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In Reply to: Tell us about someone you turned on to two-channel audio! posted by Richard BassNut Greene on March 3, 2007 at 09:01:10:
I first had identical experiences to what you decribed with the Ohm F (Walsh Omnis) speakers in the late 70's and 80's. I had the speakers placed on either side of the fireplace and people would swear that I had a speaker hidden in the fireplace (not to mention elsewhere) due to the vivid soundstage between the speakers.To this very day (and just recently) I will see people that I haven't seen in years and with whom I don't even remember sharing the Ohm F experience ask me "do you still have those awesome speakers?" One friend (to whom I recently introduced SACD multi-channel audio-see link below) actually remembered the the name Ohm!
Robert C. Lang
Follow Ups:
Hi
I was wondering about this for some time.Wasnt Peter Aczel involved in the development of the Ohm speakers before the TAC? I may be totally wrong.I have read great reviews of the F.Why do they discontinue such speakers?
Yes, it is my understanding that Mr.Peter Aczel was involved early on with the Ohm F. He left (on his own or asked to leave) the development team a couple of years before the product went to market.The Lincoln Walsh invention still lives on in it most "pure" (omni directional) forms in the German Physik speakers and those from Huff Systems (Huff System 3). It may be interesting to visit their web sites. In these iterations of the technology are *very* expensive.
But the most accessible/practical form of the technology can be found in the current Ohm Speakers line of products which use a modified form of the technology that, among other things, has 180 degrees dispersion instead of 360 and uses a tweeter to augment the range of the Walsh driver above 8 khz (Ohm does not say for sure). There are those that swear that the Ohm line, especially their top speakers (the Ohm 300 series I think) is absolutely the best kept secret out there with respect to top tier sound quality. I have not heard this latest generation so I cannot say. But a visit to the Ohm Speakers web site is enlightening.
In the purest forms, like the Ohm A and Ohm F had in the 70s and 80s, when set up properly (5 feet from the back wall and 3-4 from the side walls in a medium size to large room, competed/exceeded with the best I heard at the time (Beveridge and any other electrostatic, for example). But the speaker was grossly inefficient and didn't have sufficient dynamic range for the digital source recordings that began to emerge in the 80. Plus that huge one-way driver was/is probably the most expensive or certainly one of the most expensive drivers ever produced.
But that 30+ year old design had certain attributes, probably stemming from its one way coherent and omni directional design, that even the mega cost speakers (that are far superior, no doubt) of today can't quite match.
Robert C. Lang
for the enlightening reply.
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