Ohm Walsh help

[Coach Sims]

I am not an audiophile (yet). I am just wanting to build a decent system to listen to vinyl with my wife. I am also on a budget. Since all of this started by watching Bosch, I had to buy some Ohm Walsh speakers. I have some FRS 11's that I got at a good price. I also bought a decent turntable. We want to stay vintage for the sound and the looks.

This is the specs on the speakers.
AMPLIFIERS RECOMMENDED 30 - 150W
IMPEDANCE (TYPICAL) 6?
FREQUENCY RESPONSE 37 - 20,000 Hz (+/-3dB)
SENSITIVITY @2.8 VOLTS90 dB

I have been told that an amp with 50Wpc can run these. The amp we were discussing was the Marantz 2250B. Is that correct? As I have been "educating" myself on forum post and other internet reading, I have read that it is bad to run an underpowered amp. Any help will be appreciated. Sorry for the new guy post.

 

[kach22i]

A lot of what your power requirements are depend on the size of the room and how loudly you like to listen to music.

I found a 2015 thread with some interesting comments.

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...-2250b-the-edsel-of-marantz-receivers.647358/

Those omnidirectional speakers may have special room placement requirements, perhaps research it a bit.

Offhand I would think that with energy flung all about in every direction, less of it would go directly to your ears. This means cranking the voluming up and then perhaps clipping your amp - this is where damage can be done to your speakers.

Try more than one forum to get answers.

A thread on the speaker:
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/ohm-walsh-frs-11-new-to-me.723876/

One guy in thread above mentions using a HK3490 which claims 120 watts. The Carver amp mentioned is 100 watts.

A higher powered NAD or Rotel receiver might not be as sexy looking as a Marantz but might be a better match.

This is a very hi-end forum, you might try another forum more focused on good mid-fi and reasonably affordable vintage equipment.

Personally, I would try to match up 1980's speakers with 1980's equipment, but that's just me.

https://ohmspeaker.com/legacy-products/frs-11/

 

[Coach Sims]

I had read that post a couple of weeks ago researching the speakers. Thanks for the info. I’ve posted in an another forum as well. I sent some time visiting with the owner of Dallas Vintage Audio as well. I will move along now and find some peasants to get advice from lol.

 

[kach22i]

I had read that post a couple of weeks ago researching the speakers. Thanks for the info. I’ve posted in an another forum as well. I sent some time visiting with the owner of Dallas Vintage Audio as well. I will move along now and find some peasants to get advice from lol.

I would love to experiment with those speakers because I have a very forward hard hitting direct drive Technics SL3200 turntable, and a more spacial rhythm based Dual belt drive CS503-1 turntable.

In other words, I think matching up to those speakers with other equipment will require previous owners input.

If you stumble upon a late 1970's Japanese direct drive with linear tonearm such as my Pioneer PL-L1000 grab it, it will blow your mind.

 

[Coach Sims]

That’s good advice. I have a Duel CS 5000 turn table.

 

[kach22i]

That’s good advice. I have a Duel CS 5000 turn table.

Nice, are you the original owner?

I bought my Dual new back in the mid-80's when it first was introduced. Never knew what it could really do until I bought a cartridge alignment tool (DB Systems).

I have modified the living snot out of the Dual. It's a small wonder that it still works.

 

[Duke LeJeune]

Welcome, Coach!

I'm not familiar enough with the Ohms to make a good amplifier suggestion, but regarding an "underpowered amp" being bad for the speakers, that is true ONLY if you drive the amplifier into clipping. In that case, the clipped signals "look" like high frequency energy to the crossover, and get routed to the tweeter. This excess energy going to the tweeter can overheat it and kill it.

Or to put it another way, what kills tweeters is heat, in the form of too much wattage. Whether that "too much wattage" comes from a low-power amp driven into clipping, or from a high-power amp turned up loud, makes no difference.

If you don't mind, what size room are the Ohms going into? And how much freedom do you have to position them as you see fit?

 

[Coach Sims]

The room is 7200 cubic feet. I have quite a bit of freedom to move the speakers around. Feel free to recommend some receivers. I’m not locked into anything particular. We are going to listen to a large variety of music. We have no neighbors near our home so I’m sure I will play it loud every once in a while.

 

[Duke LeJeune]

That's a big room... on Ohm's page for the FRS-11, they post recommended room sizes: 960 to 2000 cubic feet. Those numbers aren't absolutes of course, but you may have a hard time achieving "loud" in your room regardless of what amplifier power you have, as your room is several times larger than what they suggest.

That being said, the closer you sit to the speakers, the louder they will be at the listening position.

But you said "we", so I take it the intention is for multiple people to enjoy them at the same time, and maybe even while dancing around the room or whatever. In general omni-directional speakers sound good throughout the room, but you may find the Ohms to not be loud enough throughout your big room.