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
I'm expecting my Walsh 2.2000 upgrade tomorrow.
It will be interesting to hear the difference.

Any tips on the install?
Since I am using the Walsh 1 cabinets, no crossover removal is needed.

t8kc, congrats on the upgrade, the install should be fairly simple. There can always be some minor setbacks, but generally John has provided everything you might need.

Not having any crossover boards to pound out makes things so much easier too, although I am not sure if you will receive a new terminal board that will replace the current one or not. Either way, it is no big deal to pop the old one out. John likes to use hot melt glue to put the new terminal board in, I tend to like to use black silicone, it is a bit easier to deal with and a nice bead of it around the inner edge where the board goes will work fine. It just takes a bit longer to cure/setup, but doesn't become brittle over time like the hot melt can.

The new terminal board will have what looks to be like the older original heavy gauge clear skinned "monster cable" connected to it, and another connector at the other end which will then plug into your new can.

The new can will be already mounted on a new "baffle" board which will then be mounted right over the existing hole where your old driver went. This board is typically screwed in with the provided 4 wood screws. It really is just a matter of getting the new board/can assembly situated squarely on the cabinet top before screwing things down.

You might also get new grilles, as the driver can is a bit bigger around and also taller. At least my OW2 to 2.2000 was this way.

At any rate, take things slowly and pre-fit things first just to make sure you know how things will go together. The only real thing to be aware of is the orientation of the driver on the cabinet, and the instructions should show what way the driver should sit so that the tweeters are in the right position. Really seeing as there isn't the typical logos on the OW1 cabinet like the other bigger brothers, not much you can really get wrong here. Obviously if something doesn't look right, fit right etc., John will help you out.

Have fun and enjoy the process! And especially enjoy the music your Ohms will give you!

I guess I should mention that my above comments were how my upgrade from an OW2 to 2.2000 was(So basically same cabinet and driver size), so there may be slight differences or John has made some running improvements to this. I suppose the new cans might not even come with new baffle boards now, as it seems I have seen what looks to be slightly different configurations for the driver mounting flanges. The new can/driver might just mount by itself now to your cabinet. I will be interested to hear what all you have and what you did for this upgrade/update. Keep us posted!
Finally got the time to install the upgraded 2.2000 drivers in my Walsh 1 cabinets. The install was straight forward, but did require some finesse to install the drivers in the top of the cabinet. I'm not a wood guy so I had to pay attention to removing all the old particle board/glue residue before re-gluing the new board in place.

Once assembled and when the glue had set up, I had the chance to try the speakers out. The volume was kept at a sane level for a couple of CDs and then I started to increase the sound level.

The result was a definite increase in the bass response (expected) and a good clean, balanced sound through the range. The new drivers are smooth and consistant. The old drivers (both the OW1 and OW2) had some holes in the frequency range where the the volume fall-off was obvious.

I am aware that some time has to pass for the break-in period. My plan is to just play them without being too critical until a couple of months have passed.

As is, they are better by far than the old drivers and I am happy. I shouldn't need to do much to my current system except enjoy it for now.

To review, I'm running a B&K Reference 5 S2 preamp into a Parasound HCA1500A amp. My source is a Yamaha CD-S300 player connected by standard RCA cable to the B&K preamp. I have a set of Marrow MA1 interconnects from the preamp to the amp. The speaker connection is 14GA bare-ended standard type wire. Speaker placement is about 6' apart and a foot from the back wall.

I have no illusions about being an audiophile, I just want good sound. Any suggestions are welcome.

I would be interested in how the old board is removed and new one installed. Curious, but as I said in my above posts, John continues to work on things and tries to make the upgrades easier to install, all the while bringing added refinement to the sound.

As to suggestions, I would say leave well enough alone, listen and enjoy your music through the Ohms. Music isn't about being an audiophile! Have fun!