Any opinions on Ohm Walsh speakers.

[jrayton]

I'm interested in getting a pair of Ohm Walsh 100 S3's. Anybody out there have experience with Ohm speakers? I have only seen a couple reviews on them. Just interested in hearing some other opinions before I buy. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[CraigV]

You should NEVER buy speakers without an in person audition. Everyone here can tell you their speakers sound great, but that doesn’t (shouldn’t) mean jack to you until you’ve heard them in person.

 

[swspiers]

The only Ohm I've heard is the old F. It was amazing, if not capable of decent SPL.

I am buying the 100-S3's myself in the next few months. I agree that one should not buy speakers without an audition, but more importantly an in-home audition. I'm replacing Deftech 2006's that I have pretty much disliked for the past 7 years. The audition was great, but my real-room experience has been anything but satisfying. In fact, I've already put the Deftechs out to pasture, and am using my old Pinnacle Classic Gold Reference again.

Anyway, Ohm has a 120-day trial period. They will customize just about anything you want, and they accept older models back regardless of age towards the purchase of newer models. Or, you can order upgraded drivers for your older speakers.

I personally believe that Ohm is what I am looking for. If I am wrong, I can return them up to 4 months later. I'm willing to take that chance.

-S

 

[swspiers]

J-

too bad more people aren't familiar with Ohm on this board. I just got the Micro Walsh Talls delivered Thursday. I went with them over the 100-S3's because of size.

I can say they are the finest speaker I've ever had in my system. They even produce enough bass that I'm not actively looking for a sub, something I thought I would never say nor write.

I'm not even running them on my main system, which has a Parasound HCA-2205 as an amp. Instead, I'm using my wife's Harmon Kardon AVR-20 until we are done remodeling.

At any rate, these are certainly worth research and consideration. My expectations are exceeded, regardless of type of music.

-S

 

[walter duque]

I'm interested in getting a pair of Ohm Walsh 100 S3's. Anybody out there have experience with Ohm speakers? I have only seen a couple reviews on them. Just interested in hearing some other opinions before I buy. Any help would be appreciated.

Ohm Walsh are highly acclaimed speakers, but you need to run them with a good highpowered amp. I don't think a Receiver or Intergrated Amp would do them justice. You would use these for 2 channel music only I asume. I don't know how they would intergrate in HT.

 

[fast1]

how much does the ohm walsh cost?

 

[Loren42]

There is someone that is building Ohm F and Ohm A speakers from scratch. Dale Harder also has been servicing the original Ohms for some time and has now gone into production of those speakers using modern construction techniques.

You can check out his web page at http://www.hhr-exoticspeakers.com/HHRabout.htm

If you have an interest in the real Walsh driver design, Dale is probably the most knowledgeable person on the subject and is quite passionate about audio.

I don't have any affiliation with him, but have corresponded with him on numerous occasions and found him to be fascinating.

 

[swspiers]

The speakers I got, the Micro Walsh Talls, are $1000 a pair, plus shipping.

The 100-S3's are about $1700, depending on finish. All of their speakers are designed for specific size rooms, and range up to $6000 for the 5-S3. They also have older speakers available that have been updated. Give them a call, and they'll walk you through the process. Their customer service is pretty much like what I read about here about SVS. No pressure, a lot of good information and what I take to be a sincere desire to make their customers happy.

The best thing to do is go to their site: http://www.ohmspeakers.com

After that, google Ohm Walsh Speaker. There are many links to reviews, both pro and consumer, that can explain better than I can here. I researched for about 8 months before I finally decided on which one to buy.

My best audio decision to date, by far.

-S

 

[biz97]

Swispers,

Glad you are enjoying your Ohms . I have a pair of S3-100's that I recently had to store because they just weren't the best fit for my current room. I'll be using bookshelves for now and probably would have been fine with the micro's I used to have due to their smaller size (easier placement). They are excellent speakers and I miss many aspects of them (though bookshelves have strenghts too ). I won't be getting rid of my pair and look forward to setting them up when I get a new room. BTW, the newer Ohm's are pretty easy to drive. I've run my 100's on a variety of different pieces (Musical Fidelity Integrated, an Onkyo AVR, Cambridge Audio, Channel Island Mono's, etc.) and they performed great on ALL of them... Extra power definitely doesn't hurt but the best gains I've seen with them is really getting the best placement you can in your room.

-Biz

 

[R-Carpenter]

Go BROOKLYN!
Ohm are charismatic speakers now. Well known. Been mentioned in lots of books. I actually drive by their factory almost every day.
Omnidirectional speakers have their advantages and disadvantages. Experiment with placement lots. Congratulations!

 

[swspiers]

Placement is pretty much dialed-in now. The sound is amazing, and adding the TSC ASW-8 sub has filled-in the bottom octave very nicely indeed.

Ohm should be on almost anyones' short-list of speakers. The sound is incredible: full, detailed, revealing and dynamic. Totally unlike any box speaker I've ever heard.

-S

 

[WmAx]

Note: modern Ohm speakers are not true omnipolar speakers. They combine an omnipolar mid-range with a monopolar tweeter. This is due to two reasons: (1) A dedicated tweeter handles upper range better than a single cone diaphgram, which will have to be operating well into break up (where the surface is no longer pistonic, but moving like an ocean of waves if you could do proper fast motion capture analysis - though in some very limited executions, a driver can operte superbly in break up mode; but this is rare), and this will always cause some loss of resolution compared to a proper tweeter which will move break up to a much higher band. (2) full band omni, while superior in sound in itself (if all aspects of SQ are held in check), requires even more difficult room acoustics, thus limiting the market to an even smaller number of customers.

-Chris

 

[3db]

I was always curious aboit the original Ohm Walsh speakers myself. One of these days I'll go an audition a pair next time I'm in a city big enough. Mayabe Torornto has a dealer, I don't know. I've read nothing but good things abouit Ohm in general. I never reade a bad press from them ever except that they do need a stout amplifier to drive them. Thats not bad..just expensive.

 

[swspiers]

Note: modern Ohm speakers are not true omnipolar speakers. They combine an omnipolar mid-range with a monopolar tweeter. This is due to two reasons: (1) A dedicated tweeter handles upper range better than a single cone diaphgram, which will have to be operating well into break up (where the surface is no longer pistonic, but moving like an ocean of waves if you could do proper fast motion capture analysis - though in some very limited executions, a driver can operte superbly in break up mode; but this is rare), and this will always cause some loss of resolution compared to a proper tweeter which will move break up to a much higher band. (2) full band omni, while superior in sound in itself (if all aspects of SQ are held in check), requires even more difficult room acoustics, thus limiting the market to an even smaller number of customers.

-Chris

Chrsi, I'm not sure I understand your post. Yes- the current Ohm's are not true Omni. They designed them so that their dispersion is attenuated at the rear of the speaker, minimizing reflection off the back wall. One of benefits of this is that they can be placed closer to the back wall, which at least for me helps with bass extension.

The main CLS driver is a little more than mid-bass. My MWT's rate down to 47 Hz (which is conservative), with the crossover to the tweeter at about8000Hz. Larger Ohm's, such as the 100-S3 have bass extension down into the 30's. The lack of a crossover from 40 to 8000 Hz is something that has to be heard to be appreciated.

-s

 

[R-Carpenter]

though in some very limited executions, a driver can operte superbly in break up mode; but this is rare[/i]),

-Chris

That is very interesting. Can you be more specific or point to the source?
Thanks, Roman.