Are Ohm-Walsh micros and 1000 series disrespected because of omni-directional design??

Could be that we all have just accepted and became accustomed to direct two channel sound.

Yep.

I really don’t like the idea of music surrounding me, and to declare it good and the best ever heard.

They don’t surround you any more than any other speaker omni or otherwise which is practically never. If it happens ever it would probably be due to room acoustics. I’ve never heard it.

They are not really different from others that can have a large soundstage and good "holographic" imaging where sound is detached from speakers when set up right. You do have to listen to the music in the soundstage however, seemingly not the speakers. The presentation is just more convincingly live sounding than usual to me. Focus on listening to the speakers and you miss out on everything.

Sunnyjim---Bravo on your taste in music! The Band and the two songs mentioned are fantastic, but the album those songs are on (self titled---The Band, commonly referred to as the brown album) is actually their second, Music From Big Pink (containing the hit "The Weight") being their first. The bass drum you mention is a great sounding Gretsch with the front head removed (common practice in recording studios)---fat and punchy. By the way, while the drums on "Across The Great Divide" are played by The Band’s astoundingly great drummer/singer Levon Helm (listen to his playing on ATGD, wherein Levon plays the main recurring fill alternating between bass drum and snare drum; boom crack/crack/crack boom/boom/boom crack/crack/crack boom/boom/boom---brilliant!), the drums on "Jemima Surrender" are played by Band pianist/singer Richard Manuel, himself a very interesting and musical drummer. That’s Richard playing drums on "Rag Mama Rag", "Up On Cripple creek", and "When You Awake" as well.

In general. I’ll go out on a limb and say omnis or even very wide dispersion speakers (like the OHMs) deliver a different presentation than speakers that are more directional and beam the sound more. They are two totally different presentations in many ways.

In general I think omnis including OHM are better at delivering a sound that seems more like a live performance despite being a recording. The large sweet spot and coherency of the soundstage from different listening positions is most indicative of this unique aspect and similar to what one would hear live.   OHMs use of the wide range Walsh style driver to cover all frequencies up to 7khz or so is OHMs most unique feature compared to others.    It delivers outstanding coherency to most of the music heard (vocals and midrange in particular) in comparison to most others with crossovers in this range.  That along with the big and coherent sound stage from most any listening position is what makes the OHMS uniquely convincing IMHO.

Whereas more directional designs deliver more of the traditional two channel stereo recorded experience.

Having had my OHMs and more traditional alternatives set up for comparison in various rooms in my house, I always find the OHMs more convincing and involving musically overall even though the specific differences in the presentation are subtle and things more similar than different overall in most ways. Its just more lifelike!

I also agree that people either will take to the sound and never be satisified otherwise again or not. The difference can be subtle but significant! Others can come close but its not easy.

Other than that, in the end the other main advantage is the large sweet spot which either benefits peoples listening habits or not. If you are content being lodged into a small sweet spot to listen all the time, or coherency of soundstage from many locations does not matter to you, there are many more good choices out there than otherwise..