Nobody I know of who heard the original Ohm A speakers thirty five years ago ever forgets the experience.

They were tall, bulky and expensive. But when they were allowed to speak, they vanished—leaving behind a wide, deep sound field with an articulated and detailed midrange, highs without a hint of grit or sibilance, and lows with neither hollowness nor resonance at any level they were driven and in any octave anyone could hear.

And whether the music was played by a symphony orchestra, a jazz ensemble, or single human voice and whether you walked left or right or even through the middle of the pair of Ohms, the stereo image stayed solidly in place. It was as if in disappearing they took the room with them, leaving behind the concert hall or club or chamber that the music had been played in.

They sounded so well because of their remarkable down-firing single driver, invented by Lincoln Walsh and developed by Marty Gersten to produce the entire audible range seamlessly and without any crossover components. But the driver's mass and orientation required both powerful magnetic assemblies and equally powerful amplifiers. Inevitably, the drivers had to fail.

I thought the company itself had failed; but when I learned that Ohm Acoustics had reinvented itself as an enterprise that dealt directly with consumers via the internet and after I read some very favorable reviews of the MicroWalshes, I talked with the Ohm folks and bought a pair of MicroWalsh Talls and their SB-5.2 subwoofer. That was six or seven years ago.

They arrived quickly and safely; but though they sounded good initially—smooth, clear, and spacious—they were a little thin. Maybe with good reason: because my listening room is large (24 by 24 feet), oddly shaped (5-foot knee walls supporting a gabled roof 15 feet high), and very live (the floors and ceiling of bare wood, the gable walls of bare plaster and glass with nary a rug or drape to cover them) because of my allergies,.
I called Ohm and talked with John Strohbeen, the engineer who heads the company. I asked whether I should consider trading up to a bigger model. John said wait a month or two for them to break in (the Ohms come with a 120-day money back guarantee).

He was right. Their range, clarity, and sound stage expanded significantly—much like the original Ohms I had heard decades ago, even though they and their subwoofer cost less than half that of the originals.

I drove them for years with an NAD 30-watt stereo receiver which played larger than its spec. Somewhere along the way I turned off the subwoofer. It just wasn’t needed for the music I liked—jazz ensembles and an occasional orchestral classic. The MicroWalshes have surprising bass extension all by themselves, essentially flat down to the 40-something Hertz range, when they are well broken in.

A month ago I replaced the NAD with a considerably more powerful and versatile pair of separates, a Sherwood Newcastle P-965 Preamp/Tuner and A-965 Amplifier—the latter capable of 200 watts per channel at 4 ohms with two channels driven; and then I fired up the Ohms with the Sherwoods set to a jazz channel on XM radio that happened to have a1950's vintage Ella Fitzgerald number playing.

Before I replaced the NAD, I might have said that the MicroWalshes’ greatest virtue is that I never tired of them, as I had with a precession of good but conventional closed and vented box speakers. And I would have been wrong—because I was dazzled by what I heard.

The little Ohms had disappeared; and there was Ella in the room she sang from, solidly positioned in the center of the field no matter where I walked. There too was much of the wondrous Ohm A sound stage with just about the sort of the depth, clarity, and range I'd been impressed with decades before. I found myself being drawn into the cliché you hear from anyone who gets a good new audio component—the compulsion to play all one’s old favorites. Sure enough, I discovered not just nuances but whole new layers of musicality I had not heard before--like the three different halls and two different studio venues from a Willie Nelson CD that hadn't shown them before.

The battle scene early in Master and Commander was a revelation. The thuds, thumps and horrific crack and crash of cannons coming from the Ohms shook my 24 by 24 foot plank floor so well that I had a hard time wiping the smile from my face.

And that was without the subwoofer. The Sherwoods’ power had given the MicroWalshes the “air” to drive my big, live room.

So I turned the volume up; and what happened is what's supposed to happen when you have a good, tough set of speakers driven hard: the Ohms just got louder.

But I also met the dark side of the cliché: a good sound system inevitably reveals the deficiencies of the media you play. And some of my favorites—the voices of Tierney Sutton, Judy Wexler, and Norah Jones— consistently displayed a hollow, strident segment in the upper midrange that I had not heard much of before.
I remembered that John Atkinson (www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/687ohm/index.html) reviewed a pair of the larger Ohm Walsh 5's some years ago and was puzzled by the same sort of coloration. He swept the Ohm tweeter range with a 1/3 octave band generator and found them essentially flat. Lacking the test instruments, I played a Blu-Ray setup disc that drives each speaker with a 20 to 20,000 Hertz sweep and heard no resonances in the upper register.Then I jacked a pair of decent headphones (Grado 125's) into the front panel of the preamp and listened. I heard the identical coloration that I had from the speakers.

So I fed the Ohms a recording with neither electronic nor room acoustic enhancements, Madeleine Peyroux's Half the Perfect World (Rounder 11661-3252-2). I heard no resonances, no hollowness, no coloration from the Ohms; but I did hear the trumpet breathe on the disc’s last track. I was satisfied that the Ohms weren’t adding coloration.

The opening of 2001, A Space Odyssey taxes the MicroWalshes’ bass range. But with the SB-5.2 sub turned on, the small Ohms played the 20 Hertz or so organ drone at high levels--as they did with other virtuoso organ pieces. In fact, the Ohms have such spaciousness and presence when driven by two-channel mix-down codecs like Dolby VS that I'm not sure I need to supplement them with a couple of extra pairs of channels for HD movie viewing.

Some reviewers of the MicroWalsh Talls recommend them only for rooms a good deal smaller than mine and with a lot more square feet of sound absorbent surfaces. I'm sure that's good advice, but I found that the little Ohms absolutely glow in a big, live environment.

Verdict:

Impressively smooth, detailed, sound field with great width, depth, and stereo solidity. Surprising bass extension. A bargain entry to high end listening.

Minuses:

• You're not going to find them at your local big-box store, or even your local high-end dealer.
• You'll need the better part of a thousand dollars to try them out.
• If you really need the bottom of the lowest octave you'll want to add a subwoofer.
• Your receiver or amp should be able to provide at least 30 clean watts at 4 ohms for modest-level listening; but 75 honest watts or so will let you hear much more of what the Ohms can say.

Pluses:

• They play what they are fed—no more, no less.
• Unlike the original Ohm A's, they don't break easily.
• They don't mind big, live spaces to live in.
• They project a wide, deep sound field so stable that you can walk around or even between the speakers and the stereo effect stays put.
• Because they don't sound like boxes, you probably won't tire of them.
• They're so small and nicely finished (especially in Rosewood) that they pass the “wife factor” test with flying colors.
• You might not need center or surround channels to enjoy movies.
• They’re made in the USA.
• You can talk to the president of the company, and he’ll give you good advice.

The urge to upgrade is at hand.

I've lived with the Micro Walsh Talls for nearly 5 years now and am thinking the time is right .. except I love these little gems. They're just so musical. I can listen all day with no fatigue. I took a chance on these after reading the 6 Moons review back in December 2003 and have never been disappointed. As I'm not a professional reviewer I would only be able to reiterate what's already been said of these wonderful speakers.

If I do upgrade .. I'll stay with Ohm's.

Customer Service

Customer service is exemplary. I had a problem with a driver when I first got my speakers .. John sent another without hesitation. Two days later I received a new driver and screwdriver to intall it (along with instructions). No shipping charges. New driver worked flawlessly.

Value. Buying Ohm's "entry level" floor standing speaker probably gives you very similar performance to their more expensive offerings minus capabilities in the exteme low end and very high volumes.

I can't find any technical, design or fit/finish weakness. These guys are professional, experienced and just plain nice to work with.

I'd recommend they do much, much more with pictures of their products on their website. Men are the major purchasers of audio and very visually oriented. I think adding high quality photo's (alot of them) would increase their sales.

* A wonderful speaker you can listen to for hours and not get fatigued.
* You'll be spoiled quickly by the Ohm omni directional driver. Amazing. Makes everything else I've heard sound like it's coming out of box. (Maybe because most speakers are a box?) Neat idea Ohm has, get rid of the boxy sound . . . by getting rid of the box. People seem to think Ohm design is "dated"??? Yikes!!!! Listen to them please!!!! They're probably still ahead of their time.
* Location is important for any speaker but these seem to be very forgiving in terms of location. I'm not saying there's not an ideal listening position for the Ohm's but they seem to sound great from everywhere.
* The size of the speaker is perfect for smaller rooms and about as wife friendly as a floor standing could possibly be.
* Workmanship is very good. They're definitely not techno mass produced clones. They're handmade appearance lends a unique character in this day and age and probably a unique thing to have at a $500 each price point.
* They're not floor shakers but play plenty loud to satisfy even metal fans if you're interested in preserving your hearing.
* I'm using them mostly for stereo listening but they also serve as the fronts for my home theatre. For music signals they're fine on their own, however a subwoofer is necessary for good home theatre. I have a HSU STF-1 which mates perfectly with the small Ohms in my room for home theater (and adds a little punch for the really deep musical stuff.)
* I'm using Bose Acoustimass satellites (remanants from my child bearing years stereo system) for my rear surround speakers which seems to be working out well.
* After listening to the Bose for 15 years it's wonderfull to return to high fidelity listening with the Ohm's. I couldn't be happier! Ohm's high end offerings must be incredible.

Customer Service

Very nice people to work with.

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Something similar to Ohm?

In my pre-children days:
* Audiopro Subwoofer / Bang & Olufsen CX 100 Satellites
* Bang & Olufsen RX2 Turntable
* Sansui AU-717 Integrated AMP
* Pioneer CTF-1000 Cassette

Versatile

Zero at this price.

Ok, here's a long term review to follow up my early one.

I've been living with these speakers for 3 years now, and they still sound great. I mentioned in my review that the only drawback was some pinpoint imaging that they give up to more common, dynamic designs. Well... I recently picked up a new DAC for my system and gained all of the detail that I though I was missing. It was great to hear deep into the music, while still retaining the beautiful, open, Walsh sound - the MicroWalshes easily passed along the improved resolution, with the same neutrality/naturalness, and no fatigue.

These speakers continue to show their versatility. I also hooked them up to my bedroom system - 12 year old 40 watt Yamaha receiver and CD player. The system sounded great, not as great as my main system, but still better than any other speaker that I've heard with this gear. So as a starter system, they won't show the faults of an entry level system, but can also show improvements (without getting outclassed) with better gear. Also, the speakers sounded great in the bedroom, but I will say that they sound better in a more damped room.

Customer Service

Ohm customer service is the greatest!

Wide soundstage, coherent sound, musicality, easy placement

Most of us have to buy them to hear them - but there is a money back guarantee. It's a thousand dollar speaker system - it doesn't outperform my $3500 monitors with the $1200 subwoofer, but hey- did you think it could?

SETUP: Working a contract on road. Apartment poorly configured for main system - long and narrow with a corner fireplace at one end and dining table at the other. SOLUTION: Tall skinny towers fit just right in front of the fireplace and match nicely with my Linn Classik from the bedroom. I have wanted a Walsh speaker since I heard a guitarist playing in the next room at a Tech Hi-Fi in 1977 and was blown away to turn the corner and hear the live guitar actually coming from a pair of OHM F's

There was some break-in time, and I didn't even try to listen critically for three full days. I left them in the spare bedroom playing a classical station all day, and acoustic pieces and vocalists all night. When I put them in their current position they were ready to go. Ohm is not exaggerating their sound stage claime. Every seat in my living room is a good listening position. The room does have wall to wall carpeting, and it sounded like the Treble and Mid-range were floating in position around and above the speakers, but the Bass was coming out the bottom of the speakers. I went to Home Depot and bought two 12x12x2" concrete pavers and reset the speakers on top of those. What a change! The speakers disappeared and the Bass just became the foundation for the overall soundstage
Maybe it's the corner fireplace, maybe its the concrete bases, but there is way lower than the specified 47Hz available in my setup.

The biggest surprise was the performance with orchestral music. It must be the 360 degree projection, but to hear an orchestra coming from a couple of upside down japanese beetle traps is just amazing. I'm going to lower the OHM average here, because a little speaker for under $1000 really can't be expected to rate all 5 stars for performance, and if you do give it 5 stars you just haven't heard it's big brother. That said, I have no compunction about echoing the 5-star value based judgement.

With a combination of easy placement, unobtrusive footpring, and downright musical performance, these may be the perfect apartment dwellers loudspeakers.

Customer Service

The folks at OHM went out of their way to accomodate an unusual request which I wont describe in case they don't want to make it a habit.

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I haven't heard much that is similar, my other speakers have been 4 monitor models from Sonus Faber, and 3 monitors from Silverline, and Polk CRS.

A great listening experience for a price that's better than reasonable. Add a Hsu sub and you've got the full audio spectrum AND all that money left over for new recordings, beer and pizza.

Not the speakers of choice for listening to ultra bass-heavy stuff. But they seem to reach deeper than the 48 hz that they advertise.

First the administrative stuff - I found John and his staff to be very easy to deal with, helpful with information over the phone, and making me feel like a valued customer both before I placed my order and after the sale had gone through. Now the important stuff - the sound. It took about a week for the sound to really open up, especially the lower end, and while the speakers were breaking themselves in I was experimenting with where in the room they should go, and various ways to arrange furniture, so my first few days with them did not leave a single lasting impression with me. But once the speakers, the furniture and my understanding wife had reached a new state of equilibrium, I was happy to run through a full range of music and the full range of listening levels, and just listen and enjoy. These speakers are wonderful, because they seem to disappear. The sound is virtually the same everywhere, and my location in the room relative to them is almost irrelevant. Yet individual voices or instruments are easy to locate. There is a spaciousness to the sound that can only come (I am guessing) from the way the sound reflects from the back as well as radiating from the front. Low-end frequency response is strong down to the bottom registers of most of what I listen to. I have been spoiled by my Hsu subwoofer on my downstairs stereo, in terms of knowing what could potentially be heard at the bottom of some recordings, but certainly for any acoustic or orchestral music these speakers are rich and solid, and it is extremely satisfying to listen (for example) to a Sara K recording and sense her and her group playing right here in the living room. Chalk up another satisfied Ohm customer!

Boxless sound (they disappear), neutral, beautiful mid-range, very smooth and integrated through the frequency range, large sweet spot, very easy to place, can easily handle high dB levels.

None.

I can't recommend these little speakers enough. What they are capable of at this price range cannot be found in any other speaker! With the Walsh-inspired design these are true hi-end speakers. The quasi-full range driver eliminates any of the effects of a crossover in the critical mid-range. As a result you have a smooth, natural mid-range (where most of the action is). Now, it's not smooth in a way which obscures or leaves out detail, it's smooth in a natural, unforced way - accurate, fully developed tone/timbre. The main driver (which resembles an upside down cone) hands off to the tweeter at around 8k, well away from any frequencies that our ears are most sensitive to. The shape of the driver also produces the wide, spacious soundstage which is another Ohm trademark. These speakers simply disappear. No boxiness, the sound from these speakers really energizes your room, leaving a very wide sweet spot - again, not a vague sound by any means - imaging is still intact. I think those two aspects of the Ohms are what makes it hard for so many Ohm owners to go back to typical dynamic designs. That mid-range smoothness and boxless sound immediately eliminates two of the biggest problems that I hear with 99% of the speakers out there. This is enough to seperate the Ohms from speakers at, and way above their price range, but if that's NOT enough add: great bass response, very easy placement and they can play loudly without strain. Finally, another plus is dealing with a great group of guys over at Ohm - customer service is excellent. Upgrades are possible along the way and they take trade-ins if you already own a pair of their speakers.

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Meadowlark Kestrel, Swift, Kestrel 2. Dynaudio Audience 62, Vandersteen 1C, Proac Tablette and Studio 100, B&W 704 and 705, Magnepan 1.6, Paradigm Studio 20 and 60, Audio Physic Yara, psb Stratus Bronze, Totem Arro and Hawk.

I just love their sound and the wide soundstage. They sound great and there is no narrow sweet spot where you must sit best effect.

none, but a HSU subwoofer certainly blends well with the OHM's to complete the sonic picture. Oh, the fabric and wire tops are better just left off.

I was in the market to replace my my old HPM 100's (after 30 years) and to upgrade my Klipsch RB 35's. Their overall sound was fine, but..... I surf the audio sites on the web frequently and was intrigued by the design of the OHM speakers. I was looking for a fuller, richer sound. I e-mailed OHM and received a prompt reply from their president, John Strohbeen. I called him and talked with him about what I was looking for, the size and design of my room, the particular use, HomeTheater, etc. He recommended the MicroWalsh Talls up front and the Omnis in the rear.I couldn't fit the OHM center channel speaker due to size limits in my particular set-up, so have kept my Klipsch RC-25 in place for the moment. I received the OHM's about 3 weeks later, professionally packed and delivered in pristine condition by UPS. I promptly hooked'em up, called my wife over and did an "a" "b" listening test. First let me say my wife wasn't thrilled about towers no matter how "small". However, the rosewood veneer blended in well with our other woodwork and then she heard the sound. SOLD!!!! The spousal approval was immediate upon hearing the difference between my Klipsch-HPM set-up and the OHM's. They have been breaking in for a couple months now and I'm a very happy camper.

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Nothing out there like them. Research the web and you will see that they are a unique design.

bass, omni-directional, natural sounding, warm-sounding, small, very visually appealing.

none really

The Ohm Microwalsh Talls are simply amazing speakers. They seem to defy the laws of physics. How all that sound comes out of those two little speakers is mind-boggling. When I first unpacked the the speakers and put them next to my other much bigger speakers, my first thought was "What have I done?". But my doubts were soon erased when and they have continued to get better and better after about three months of use. All types of music sound great on these. The bass, while not earth-shaking, may be the most amazing facet of these speakers. Vocals sound wonderful on these. I was just listening to the new Beatles 4-cd set of their first four albums and was just blow away. The Omnidirectional dispersion of these speakers creates a wide and deep soundstage, and the fact that they are small speakers, they can be moved easily, and you don't have to deal with spikes are added bonuses. Really, a landmark speaker.

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Mirage, Martin-Logan, Vandersteen.

Base extention is excellant for such a small speaker. Overall sound is completely natural. Because of their omni directional design, there is no sweet spot as such. the music is just there. I think they would sound great in almost any small to medium sized room. Ohms 120 day trial period must be the most generous in the industry.

If you want in your face sound with total pinpoint acuracy, or if you are looking for earth shaking bass, these speakers may not be for you. If you want a well made inexpensive speaker that produces natural, uncolored sound, then these speakers are the ones for you.

These speakers are without question the best I have ever heard under $1000.00. They have far exeeded my expectations. They are well made, and very easy to set up. Overall build quality is excellant.

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My former speakers were Proac Response ones.