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Ohm Walsh Micro Talls: who's actually heard 'em?

Hi,

I'd love to hear the impressions of people who've actually spent some time with these speakers to share their sense of their plusses and minuses. Mapman here on Audiogon is a big fan, and has shared lots on them, but I'm wondering who else might be familiar with them.
rebbi
bondmanp
1,783 posts
 
@schubert - I agree with you for the most part, but my previous speakers sort of hit a plateau at some point, where I felt that upgrades to my system, room, cabling, etc., were not really being reflected by the speakers.  That's why I got rid of them and bought the Ohms.  I felt that I had taken them as far as they could go.  Surely there are limits to the mismatch (money-wise) between speakers and gear.  You wouldn't put a pair of $40 speakers from Dayton Audio in front of a $50,000 system, for example.  Sure, they would sound as good as they possibly could, but that isn't very good.  Beyond a certain point, upgrading electronics begins to have deminishing returns with a given set of speakers. That experience is why I am so pleased with the Ohms, which do allow improvements in the system to produce better sound far beyond what I had thought was possible with them.  That's a prejudgement I erroneously made based mostly on their price.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,835 posts
 
Bondman agree with schubert but also know what you mean in the case of the OHMs specifically. I’ve been on a mission with many upgrades and tweaks in recent years to max them out and get the sound just right. Have not touched a thing in a couple years now and come home from dealers and show demos perfectly happy everytime. I did acquire a Chord Mojo DAC I use with that system sometimes now with Iphone or Ipad as source and that provides a slightly different windows on the music in every way compared to my older mhdt Constantine DAC which is also no slouch just different. I do enjoy the ability to hear differences in gear especially when it all sounds splendid. I’ve had the same experience in my second system (within its limits) with other quality speakers, Dynaudio, Triangle, even an old pair of tiny Boston A40s from the 1980s I refoamed a while back.
bondmanp
1,783 posts
 
@mapman - Yup, that’s just it: Before my system soiled the bed last September, I really thought it could not get much better than it was, even if it wasn’t perfect (at least not without spending major cabbage). And yet, here I am enjoying not a minor or incremental improvement from a $900 upgrade to my amp, but a major, transformative improvement. Very cool.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,835 posts
 
What was the amp improvement?

BTW when I talk about maxing out, I mean the sound I can get in that room. The first choice I made was to go with the OHMs for that and then kept on tweaking from there.

In my second system everything sounds lovely but there are limits, errors of ommission and WAF mainly.
bondmanp
1,783 posts
 

@mapman - I have owned and liked an Odyssey Audio Stratos HT3 (with cap upgrade) - a three channel amp for the front channels of my combo HT/2-channel system since 2006. 


Last September, the amp suffered a capacitor failure.  So I sent (all 64 lbs. of) it in for repair and possible upgrade to Odyssey.  For $900, I had the left & right chanels upgraded to full Kismet status, Odyssey's top line of amps.  Sadly, UPS damaged the amp on the way back.  Once that was fixed, I had issues getting my Vandersteen 2Wq subs with M5-HP crossovers to work together with the amp, which has a higher input impedance than the original Stratos.  Apparently, an Audiogoner sold me a pair of the M5-HP crossovers which were custom made (without bothering to tell me this), and so they require different settings than do the standard M5-HPs.  I have been working with both Vandersteen (Richard and Ray in the service department) and John Rutan of Audio Connection in Verona, NJ, to sort it all out, make sure the M5-HPs are working properly and properly set them for use in my system.  They are on the way back from Hanford now.  With a bit of luck, everything will be right as rain by the first weekend in June. 

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