Dual Ohm F Speakers

[merrillaudio]

I had the pleasure of listening to a few speakers last week.
Tannoy 15" GRF Memory - 15" cones redone by Tannoy - Ortofon Quintet Black
Carver Amazing Speakers - Lyra Atlas
Dual Ohm F Speakers with the original cones - Lyra Atlas

All speakers were in excellent condition. Only Vinyl was played and we used the Count Bass II original Lp with VPI TT on all speakers. Cartridges are listed with the speakers.

What was truly amazing in sound was the Dual Ohm F Speakers. See picture (with owner of speaker - Guess who it is) below on how they are built with one inverted over the other.

While live is a term commonly used, this was surreal.

The ease as which the music was play was the first thing that got you.

The music was all "cut from the same cloth" is the only way to describe the other item that got you. When listening to this, you are struck at how bad other speakers are in their integration of different drivers (of course you would have to be an audiophile to know this )

Without realizing it, we were playing the music louder. I finally took out my phone app and measured it. Not the most accurate however it will show you large differences. The reason was probably the lack of distortion. The new found lack of distortion was also strange in this sense. First the bass was very deep and distortion free. The 2nd was the mids and upper frequencies seem to be different (this is speculation now) perhaps free from bass distortions that affect it with resonance and so on.


This is a highly recommend listening session for anyone with access to Ohm F Series speakers. I cannot speak for the rest of the line but this guy did one hell of a job. This lead to the discussion of why the current Ohm speaker company does not make these any more and where to get them repaired.

Surprise!! There is apparently a company set up no just to rebuild but also to build them!

http://www.hhr-exoticspeakers.com/HHRhome.htm

You can now buy new speakers and get the old ones fixed. Life is good.

Now for the bad part. The imaging was just not as good pinpoint as typical speakers. The room has a lot more play then usual. If you have someone stand in the middle of the speakers speaking, it is really hard to pinpoint the person's location. It will seem to come from somewhere in the middle but not exactly. This is the room acoustics. With typical speakers, they try to direct the sound to you so less of the room and more imaging without treatments.

The room is being treating on the walls, and the ceiling, so I cannot wait to go back after this is done.

Any one else have this experience with the Ohm F speakers.

 

[JackD201]

They appear to be omnis in the German Physik and Duevel mold. Are they Omni's?

 

[merrillaudio]

They appear to be omnis in the German Physik and Duevel mold. Are they Omni's?

These are indeed omnidirectional speakers however they are of the Ohm Walsh mold. A very unique speaker indeed that never had its day. They have much better quality of sound than some of the omni's on the market today and a single cone provide the full range. The cone is 12" on the F Model speaker. It starts with fortified paper, then fortified and treated aluminium to fortified and treated titanium. When I say treated, there is specific backing for resonance and absorbstion on one side.

They are quite amazing when you read up on the whole construction of the Ohm speakers. Yes, I have become a fan.

 

[Garth]

...

 

[merrillaudio]

I had a call from Dale Harder, the make of the new and improved Ohm drivers called the TLS-1 and TLS-2.

There is also a note on Audiogon by Dale on how each driver is made, which takes a lot of work and is not as simple as it looks from the outside. He has about $1m worth of equipment just to make the drivers.

Also found out why the imaging in the stacked F-Models is not there. It seems the inversion causes out of phase issue which is what I originally thought was with the wiring more than the speakers. So that cleared it up. Perhaps one day I will be able to visit his show room in Ohio. If his new drivers are even better than the old ones I am in for a treat.

Apparently regardless of who makes the driver, it has but a 20-25 life as the materials simply age and break up. Such is life with all of us.

 

[merrillaudio]

I have a pair of OHM F if you are looking for a pair new cones two or three years ago make me a offer. They are a good sounding speaker but I have better so they are not in use.

Thank you. I am not in the market for these right now.

 

[Garth]

...

 

[bondmanp]

Ohm is the original omni loudspeaker. MBL, German Physik, and other omni designs all came later. Ohm was the first to implement the Walsh driver in a domestic audio product. The F model came out in the 1970s. It was plagued with many problems - they used to say it took 200 watts to make them sound good, and 201 watts to blow them up - but nothing sounded like them at the time. Ohm is still very much in business in Brooklyn, NY. The current models use a modified Walsh driver which attenuates the rear sound waves to facilitate placement nearer to the front wall. By special order, they can be built as true omnis. Also, they cross over to a super tweeter at ~7kHz, but this is done without a crossover, only a capacitor on the tweeter to protect it. I have owned a pair of Ohm Walsh 2000s for almost five years. I love them. You can search for a full review on Audiogon in the user reviews section. As I upgraded my electronics, the Ohms have responded quite well. IMHO, for the money, they are tough to beat. Current owner John Strohbeen knows how to voice speakers, and I get a solid center image with Ohms, and the sound is usually completely detached from the speaker cabinets. Anyone local to me in NJ who would like to hear my Ohm Walsh 2000s can email me to set up an audition (I have no affiliation with Ohm Loudspeakers). I would love to hear the double-f's, though.

 

[merrillaudio]

Ohm is the original omni loudspeaker. MBL, German Physik, and other omni designs all came later. Ohm was the first to implement the Walsh driver in a domestic audio product. The F model came out in the 1970s. It was plagued with many problems - they used to say it took 200 watts to make them sound good, and 201 watts to blow them up - but nothing sounded like them at the time. Ohm is still very much in business in Brooklyn, NY. The current models use a modified Walsh driver which attenuates the rear sound waves to facilitate placement nearer to the front wall. By special order, they can be built as true omnis. Also, they cross over to a super tweeter at ~7kHz, but this is done without a crossover, only a capacitor on the tweeter to protect it. I have owned a pair of Ohm Walsh 2000s for almost five years. I love them. You can search for a full review on Audiogon in the user reviews section. As I upgraded my electronics, the Ohms have responded quite well. IMHO, for the money, they are tough to beat. Current owner John Strohbeen knows how to voice speakers, and I get a solid center image with Ohms, and the sound is usually completely detached from the speaker cabinets. Anyone local to me in NJ who would like to hear my Ohm Walsh 2000s can email me to set up an audition (I have no affiliation with Ohm Loudspeakers). I would love to hear the double-f's, though.

Nice, I am in NJ also and would very like to listen to the speakers. I will check if you can listen to the double-F's also.

 

[MMas]

Ohm is the original omni loudspeaker. MBL, German Physik, and other omni designs all came later. Ohm was the first to implement the Walsh driver in a domestic audio product. The F model came out in the 1970s. It was plagued with many problems - they used to say it took 200 watts to make them sound good, and 201 watts to blow them up - but nothing sounded like them at the time. Ohm is still very much in business in Brooklyn, NY. The current models use a modified Walsh driver which attenuates the rear sound waves to facilitate placement nearer to the front wall. By special order, they can be built as true omnis. Also, they cross over to a super tweeter at ~7kHz, but this is done without a crossover, only a capacitor on the tweeter to protect it. I have owned a pair of Ohm Walsh 2000s for almost five years. I love them. You can search for a full review on Audiogon in the user reviews section. As I upgraded my electronics, the Ohms have responded quite well. IMHO, for the money, they are tough to beat. Current owner John Strohbeen knows how to voice speakers, and I get a solid center image with Ohms, and the sound is usually completely detached from the speaker cabinets. Anyone local to me in NJ who would like to hear my Ohm Walsh 2000s can email me to set up an audition (I have no affiliation with Ohm Loudspeakers). I would love to hear the double-f's, though.

I’d have to agree. Over the past 40+ years, I’ve owned/reviewed/sold over 40 pairs of speakers priced up to around $10K. The Ohm Walsh was what I’d been looking for and has been my speaker for the past 10 years. I’d like to audition the Duevels, but no dealers carry them close by.