K V1-B sub
Magneplanar MG1.3c
B&W P6
Ohm L
Quad Electrostats
128x128mapman
mapman's avatar
mapman OP
22,303 posts
 
I was reading a Stereophile review of the original (series 1) Walsh 5 speaker/driver from 1987 that I had not come across before last night. The reviewer of the older Walsh 5's felt there were some midrange colorations with those speakers that negatively affected his ability to enjoy female vocals, opera, etc. and challenged Ohm to correct these down the road.

I can add to that observation. My original Walsh 2's (essentially smaller Walsh 5's) had similar coloration, which I describe in my review as "balanced timbre" issues.

Two series and 20 years later, I am confident that the Series 3 Ohm drivers have corrected the old timbre issues that existed compared to better modern designs. I confirmed that last night with a listen to a good quality recording of Mozart's Magic Flute. The female vocal's were as natural lifelike and absorbing as the rest of the presentation. It was like being in the opera house save perhaps for lack of sound reflections behind me, which I would atribute to my room acoustics, which are nothing special. Nice job Ohm on that one!
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
The KLH 9 electrostatic and the original OHM speaker are the only ones that "blew my socks off" upon first hearing. Sadly both were out of my budget at the time.
richinny
10 posts
 
I enjoyed reading your review. I purchased a pair of Ohm microwalsh talls for my living room system to replace a pair of Magneplanar 1.5's that I loved but my other half didn't. I find I like the openness of the sound of the Ohm speakers which are similar to the Magneplan's in that asspect but much easier to place in a living room setting. I am thinking about getting a used pair of Walsh 2's and upgrading them to Super 2's myself or having Ohm do it. They would go in a room that is sized to fit their output. I would be interested in any comments you might have in comparing how your Super 2's compare to the Walsh 5's. Thanks.
mapman's avatar
mapman OP
22,303 posts
 
Richinny,

I bought the super 2's used here on a'gon prior to the Walsh 5 investment in order to try out the waters first. I had them set up optimally in my main 12X12 listening room for several months in order to judge what they brought to the table.

I have never a/b'ed the Super 2's and f-5s in the same room, however I would confidently say that the Walsh line does work as the manufacturer claims, ie the smaller models sound like or perhaps even the same in smaller rooms as the larger models do in larger rooms, all other factors aside.

Since most all rooms are different and sound different, it is hard for me to confirm that they sound EXACTLY the same, however, I would feel confident saying that, once fully broken in, the smaller Walshes have essentially the same sonic characteristics I've attributed to the larger Walshes.

In my case, in either 12X12 room I have used the 2's in, the only difference I could cite is perhaps that the bass with the 2's in those rooms is perhaps more powerful with the same 150w/ch amplification as the f-5's in the larger room. The f-5s do have the unique advantage of the 4 level adjustment controls to match the overall timbre to room acoustics which help make placement even easier.

I have not heard the micro walshes, but I suspect the main difference you would hear with the Walsh 2 Series 3 would be a more powerful and extended low end.

The thing with the Ohm Walsh line as described in the Stereophile review on the Walsh 5's, is that they deliver a very lifelike soundstage compared to perhaps all but the best and most expensive box design speakers. You almost have to re-train your ears to some extent in order to properly "tune in" initially if you are used to hearing the sound come out of two boxes in a particular location.

With the Ohm Walsh line, you kind of have to think about listening to the room more than the speakers, if that makes any sense. Now that I've "tuned-in" to the sound of the Ohms in my rooms, however, I would feel cheated going back to most any other conventional box design speaker, at least any I know of in the same price range.
csommovigo
35 posts
 
From what I can tell, based on the info Ohm provides plus what I know about the Walsh patent, the present Ohm driver is not a Walsh nor is the Ohm speaker an omni (as the Walsh had been).

The present Ohm driver seems to be a wide-band midrange driver, the rear-radiation pattern being absorbed by placement of an acoustic device near the driver itself. The CLS driver then hands off to a conventional dome tweeter. These are then supplemented by a woofer.

So - the mid driver projects 180 degrees, limited by the acoustic absorber. The some tweeter projects as a dome tweeter does - narrowing pattern as frequency rises. The woofer woofs, fairly omni.

The original Walsh driver was a direct radiating full-range point-source omni. It was also a bitch to drive and rarely survived the attempt.

The closest thing to a Walsh driver is the German Physiks 3D driver (DDD), which is a point-source direct-radiating omni that covers the band from below 300 Hz up to 24kHz.

As the North American distributor for German Physiks I've become very familiar with where these designs parted ways (Walsh and DDD), and the history of the development of the DDD is actually quite fascinating as the engineering behind it represented the first time ever that the mathematics governing exactly how an omni-radiating bending-wave DML were so completely modeled and understood.

Chris
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