OHM Acoustics "Walsh F" Speaker remakes

[Nihilist]

Happy Thanksgiving ! ! !


Yes, you should.


The one major issue that the Ohm F's had was with the voice coil/efficiency. The original spiders are MUCH too soft and allow the weight of the cone to pull the VC out of alignment , very much reducing the motor strength. This was supposedly an issue even when the speakers were first introduced. Simple solution ? Re-spider them with a newer , stiffer Pro Sound unit.

The other half of the problem is the Impedence of the VC. Supposedly this could also be remedied by replacement with a Pro sound unit.

I can't seem to remember the specifics, I'll have to dig up some papers. The gentleman I talked to about this says that after installing the new spider and 8 ohm VC , the driver is about 96 db efficient, and obviously much more dynamic.

I will try to look up which spider and VC he recommended.

Even with their shortcomings, the F's make music like no other drivers/speakers I've ever heard. Granted I haven't heard alot of the most current designs, but I've definitely heard some very fine sounding and well regarded speakers.

Have a good one...............................Nihilist

[planet10]

It has been a long time since i heard the Ohm F... at the time i felt it had real potential, but some shortcomings i couldn't live with.

I have heard the DDD version of the Walsh recently and really liked them. Very expensive thou.

A friend just replaced his Ohm Fs with a set of FE127e in a set of PAWOs and finds them overall more satisfying (granted that has something to do with his available amplifiers)

dave

[arjscott]

Hi mamboni,

If you do find the time to post some more information about your modification I would really be interested.

I'm experimenting with woofers / wide range drivers crossed to tweeters at the moment, but I hadn't even thought about woofer cone modification.

Best regards,

Andrew.

[planet10]

puzzlecoat, & ductseal are your friends... and i'm just starting to play with damar for hilites...
http://www.t-linespeakers.org/design/tweeks.html

dave

[mamboni]

OK - give me a day to put together the particulars on the design, and I'l try to post some photographs.

I wanted to just add that the quality of source material and amplification is very important for optimizing the performance of the Walsh 5 Series 3 loudspeakers - they are extremely revealing. Also, though these loudspeakers, my well-recorded CDs sound wonderful, while the not-well-recorded CDs sound worse than ever.

My system:

RJ-Tech DVX DVD player
Pioneer Elite SP-99D Preamplifier-Processor
Sumo Andromeda II Mosfet Stereo Power Amplifier
Interconnects: Kimber (entry-level stuff)
Loudspeaker cables: 18 AWG .9999 solid-conductor silver teflon-coated, 12' run, bare wire connections
Panamax line conditioner/protection

Significant improvements in sound were noted when I replaced by Rotel preamp with the Pioneer unit - the midrange was hugely opened up. The Sumo amp sweet yet powerful (240W into 8 ohms; 400W into 4 ohms)- a tube amp sound on steroids - nary a hint of solid state grunge - incredibly smooth and correct midrange and treble, string partials done right, cymbals now sound like cymbals. The RJ-Tech DVD blows any CD players I've used, mainly Rotels, out of the water.

One last thing which really surprised me - effect of speaker cabling. I had been using large braided pure copper speaker cables from MonsterCable, and found then detailed if bright and a bit brittle - the high treble still made me winch at times. On a hunch, I switched to a 12 foot solid core pure silver cable (teflon coated - looks line thin spaghetti)....holy smokes!!!! I'd always thought cable proponents mostly full-of-it, that a cable was just resistance, inductance and capacitance in parallel and all the cable had to do was keep all three, especially the reactive components, as low as possible. But, the silver cable just knocked my socks off! The sound coming out of the Walshs was just gorgious! Most obvious improvement was to the very top octaves, the highest partials of the cymbals, bells and high strings. Now I could hear the myriad overtones, all of them all, in all their rarified glory, clearly and delicately. All traces of phase shift and coarseness are gone. Cymbal crashes that before sounded like air hissing now sounded like...cymbals, shimmering and ephemeral. Folks, I urge to pick up some 18g solid silver teflon-coated speaker wire and try it - you will be amazed.

[mamboni]

Photo #1 Felt damping to woofer cone

[arjscott]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to post the info, however I can't see photo 1.

Is anyone else having the same problem? I'm not sure if its due to my settings.

[mamboni]

Photo #2 10" pioneer woofer with felt damping and dust cap variovent

[mamboni]

Photo #3: Closeup of head unit: Walsh woofer driver with top mounted tweeter

[mamboni]

Photo #5: Walsh loudspeaker with can grill cover