bmark3

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.67 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $3000.00

Summary:
These speakers are amazing!
I have long enjoyed a vintage pair of Ohm F series speakers and when it came time to replace them I looked to Ohm Acoustics to provide me with something that wouldn't let me down.
Most modern speakers, to me, have many weaknesses. Some have 'holes' or are missing parts of the sound. Others, after listening for any length of time, seem to cause 'listener fatigue'. This is especially true of the recent popularity of over-priced/cheaply produced satellite type systems which rely heavily on muddy sounding low-frequency bass, have 'tinny' sounding highs and completely leave out the midrange.
Last year I purchased a pair of these Walsh series speakers and I was amazed. They sound rich, refreshing and full. The low-frequencies are clean and tight and its a smooth trip all the way up to the highs. The accuracy is excellent and they look sharp!
Purchasing is done directly with the factory and the service was very personal and prompt. I highly recommend these as an investment in good sound which is worth every penny.

Strengths:
I have very eclectic music taste and some speakers seem to only be suited to certain types of music. This requires a set of speakers for classical, another for rock, others for Jazz. My wife thinks I'm nuts and wants me to stop setting up different listening areas with different sets of speakers.
These speakers are a powerful solution. No matter what type of music I throw at them they seem to be able to reproduce the sound with confidence, power and accuracy.
Not only do they handle everything I play on them but they do so without leaving things out. Hands down, crystal clear and smooth!

Weaknesses:
None Yet!

Similar Products Used:
-Vintage pair of Ohm F series speakers
-Paradigm Loudspeakers
-Several Bose speaker sets old and new
-Vintage Infinity Quantum 5 loudspeakers

Price Paid:  $3000.00 from Ohmacoustics.com

Summary:
These speakers are amazing!
I have long enjoyed a vintage pair of Ohm F series speakers and when it came time to replace them I looked to Ohm Acoustics to provide me with something that wouldn't let me down.
Most modern speakers, to me, have many weaknesses. Some have 'holes' or are missing parts of the sound. Others, after listening for any length of time, seem to cause 'listener fatigue'. This is especially true of the recent popularity of over-priced/cheaply produced satellite type systems which rely heavily on muddy sounding low-frequency bass, have 'tinny' sounding highs and completely leave out the midrange.
Last year I purchased a pair of these Walsh series speakers and I was amazed. They sound rich, refreshing and full. The low-frequencies are clean and tight and its a smooth trip all the way up to the highs. The accuracy is excellent and they look sharp!
Purchasing is done directly with the factory and the service was very personal and prompt. I highly recommend these as an investment in good sound which is worth every penny.

Strengths:
I have very eclectic music taste and some speakers seem to only be suited to certain types of music. This requires a set of speakers for classical, another for rock, others for Jazz. My wife thinks I'm nuts and wants me to stop setting up different listening areas with different sets of speakers.
These speakers are a powerful solution. No matter what type of music I throw at them they seem to be able to reproduce the sound with confidence, power and accuracy.
Not only do they handle everything I play on them but they do so without leaving things out. Hands down, crystal clear and smooth!

Weaknesses:
Nothing comes to mind at the moment.

Similar Products Used:
-Vintage pair of Ohm F series speakers
-Paradigm Loudspeakers
-Several Bose speaker sets old and new
-Vintage Infinity Quantum 5 loudspeakers

TWEAKSTER

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1100.00 from Audio Classics (used

Summary:
Bought these speakers 4 years old from an audiophile equipment store in NY. They had bought them from a failed stereo store in PA that went bust. I had been searching for a used pair using a Google search. There were many earlier/older generation Walsh's for sale but not the newer Mk-200's. Then in a stoke of luck I found a store that had a used pair for sale. The NY store never bothered to unpack them so they didn't know what they had in terms of their sound. So I called NY and bought them sight-unseen-unheard because of the great reviews and because I've owned and loved a pair of Ohm model "L"s for almost 30 years. So anyway they were already broken in when I got them and I've been listening to them for 6 months now. The first thing that struck me when I plugged these babies in was the awesome vocal capabilities the Mk-200's have! There is such a presence to the vocals--so effortless,natural, and dynamic. They sound like good electro-stats but with much better bass. They do pretty darn good with my Denon AVR-3805 Receiver in "pure direct mode" but they'd do even better with a good seperate amp and preamp like a McIntosh. I use these speakers for both music and home theater in my 14'x 20' family room. What I enjoy listening to most with these speakers is high quality jazz, vocal, blues, and classical CD's. These speakers will rock'n roll hard too but rockers will want something like a Klipsh speaker with punchy bass. The bass response can be described as full and appropriate without being punchy. The bass response compliments the music instead of overpowering it and can best be described as deep, powerful, smooth, balanced, and appropriately weighted. "Just right" comes to mind. These speakers have a larger footprint as any larger tower speaker would but what is really neat is that the drivers sit on top of the cabinet unobstructed by furniture. I have larger over-stuffed furniture abutting the left speaker but the heighth and amazing dispersion of the drivers is stopped by nothing! Also, the sound staging is TALL. You can walk anywhere in the room and it's as if the music follows you. The music seems to be omni-present in the room. And this characteristic is awesome at all volume levels but really shines at lower to moderate volume levels. You don't have to crank the volume up to hear them in the adjacent rooms; the music just follows you while you're doing your house chores. And because you don't have to crank them up to hear them you can carry on a conversation with the speakers at fairly high volume levels. These described characteristics may seem trivial to some reading this review but these Ohm Walsh 200 Mk-II's never get on my nerves. They are such a livable speaker. Day-in and day-out I never tire of them. They're a pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, to live with. $2700 is alot of money to spend on a new pair of Ohms but I've breifly heard the $2500 Paradigm Studio 100's and the $6000 Paradigm Signiture 100's and feel my Ohms easily hold there own against these more popular speakers....and there's many things the Ohm's do better. If you buy these new, buy them with confidence that you've made a very excellent choice. If you can find them used and pay half-price then you've hit the jack pot of excellent value. These speakers will last 25 years before needing a refurb. and the Ohm Acoustics factory is great to deal with when/if the time comes.

Strengths:
Smooth deep bass. Fabulous vocals. Unmatched dispersion. Highly livable sound without irritation or strain. Speakers on casters for easy movement. Cabinents are built like a tank.

Weaknesses:
Black Ash wood veneering is delaminating a little bit. I'd spring for the exotic wood veneers. Large footprint.

Similar Products Used:
Ohm L's

martyf

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $2995.00 from Direct from Ohm

Summary:
We've used the 200 mk2's in our studio control room for about 5 months now. Over the past 20 years, we have spent well over $10,000.00 in the quest for the perfect control room monitor. We have dropped more money on top of that on associated outboard equipment like Real Time Analyzers, 31 band equalizers and computer controlled equalizing systems to try to flatten speaker response. All wasted money. We never got flat, uncolored sound. Close, but no cigar. After a mastering session, we always listened to the mixed tune in the "real" world (our cars, home stereos and mp3 players). We never completely got the mix we heard in the monitors. There was always an unwanted bump or dip somewhere in the frequency spectrum. We always had to mentally compensate in the mix by boosting the bass a bit or notching out a frequency here and there. Could we mix purely by what our ears were telling us through the monitors? Never. We had room issues. We had crossover issues. In the final analysis, it was ALWAYS speaker design issues. All this to say we could not be happier with the Walsh 200 mkII's. At last I can honestly say that I have a pair of ACCURATE studio monitors. We have a new expression in the studio. It's "WIMIWIG " (What I mix is what I get). As an added bonus, the enlarged "sweet spot" created by the mkII's makes easier listening by people around the console. Gone are the days of asking a client to take my seat so they can get a more accurate rendition of the mix. Also gone are a group of musicians clustering around me (almost cheek-to-cheek) so they can hear the "real" mix. Believe me, after lunching on subs with onions, I don't miss the "closeness". The speakers and drivers came boxed with the best packing we've ever seen. They were boxed, with thick corner and edge protectors and boxed AGAIN in larger surrounding boxes. The most out of control shipping gorilla couldn't damage these packages! Upon our first critical listening we thought the speakers sounded a bit dull. That's because we were used to hearing the independent midrange driver coloring the upper frequencies. There is no such animal in this awesome design. The speakers also need to "break in" for the first week or so to settle to their optimal sound. Our job is critical listening. All day, every day. The 200 mk2's still amaze me as to their smoothness, lack of coloration and listening fatigue. Our advice; run, don't walk, to your computer, get on the Ohm site at ohmspeaker.com and purchase a pair of these speakers!

Strengths:
Lack of coloration Smoothness Lack of listening fatigue Enlarged "sweet spot"

Weaknesses:
Absolutely none

Similar Products Used:
JBL's UREI's Altec Lansing Mackie

ferenc5

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1000.00 from Ohm direct

Summary:
I have been enjoying these speakers for a couple of months now. I originally bought a pair of Walsh 4 demos back in 1987 and had the 200 MK-2 upgrade done in October. I dropped the old Walsh 4's off and had the opportunity to meet John Strohbeen in person at his Brooklyn office. He truly is involved completely in the day to day operations of his company, from soup to nuts. I got the speakers back in under two weeks and hooked them right up. I have listened to all sorts of music from classical to my good old Grateful Dead classics on them. Yesterday when I was listening to the Saunders & Garcia live at keystone, I heard an unpleasant metallic buzzing coming from the left channel. I was deeply concerned that my new speakers had blown something. It took me a couple of minutes to realize that the sound was from the recording and not from the speaker. There must have been a loose spring on the snare drum or something similar. I had listened to this CD many times and never before heard that sound. These speakers are amazing. They reproduce everything exactly as it is recorded. The sound seems brighter than the old Walsh 4's, which were as good a sounding speaker as I have ever heard. I am enjoying my collection all over again, looking for new sounds that other speakers don't recreate. This has been the best investment in my system ever. Close your eyes and you are back at the concert. The upgrade eliminates the controls on the old Walsh 4's, which I thought I would miss, but the new drivers more than compensate for this. Do yourself a favor and take Mr Strohbeen up on his 120 day free test drive. I'll bet he hasn't got a single pair back yet.

Strengths:
Crystal clear reproduction of source. Bright, not brassy tone. Is it live or is it Ohm?

Weaknesses:
Don't change a thing.

Similar Products Used:
Ohm Walsh 4's