Ohm Acoustics "Upgrades". I Stand Corrected.

[ouimetnick]

Finally read the PSAudio interview with John Strohbeen Part 1 & Part 2. Highly suggest reading it. John seems like a smart person.
Given Evan Cordes's position and knowledge, I'm guessing John will sell the company to him or at least have him take over. It already seems that Evan runs the day to day operations and that John is the engineer behind the products. He looks to me my age (mid 20s)
The other take away I got from the interview is that John is a bit arrogant and unwilling to explore other revenue options. He was asked about bringing back conventional speakers like the C2 and his response was

Being box speakers, the L and C2 suffer from the same problems with imaging and narrow listening “sweet spots” that are eliminated with the Walsh driver. I don’t think I am ready to go backwards.

If these "Walsh driver" (upside-down woofer with a hot-glued tweeter) is the best, then why hasn't any other speaker manufacture started making them? The patents have since long expired, bigger manufactures would probably use a plastic adapter to secure the tweeter rather than cardboard. and a proper PCB for the crossover instead of a rat's nest. He also doesn't like headphones either.

I will admit I haven't heard a true Walsh speaker or modern Walsh speaker. They said the Model I should be similar with stereo imaging and I wasn't impressed. The closest thing I have are Apple HomePods. A woofer firing upwards and 7 horn loaded tweeters firing downwards and out. I have 6 pairs of those and the imaging is great in that there is no sweet spot like a regular set of speakers. The downside is that my traditional speakers still sound better to me.

 

[Ohighway]

........., bigger manufactures would probably use a plastic adapter to secure the tweeter rather than cardboard. .

They're not secured with cardboard. The tweeters on my Walsh 5 are secured with angled aluminum brackets and double-sided tape.

 

[Nixxuz]

Finally read the PSAudio interview with John Strohbeen Part 1 & Part 2. Highly suggest reading it. John seems like a smart person.
Given Evan Cordes's position and knowledge, I'm guessing John will sell the company to him or at least have him take over. It already seems that Evan runs the day to day operations and that John is the engineer behind the products. He looks to me my age (mid 20s)
The other take away I got from the interview is that John is a bit arrogant and unwilling to explore other revenue options. He was asked about bringing back conventional speakers like the C2 and his response was

If these "Walsh driver" (upside-down woofer with a hot-glued tweeter) is the best, then why hasn't any other speaker manufacture started making them? The patents have since long expired, bigger manufactures would probably use a plastic adapter to secure the tweeter rather than cardboard. and a proper PCB for the crossover instead of a rat's nest. He also doesn't like headphones either.

I will admit I haven't heard a true Walsh speaker or modern Walsh speaker. They said the Model I should be similar with stereo imaging and I wasn't impressed. The closest thing I have are Apple HomePods. A woofer firing upwards and 7 horn loaded tweeters firing downwards and out. I have 6 pairs of those and the imaging is great in that there is no sweet spot like a regular set of speakers. The downside is that my traditional speakers still sound better to me.

You spent $3600 on Homepods? I mean, to each their own, and I personally haven't heard them, but that's an alien concept to me.

 

[ouimetnick]

You spent $3600 on Homepods? I mean, to each their own, and I personally haven't heard them, but that's an alien concept to me.

Haha no. I might be crazy, but not that crazy. I mis-typed. I’ve got 3 stereo pairs (6 HomePods) I bought 3 brand new last year when Best Buy had them for $200 each. Another was bought used for less than that. The other 2 are made from several broken units I bought off eBay.

Apple still sells them for $300 (a bit too much imo)

 

[MetalDaze]

@MetalDaze, an others, if you are referring to recent events, they posted on their website that they are going through the wrath of COVID, which may explain some of the long delays experienced by folks here. I have upgraded Walsh and conventional Ohm speakers some years ago, and have always had good experiences with John and others there.

I hope the Ohm I that you have is working well. I heard these when they first were introduced, in the late '70s, or early '80s. They can handle a lot of power, up to a kilowatt or more, I'm told. They can play very loud.

I considered getting one of these Ohm I's, but I kept with my F's. Ohm offered half-price trade-in of the F drivers (at least magnets) for a new Walsh 5 (LE). For such a deal 25 years ago, I suppose they want the magnets back so you can't keep the old F's and get the Walsh 5 for half-price. I sent the F drivers back, but kept the F cabinets, and installed the F3 upgrade as the rear channels of home theater setup.

I will say that the current Ohm Walsh drivers can project a very reasonable image to a wide sitting angle away from the centerline between the speakers. This is most advantageous when watching movies with a group of people, with many of them enjoying the sonic 'image'. I have not yet come across another speaker that can do this, and also give an excellent image when you sit centered for two-channel sound.

They are in a tight spot with Covid, as are many large and small businesses. This saga began before covid. But the whole process took so long, both on me waiting to do the updates, and then Ohm taking a long long time to do them. This story overlaps into post covid. I always have been as patient as I possibly can with them. I fully understand their position, my place as a customer, the world around us and its influential daily tides. I have always given them ample time, and normally months between phone calls to check in. Which usually resulted in "we haven't gotten to your speakers yet..".

Patients are sometimes a finite resource. As is money. Both of which saw their quota of expenditure with this update adventure.

To Ohm's credit, IME their speakers are just lovely. Both types. The 'ayes' I have sound great. And play very loud while remaining as clean as low level listening. I run my high res digital and analog rigs into a Parasound P5 and connected balanced to a Parasound A21 + @ 600+ watts/channel into 4ohms. The system rocks.

My position is now, the products they produce still sound great. Updates may make them sound better. But no longer may I just blindly blanket a statement like "upgrade your XX through the factory. Its a no brainer!".

Their newer line of Walsh style speakers sound, when set up properly, stunning. I mean they really do.

The 'ayes' do image similarly but they don't project that 3-D omni coherent sound. Which quite honestly planted itself like a seed in my brain the first time I heard the 5000's @ the factory. And I haven't been able to shake the desire since. I have an original pair of Walsh 2's, but they just don't cut the mustard when you want the BIG sound.

 

[MetalDaze]

Finally read the PSAudio interview with John Strohbeen Part 1 & Part 2. Highly suggest reading it. John seems like a smart person.
Given Evan Cordes's position and knowledge, I'm guessing John will sell the company to him or at least have him take over. It already seems that Evan runs the day to day operations and that John is the engineer behind the products. He looks to me my age (mid 20s)
The other take away I got from the interview is that John is a bit arrogant and unwilling to explore other revenue options. He was asked about bringing back conventional speakers like the C2 and his response was

If these "Walsh driver" (upside-down woofer with a hot-glued tweeter) is the best, then why hasn't any other speaker manufacture started making them? The patents have since long expired, bigger manufactures would probably use a plastic adapter to secure the tweeter rather than cardboard. and a proper PCB for the crossover instead of a rat's nest. He also doesn't like headphones either.

I will admit I haven't heard a true Walsh speaker or modern Walsh speaker. They said the Model I should be similar with stereo imaging and I wasn't impressed. The closest thing I have are Apple HomePods. A woofer firing upwards and 7 horn loaded tweeters firing downwards and out. I have 6 pairs of those and the imaging is great in that there is no sweet spot like a regular set of speakers. The downside is that my traditional speakers still sound better to me.

Yeah this is the interview I was talking about. I was really surprised to read John's response about recreating a conventional speaker for modern day sale. Especially since in the old days, the regular line of speakers was created to keep them alive. Perhaps doing that, in John's mind, is a bit of an admission to failure. I don't think it is, but to each their own.

I don't know how old Evan is. It's not really of importance. But yes as far as I understand, he is John's understudy. And will take over business operations when the time comes. He's very smart and usually very patient with my talkative and rather excited temperament. I blame the stress of driving and working in the NE corridor every day for that.

The vintage Walsh style speakers sound good IMO. And have the magic "that makes the go". The newer "Walsh 1/2000 Tall" etc. have the same magic. But do it all a bit better. Largely in their frequency response. And I think, even with the smaller versions which were previously low sensitivity and 4 ohms. They are now a bit higher in sensitivity and have a more nominal impedance value, allowing a bit wider range of amplifiers to drive them.

Its that way for a lot of people. Your brain gets acclimated to the sound of a point source speaker. Especially since they account for probably 97% of the speakers one hears for sale on the market. Then there's the panels or electrostats, dipoles and omnidirectional. Some people hear them and its a whole new world (sort of like me). And then there's folks who just have a meh reaction (similar to yourself). I suppose it also depends on your music preference, average listening level etc.

 

[Mister Bill]

I've read all the comments about the Ohm speaker and John's company that produces them, and I still would love to hear them.

 

[Donkey Karma]

I've read all the comments about the Ohm speaker and John's company that produces them, and I still would love to hear them.

Okay.... Noted. Not sure how that is relevant it is to the actual thread?

Hearing them, spending money buying a pair or paying to get them repaired... Apples and pineapples.

If you want to hear a pair of the "Walsh" mystery can drivers and can't find any. Get to the nearest pair of Bose 601s and you're real close.
Omnidirectional(semi), rolled of highs, lacking acceptable lows and very musical.

Ever wonder why John uses artist renderings of the inside of his speakers? Ever wonder why the downfiring woofer is made to look like a actual metal Walsh driver?

I give him credit, somehow he convinced a pile of ppl to buy his speakers and into his woowooo.

I have had the F's they were brilliant in what they did. The others.. meh

I've read all the comments about the Ohm speaker and John's company that produces them, and I still would love to hear them.

 

[Mister Bill]

Okay.... Noted. Not sure how that is relevant it is to the actual thread?

Hearing them, spending money buying a pair or paying to get them repaired... Apples and pineapples.

If you want to hear a pair of the "Walsh" mystery can drivers and can't find any. Get to the nearest pair of Bose 601s and you're real close.
Omnidirectional(semi), rolled of highs, lacking acceptable lows and very musical.

Ever wonder why John uses artist renderings of the inside of his speakers? Ever wonder why the downfiring woofer is made to look like a actual metal Walsh driver?

I give him credit, somehow he convinced a pile of ppl to buy his speakers and into his woowooo.

I have had the F's they were brilliant in what they did. The others.. meh

 

[Mister Bill]

I thought the thread was about the speakers...No?

 

[Donkey Karma]

They're not secured with cardboard. The tweeters on my Walsh 5 are secured with angled aluminum brackets and double-sided tape.

The correct response here I believe would have been "not all of them are secured with cardboard, my model 5s were not."

Because many were.

Many also look like they were wired by 3rd graders..

 

[Donkey Karma]

I thought the thread was about the speakers...No?

Maybe I am on the incorrect thread? My apologies, I thought this was posted in regards to OHMs sh#tty customer service and then morphed over the pages into a kaleidoscope of testimonials of their subpar business practices..

I must have gotten it confused with one of the other PILES of posts across the WWW by ppl who woke up with snake oil on their faces and a cardboard box with the name OHM on the sides sticking out of their rear-ends

 

[Ohighway]

The correct response here I believe would have been "not all of them are secured with cardboard, my model 5s were not."

Because many were.

Many also look like they were wired by 3rd graders..

That piece of cardboard you're showing in the picture is NOT the tweeter mount. It's some type of sound guide or diffuser or..... something.

Show me the other side where the tweeter is mounted to the back of the woofer magnet.

........................................

 

[Mister Bill]

No, it is most likely my fault for reading all there was to read about the brand good/bad. Then I responded to the wrong thread.‍

 

[W9TR]

Ohm has always been a tiny company with limited resources. I remember a company brochure where everyone was wearing white lab coats in all the production pictures. Only it was one lab coat, with the name ‘Marty’ embroidered on the pocket.

It pains me to hear about all the troubles people are having with service. I wish them only the best.

 

[MetalDaze]

Maybe I am on the incorrect thread? My apologies, I thought this was posted in regards to OHMs sh#tty customer service and then morphed over the pages into a kaleidoscope of testimonials of their subpar business practices..

I must have gotten it confused with one of the other PILES of posts across the WWW by ppl who woke up with snake oil on their faces and a cardboard box with the name OHM on the sides sticking out of their rear-ends

Haha - Shots fired

I read his reply as if to say he's still interested in how they sound. Beyond what the company may or may not be like. But yes that is indeed how this thread developed. Which I did not anticipate.

 

[MetalDaze]

View attachment 2163249

That piece of cardboard you're showing in the picture is NOT the tweeter mount. It's some type of sound guide or diffuser or..... something.

Show me the other side where the tweeter is mounted to the back of the woofer magnet.

........................................

Of all the Walsh style speakers I've seen the inside of the can (maybe 10 pairs?). Both vintage, new larger beta versions and ones at the factory being broken in/tuned specifically for customers over seas. All used some iteration of the cardboard waveguide pictured here.

The mount for the tweeter on the back, from what I've seen, is usually metal with sound dampening material filled in all around it and in select areas around the basket and driver frame. The crossover for the super tweeter is also usually surface mounted on the backside. In this way the driver is self contained. A change which made things a little easier for shipping and service. My original walsh 2's stil have the crossover mounted in the bottom of the cabinet.

I can't speak as to when exactly or what model they began doing this.

 

[MetalDaze]

Ohm has always been a tiny company with limited resources. I remember a company brochure where everyone was wearing white lab coats in all the production pictures. Only it was one lab coat, with the name ‘Marty’ embroidered on the pocket.

It pains me to hear about all the troubles people are having with service. I wish them only the best.

Things changed quite dramatically after Marty's passing.

+1. I love my speakers & have had great interactions with Ohm as a company in the past. I normally cut them a good amount of slack because I understand what & who they are. However, here we are. Especially more recently, covid or not things just haven't been right.

 

[Ohighway]

That piece of cardboard you're showing in the picture is NOT the tweeter mount. It's some type of sound guide or diffuser or..... something.

Show me the other side where the tweeter is mounted to the back of the woofer magnet.

........................................

Of all the Walsh style speakers I've seen ....... All used some iteration of the cardboard waveguide pictured here.

The mount for the tweeter on the back, from what I've seen, is usually metal with sound dampening material filled in all around it and in select areas around the basket and driver frame. .

The "show me" statement was for Donkey guy a few posts above who claimed some tweeters were mounted with cardboard. I want him to show me a picture of one of those cardboard mounts.

Here's a shot of my Walsh 5 after replacing a dead tweeter. Cardboard wave guide had not been re-installed yet.

 

[Old Guy8]

I had a decent interacting with Ohm C2 upgrade in '15.
A couple of the posts above have been a little too nasty for AK, IMO. With one about how John looks.

And with trying to survive in NYC area with Covid likely effect on personnel and supplies. Possible uptick in business demand from people stuck at home.