Well it has been a few weeks with my Ohm Walsh 2000's and I think it is time for a review. Say that with the following qualifiers: A: The speakers probably have about 30 hours in on them at moderate to loud volume so the break in is there to judge the final sound. B: I think I have figured out placement and had one of those breakthrough listen sessions where I had a "Eureka!' moment about how to place the speakers, make some room adjustments, as well as change how I am recording in Dirac.
So let’s begin with the room and system that these Ohm Walshs are being used with. I have them placed in a small 13x13 room with a bit over 8 foot ceilings. That room also has an open at all times double french door. This room is used mainly for audio though it does have 2 channel home theater uses here and there. The room has bass traps located in the corners of the room from floor to ceiling and I am working with GIK to purchase more acoustic treatment for the room per their plans. Per suggestions from Mapman I have placed the Ohms on top of SubDude HD anti vibration stands. The gear is as follows:
Source: Mac Mini with Audirvana and Dirac Integration
DAC: PS Audio PerfectWave MKII
Preamp: Ayre K-5xe
Amplifier: Mark Levinson No. 432
Speakers: Ohm Walsh 2000s
Past Speakers:
Some useful information is that I am a Magnepan guy and have been for the last 20 years. When I first heard them at a dealer showcase I loved the open nature of the speakers as well as their room filling sound. Magnepans are certainly not perfect speakers, but if soundstaging, a large surface area to have sound emanate from the speaker, and in the case of the ribbon based models a sense of detail and air around instruments are important criteria are important to you then Magnepans are your speaker if you have the room, equipment and patience for them.
The Need for Change:
After all these years with Magnepans and in particular for me 3.6s dominating my small audio room I wanted to downsize the system with the anticipation of a newborn baby coming into the mix. I spent countless hours searching the web for a speaker that could have a large soundstage and three dimensional sound of my Magnepans for around $3000. The task was difficult as so many speakers related to Magnepans are dipoles and are some sort of planar. Even cone based designs that were open baffle required the speaker to be at least 3 feet from the back wall which was no improvement over the placement of the current 3.6s. Then I randomly stumbled upon Ohm speakers via a random audio thread and started some digging around. Overall the information sounded interesting, but the question of soundstage height was not being answered. Most reviewers and those that write about monopole speakers talk about spacious sound but typically it is within the height of the speakers and really it is the width and depth that are the spacious sound rather than the height. Now some of you may be thinking "Seriously what is the deal with this guy and soundstage height?" I will tell you that until you have lived with 6 foot tall and 2 foot wide panels in your listening room you don't realize what you are missing. There is a sense of life scale that few speakers regardless of price are able to match much less a set of speakers sub $5000. Needless to say a lot of internet research ensued about the Ohms and thanks to a lot of posts on this thread and some others, plus Ohm's generous in home trial took the big risk out since if they failed to meet my needs there were going back. By the way for those of you who want the quick answer: the Magnepans are sold and the Ohms were not returned.
Build Quality:
So after unpacking the speakers I found that my left speaker can had a sizeable dent that John at Ohm replaced with no questions asked. Other than that the speakers look pretty good from afar. However I feel that fit and finish are something that remains to be desired. The cans look pretty cool with their perforated metal, but overall nothing about the speaker screams high end audio or matches the quality of the sound they reproduce. I think that is a real shame because we often listen with our eyes as well as our ears. I think the worst offender in terms of build quality that I found were two fold. One is internal and only found when I replaced the damage driver in my speaker which is that the port in the speaker looks to be made of cardboard and the gloss finish base of the speaker looks spray painted. I know some will argue that this is a cost saving measure and it is about the sound, but I have seen $100 Paradigm Atoms that I have had less qualms about fit and finish. I think visual impressions are important especially when we are talking about a $2000+ speaker.
Placement:
Placement is a tough issue for the Ohms. Contrary to what Ohm states about the relative ease of place I found this to not be true for me. Sure you can set them down close to the wall and listen and they sound ok, but really to get the wall of sound that has depth not just behind the speaker but behind the listener careful attention and note taking must be done when moving the speakers around in order to find their best positioning. Are the Ohms as sensitive as Magnepans and one should fear being a quarter inch out of alignment...? No. But paying attention to what you are doing and spending a few weeks moving and taking notes really does help and I think that is especially true for any speaker that isn't a monopole.
Tone, Dynamics and All of the Other Fancy Sound Adjectives:
Lets start by saying that at least from my experience what I think any Ohm listener will be surprised about is the bass. These speakers make bass. Lots and lots of clean effortless bass. I mean this statement not from the usual "Oh these speakers make good bass for their size." I mean to say that these speakers measured in my room are making bass into the 10hz range. For a speaker rated down to around 30hz the Ohms easy pass that spec. This is clean and music bass. It doesn't sound like subwoofers are on, but rather that a pair of stereo speakers that dig down deep on soundtracks such as Interstellar.
The Ohms are very musical and open. As much as I thought the Magnepans made music I find myself tapping my foot more and not even realizing it. These speakers have this open sense and just unsteadiness sense about them. This is certainly in part due to their dynamic power but even vocals and background sounds just have this matter of factness about them. Sound is just there and it is clean and pure. I have heard people talk about musical speakers and for the first time I truly understand what that sounds like. Now before you start thinking that the Ohms must be the ultimate speaker for audiophile, the answer is it depends on what you like in your music presentation. What these speakers do not do is provide that microscopic sound that is often written about in audio magazines. You are not going to hear the air moving around instruments. But what you are going to hear is something that sounds extremely cohesive and part of a well placed soundscape. That for my listening room covers all four walls in the room and that includes going around my head if the right track is played. However I consistently get sound going as far towards the side walls as far back as my listening position.
The speakers depending on the recording and even more so with the help of Dirac room correction have good height. Is it a 6ft tall Magnepan? Yeah sometimes. Sometimes it is less and of course I dislike that but the Ohms do so many of other things in a more musical and convincing manner that I can live with it. Where I think the Ohms could use help would be a taller tweeter array on top of the CLS driver as I think it would add more height to sounds that are localized to the left and right tweeters such as cymbals or other localized sounds. It is at those moments that it becomes clear that you are listening to a dome tweeter rather that the expansive CLS driver.
Overall the Ohms are fantastically musical spellers.mthey are not the last word in accuracy but I think that is a compromise with any speaker design that at some point cohesion and musicality turn into isolated precise renderings that to an extent are artificial but can be pleasurable to listen to.
The Ohms have their flaws and if I had to pick two it would be the dome tweeter setup and the build quality. That being said these speakers do so much right. These speakers have brought me closer to the music in my listening space them any prior speaker setup has and frankly surpassing auditions I have had with spealkers costing 10 to 20 times more and that is not including the associated equipment and larger room. This isn't just with audiophile music like Diana Krall or orchestra music. I am talking about music like Daft Punk, AC/DC, Smashing Pumpkins, Lorde, etc.
Lastly to those reading this and weary about how these speakers compare to your expensive audiophile salon speakers I saw give their in home trial a shot. To me that is all the proof you need to know that Ohm is confident that you care have a similar experience in your listening room.
