Ohm Walsh “200” retrofit from “4” series. Good: Price $1200 for conversion. Good Sound: Slight improvement over Walsh 4. Maintains same sound signature. Good size, weight and mobility, and easy to setup. Good imaging. Bass and midrange is tighter than Walsh 4. Good transparency. Good large deep soundstage. Large sweet spot and consistent sound. Good factory service and follow-up. Easy to roll out of the way.

Fair detail and image stability. Fussy about amp. Requires good size room.

I bought Walsh 4 used in ’86 to replace Magneplanar Tympani 1B. I like the transparent sound of dipolar speakers. The surrounds were repaired once on the Walsh 4. Every once in a while I would visit high-end stores and give a listen to their showcase speakers but never found something that I thought came close to Walsh 4 (This may be due to poor setup in the audio stores). My amp Classe’ DH-3, and preamp (all tube) Audio Research SP-8 (rebuilt once) is of the same vintage. If it works don’t replace it. Also I have not found anything significant better. It appears that the high-end is up to here in bull, and if you find something really good don’t trade it for the latest marketing hype. The DH-3 is rated at 25 w/ch at 8 ohms, class “A” high current amplifier. It was replacing a 75 w/ch AR tube amp with the Tympani 1B. The class “A” was the closest thing to tube sound I could find but somewhat expensive and under-powered. Since then I tested other amps with the Walsh 4 and discovered that these speakers are hard to drive. The tube amps had bloated bass, the FET screeched. The amps that made drums “punch” were annoying and unrealistic. My wires are low oxygen copper. After studying the Internet sites and chat rooms, I have concluded that any wire that is less than 0.1 ohms resistance is the best. Speaker wires are also unequal in length, only long enough for the application. This eliminates coiling the speaker wire in the corner with the possibility of picking up electrical noise. Interconnects are a variety of high quality cables bought over the years. I bought fancy interconnects with passive RF filters once (“you have to break them to sound good”), they went to the trash dump. My CD is California Labs 1000 (18 bit oversampled). There are no cone feet. If cone feet eliminated vibration it would be big news in the industrial sector (which I work in). In support of the above setup, John R. Potis in his review of Ohm 300 and Blue Circle amps (www.soundstage.com/systems/systems200105.htm) had the fantastic results without all the bells and whistles. I do find that I have to keep the CD player away from the preamp and the TV because it is poorly shielded. I also have a $200 Sony DVD/CD (single bit sampling) that produces more micro-detail than the Cal Lab does. The Cal Lab has more bass and the DVD has more high frequency. The room is 19X18X8 and contains bed, dinning table, built in bookcase. The speakers are on a thick oriental 9X12 rug. The base floor is wood with an indoor/outdoor carpet. The right speakers is about 2-foot from the back and side wall/bookcase. The left is about 4-fooot from the back and 8-foot from the side. Testing varied the size of the triangle but an equal sided triangle of about 8-feet seems to be about the best for a good solid image. With the speakers closer to the wall there is deeper bass but the center image floats between speakers. When setting up, I set the preamp to mono to insure the image is in the center. A mono piano recording will show just how much the image drifts between speakers. By moving the speakers further away from the wall the image becomes tighter. Magnepan recommends 5-feet from the back and side walls, while Ohm recommends 1.5-feet. For my room arrangement 2-feet is about the maximum practical but more increases the imaging stability. One house I owned had a 26X28X8 room. The Ohm 4 only sounded good about 1.5 feet from the wall. I sat about 18-feet from the wall, and there was no image to speak of. I have had the Ohm 4 in small (live and dead) rooms and they do not sound very good. I think that this is one advantage of the mini’s, they don’t need the right size room to sound great. In some chat rooms there was bad mouthing the inside of the Walsh can as low quality. However, my Walsh 4 were in non-air conditioned, humid (riverfront) environs, in houses that have be under major reconstruction, without a problem. Recently, I bought some mini-monitors (Energy e:XL16, list $300) and was amazed at the quality of sound and the level of detail and the great imaging. This revived my audiophile instinct. I began to visit some local stores in search of more of more! I was not turned on what I heard at the stores. (This seems to be a problem with high-end audio stores. I can’t believe a $3000 Theil mini would not sound better than the $300 Energy.) The only speaker I liked was big B&W Nautilus at $8000. OK if you own a forklift. Thus I reconsidered retrofitting the Walsh 4 with the 200 driver. A small gamble at $1200 (including two way shipping.) The conversion requires a glue gun, a hammer and a 1X2 for knocking out the old crossover and wire attachment board. After reading some of reviews of the Walsh 100, 200 and 300, I would say that most of what is said is right-on. Some of the sound bounces off or the rear wall thus it is physically impossible to have a tight image. The mini’s have “laser” tweeters and a very small sweet spot, thus the image is very tig

Similar Products Used:

Tympani IB, Bose acoustimat, Energy e:XL16

Pinpoint image, openness, not overly bright, musical sounding, built well, power handling, none fatiguing sound, big sound stage

None

After speaking to John Strohbeen, President of Ohm, directly, I decided to order a pair of Walsh 200 MK-2 speakers and review them in my home at a special introductory price for the opening of a new season on a 90-day trial period. This was 20% off with no shipping or handling charges. They were delivered directly to my door. After listening to these speakers for less than 90 days, I decided that I wanted to keep them. They actually get better the more you listen to them. After listening to these for 7+ months I have found these speakers to have a very open and spacious sound with a sense of air around the performers. They have a wide sweet spot, excellent image and soundstage including height, width and depth, excellent dynamics and clarity, without being overly bright. They are somewhat warm and mellow with deep bass and are very musical sounding, not analytical like some high end speakers. They sound good with any type of music and at low or high volume with a pinpoint image. As far as their construction, they are built like a tank, will handle a lot of power and are good looking. They remind me of the sound of a tube power amp. You will never tire of the sound of these speakers. I am using with these speakers the following associated equipment McIntosh 6850 Int. amp at 150 watts per channel into 8, 4, and 2 ohms; Denon DCM 560 CD changer and Denon DCD 1650AR single CD player both with tributaries interconnects.

Similar Products Used:

NHT3.3; Apogee Slant 6; Vandersteen 2CE Signatures

Ease of placement, open quality of the high frequencies, sound stage and extended bass. Sound so natural.

Have not found any. Friends don''t know I have new speakers until they hear them!

I have lived with my Ohm Walsh 4''s for 16 years now. Recently with the demise of my amplifier I realized how old my equipment was getting to be. I replaced the amplifer with a Arcam Diva A85 (a wonderful amp, but that''s a different review). With the new amp I realized a smoother more detailed sound from my old speakers even the bass was tighter. This got me thinking...maybe I should upgrade the speakers? I spent months listening to various speakers from $1000 a pair to $4000. McIntoch, Paradigm, PSB, Definitive Technology and Monsoon. I even toyed with the idea of ordering speakers from Cambridge Soundworks and auditioning them in my home, but hat seemed like a lot of work. In obtaining information on various speakers I tripped over this website and read some ourstanding reviews of current Ohm products and some reviews of upgraded older products. This got me thinking somemore...maybe I should just upgrade the speakers I have enjoyed for 16 years. I called Ohm Acoustics and spoke directly with John Stohbeen the President of the company. His input regarding the upgrade to the Walsh 4''s was very imformative and to the point. I could tell he was not out to sell me anything that was no going to be an improvment over my current speakers. The simple ordering process and the exceptional speed with which my order was processed was outstanding. The upgrade process took a bit more time than I had expected. The age of my speakers had allowed several of the reinforcements within the cabinet to come loose and fall to the bottom. These needed to be cleaned of old glue and reinstalled. This was the time consuming part of the upgrade. The replacement of the drivers and removal of the crossovers took relatively little time. After finishing one speaker I just had to compare the sound. The sound of the speaker with the Walsh 200 MkII upgraded driver was far more open and less "cloaked". It did appear that more power was needed for the same sound level when compared to the old Walsh 4. Upon completion of the second speaker I proceeded to break them in with some of my favorite music. After a short period of time (8-10 hours) there was a very noticable change in their character. The highs were more open and the bass was by far more extended with out a "boomy" mid-bass. As I told John I could have spent 2-4 time the money without attaining this level of sound quality.

Similar Products Used:

Original Walsh 4''s, Large Advents, JBL, Definitive Tech 100.6 home theater.

Incredible pinpoint imaging, as well as spacious, enveloping sound... normally two mutually exclusive qualities! They sound great on everything from rock to classical, Broadway shows to pop. What more could you want?

I like the style and workmanship of the older pyramid-shaped cabinets better. These are extremely well made, solid speakers, though! I just preferred the style and woodwork of the prior generations.

These were the main speakers in my home theater for a long time. I still haven't found a speaker with more appeal to my ears than the Ohm Walsh models. They have pinpoint imaging, spacious sound, and a unique charcater of their own... they have a unique property to them. They just sound... right... so natural. It's a different experience than a conventional dynamic, or planar speaker. Unlike some speakers that are great for rock, but not so great for classical, or vice versa, these things sound great no matter what you run through them. My friends who have heard my Walshes through the years usually ended up buying a pair to call their own.

The Walsh 200 was a big improvement over the Walsh 3s and 4s, and the XO models that came after them. The bass was even tighter and more controlled, and the sonic quality was more lush and involving, while retaining the Walsh character.

They are not hard to drive but really like power. I used the "here is my invitartion" scene from "True Lies" with a very powerful NAD 2200 amplifier and my Citation 7.0 processor at THX reference levels, and the incredible depth and detail of the explosion, as well as the amazing clarity and definition of the gunshots blew everyone who heard it away. I think the way the Walsh cone works lends itself well to demanding material like that... no smearing at all.

What can I say, I am a big fan and love the speakers! I have a website devoted to them, at

http://members.aol.com/Walshdriver/index.html

Please stop and visit if you own or are interested in these unique speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Ohm Walsh 1, Ohm 3X0 (higher-efficeiency Walsh 3), Ohm F, Ohm A