Ohm Micro Walsh small vs. tall

I'll call John on Monday to discuss further.

Mapman, do you have a surround system, if so, what rear speakers are you using and what is your experience?

Are you using a center speaker?

Any one else have any comments or opinions?

Jf,

No I do not do surround and have never heard an OHM surround setup, though I do think they are a natural for surround sound applications.

When discussing surround with John about a month ago, he said that he prefers to use the MWT in an omni design, which is with the tweeters mounted facing the ceiling, which gives a more even dispersion/less localization of sound versus the more direct sound by the normal Walsh tweeter. I did not discuss the wall mount speakers at the time as I was more interested in the MWT versions. Let us know what John says about those. I haven't implemented surround at this point, still undecided on this. Tim

John,

I have a home-theater set up that uses the full-size Ohm 100S3's for LCR, a half-size sealed omni version of the 100S3's for left and right surrounds, and micro-Walsh shorts (not omni's) for the rears.

As far as your questions, ...

WAF: I do not have the wall-mounted versions, but my wife thinks that the micro-Walsh's are cute. Also, hearsay says that WAF is highest for wall-mounted speakers.

Wall v. Short v. Tall: I am assuming that you are going to play movies, so that you will need a subwoofer (even if you went entirely with 2000's). You will have more flexibility on the crossover point as you move from wall to short to tall. The other consideration has to do with the fact that your couch is against the wall. This means that you are relying entirely on your surrounds for rear envelopment. The short/talls might give you more flexibility in placement as you try to get the right sound. For example, I think that omni's disappear better when they are out from the wall a bit.

Muffling: This is more important for music. In home theater, as I understand it, surrounds and rears are used mainly for short-duration localized sound effects and diffuse ambience. My understanding is that film-makers do not want those speakers to produce sounds that will induce listeners to turn their heads away from the screen in response.

Height: For movies, most recommend that your set up support the reasoning given above in muffling. The majority suggest that tweeter level be at least one foot above ear level, but I have seen people say to put speakers on the floor and fire upwards, to fire them into corners, etc. I have my surrounds and rears up on furniture so that they are about 1-2 feet above.

Center Channel: I am of the opinion that a dedicated center channel speaker is preferable to phantom imaging. If you are going to use phantom imaging, you can't beat Ohms because of their wide sweet spot. Still, I have found that phantom imaging tends to make it seem as if someone's mouth is several feet wide. I also think that dialogue is more intelligible when given its own speaker.

Finally, remember that Ohms are not the "loudest" speakers out there. This means that you should not expect to be able to play at reference levels (105 dB non-LFE peaks) even with gobs of power; if you try, you'll just burn up the super-tweeters. I find that -10 dB's is about all I can hope to get for a listening position about 10-11 feet from the mains.

All, I appreciate the responses.

I've been looking into replacing my Maggie's (music 30%, HT 70%) for some time and have really struggled with my options. The Maggie's bring true high definition sound to the table, true Audio Nirvana as long as you sit in the Sweet Spot (which unfortunately is minuscule) and can handle the limited dynamics. Shift to one side of the couch or stand up and the difference is tremendous. Definitely not a speaker to be shared with friends and guests.

So, after months of considering my options, I settled on either the Newform Research R645V3's or the Ohm 2000's (room 16x18). The 645's appear to have great dynamics and also offer the ribbon/planar sound, however, I was concerned with coherency with the 1Khz crossover between the woofers and the ribbons, as well as the overall height difference between the ribbon and the woofers. The good news was that I could still use the rear surrounds, but this wasn't a deal maker or breaker.

So last Friday I finally decided to talk to John at Ohm. I placed an order based on his recommendation for the 2000 and the wall mount walshes for surrounds. As a note, John likened the 2000 SPL to the 12th row in a symphony and the 3000 to 18th row at a rock concert. Interesting eh!

Friday night arrives and I'm beginning to get cold feet: I think the 2000's will be great at the front, but I am concerned about the surrounds and very concerned with my options if I need a center. I'm inclined to agree with Simon's comments about intelligibility, I phantomed the Maggie's and there is definitely an improvement in clarity using the center. In addition, the surround sound from the Maggie's is enveloping because the panels swing out from the wall and direct the sound towards the listener, as well as the sound being very wide due to the nature of the panels. Will the Ohm's give me the same level of detail and clarity and sound staging at the rear as I have been used to, particularly if the tweeter is firing at the ceiling and the speaker is below the couch or up on the wall? Maybe the Tall's would be the best option, although John didn't mention it

Help!

I know that I can return the speakers if they don't work out, but I would rather not have to do this from mine or Ohm's perspective, so any thoughts on my struggles would be welcome. Perhaps some of you have suffered the same pain and can share your experiences.

I need to feel comfortable with what I'm doing and perhaps even cancel or change my order on Monday if necessary

Thanks in advance,

JF