[mix4fix]

My question is for PhilA: didn't you buy Ohm speakers? How do they compare to others including Larsen?

Of course, others can give their opinion as well. Having a discussion offline on those types of speakers.

[Phil A]

Have not heard Larsen’s. Use Ohm Microwalsh Talls in a secondary system.

[dB Cooper]

I have heard both Larsens and Ohms* at Capital Audiofests. I was pretty impressed with the Larsens. They share a lot of design goals with the Allison speakers of years past, in particular for the speaker to sound neutral in a real listening room by minimizing room interactions. through specific layouts of both the drivers and placement in the room (both are designed for near-wall placement). The implementation is very different though.

*I've heard Ohms... Sort of... at Capital Audiofest last year. I say 'sort of' because I am not that good at evaluating audio equipment while listening to three different systems at once, which was the situation I found myself in as I discovered their exhibit playing mid-size speakers in a huge hallway with a pair of their large vintage models playing in a space directly above connected by an open spiral staircase. Next door down from the system on the first level was VPI, playing loud AF as is their custom, doors open. Were the Ohms any good? I honestly have no idea. I'd like them to come back with a reasonable two-channel demo. I later heard they had a ten-speaker surround system somewhere else but the show brochure listed two spaces, which is what I found.

[mick wolfe]

FWIW, I've used Ohm 1000's in my small listening room for years.  Ohm's are designed to work in rooms of a given volume. Hence as you move up their line-up, you're able to accommodate larger room volumes. With this all said, I've never had a speaker work as well in my small room ( less than 1000 cu. ft.) than the 1000.  Actually gives me a sense that the room is larger than its boundaries. A somewhat easy load that's around 87 db in efficiency. In a room this size I'm able to drive them quite well with a 22 watt SET.  The strength to me is in their superb voicing. Acoustic jazz for one is presented in a very open, lifelike manner. Vocals are superb as well. And given enough juice, they can boogie pretty well. Imaging....to me they image in a more lifelike manner than pinpoint image monitors. YMMV here, but I've yet to walk out of a live music event where I've heard everyone raving about how well everything "imaged". I believe they still offer a 120 audition period as well. As far as audio shows are concerned, it appears they don't really seek out top notch gear in regard to source and amplification for their demos. So I wouldn't let that aspect influence too much.-

[mix4fix]

Have not heard Larsen’s. Use Ohm Microwalsh Talls in a secondary system.

Surprised they did not show up at the Florida Audio Fest.

[Phil A]

Surprised they did not show up at the Florida Audio Fest.

I've never seen Ohms at a show.  Many moons ago in the Northeast, there was an audio chain known as Tech HiFi (https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/business/27ruby.html) which carried Ohm speakers.

[dB Cooper]

I've never seen Ohms at a show.

Ohm went direct-sales a while back. They have a great trial offer to help alleviate the anxiety involved in buying expensive speakers unheard, plenty of time to break them in adequately. I had never seen them at a show either until last year's CAF, athough I was always curious about them, which is why I was so disappointed to see them in such a p***-poor setting. I couldn't really make any kind of meaningful judgment about them at all. I hope they return and show in a better space. Most of what I've heard 'through the grapevine' has echoed mick wolfe's comments- vocal clarity due to no xover in the vocal region, omni making a large 'sweet spot', especially helpful in small rooms, near-fullrange driver (current models have a 'supertweeter' for the really high ranges) for phase coherence. I presume the smaller models would scale to a larger room well with the help of a sub. mick would probably have a better guess about that.

[Phil A]

Ohm went direct-sales a while back. They have a great trial offer to help alleviate the anxiety involved in buying expensive speakers unheard, plenty of time to break them in adequately. I had never seen them at a show either until last year's CAF, athough I was always curious about them, which is why I was so disappointed to see them in such a p***-poor setting. I couldn't really make any kind of meaningful judgment about them at all. I hope they return and show in a better space. Most of what I've heard 'through the grapevine' has echoed mick wolfe's comments- vocal clarity due to no xover in the vocal region, omni making a large 'sweet spot', especially helpful in small rooms, near-fullrange driver (current models have a 'supertweeter' for the really high ranges) for phase coherence. I presume the smaller models would scale to a larger room well with the help of a sub. mick would probably have a better guess about that.

I ended up getting my Ohm Microwalsh Talls lightly used the same week I closed on my Florida house 6 years ago.  I wanted a pair of MMGs.  A couple of months before I closed on the house, I came down when it was under construction.  The room where they are is a smaill bedroom (with a 10 foot ceiling) and is about 11' x 12'8".  It has an angled doorway and an angled closet on in the back on the same side (that goes under the stairs to the upstairs bonus room).  I was buying furniture and realized that the way I had the room set-up (with connections, e.g. ethernet), MMGs were too wide, unless I went with a narrow rack.  So I saw the Ohms for sale and grabbed them.  Worked out well.  Currently using them with an old Rel Strata III sub and they are being powered by a Hegel H190 Integrated/Streamer/DAC.  Since I have many DSD files and the Hegel is limited to 192kHz via Ethernet with the Bubble UPNP App (also tried the DS Audio App for my Synology NAS) and the didn't want to go to the next Hegel up the chain (which could do double DSD) since it is for a secondary system, I moved one of my HAL Music Servers in there and have a USB to Ethernet Convert as the USB in the H190 is limited (no driver required but basically hyst does 48 or 96kHz) I use JRiver to convert DSD to 176kHz.  It worked out wonder in the small bedroom.

[dB Cooper]

Yeah, I can see where they'd be a better fit.

[sunnydaze]

Some Ohm speakers in a nice McIntosh / vinyl based system in the popular Amazon TV series Bosch.   Stereos, vinyl and jazz are themes that run through the show.

[Phil A]

Some Ohm speakers in a nice McIntosh / vinyl based system in the popular Amazon TV series Bosch:

I don't use a center channel

[sunnydaze]

Nice imaging from his center channel.

[mick wolfe]

Ohm went direct-sales a while back. They have a great trial offer to help alleviate the anxiety involved in buying expensive speakers unheard, plenty of time to break them in adequately. I had never seen them at a show either until last year's CAF, athough I was always curious about them, which is why I was so disappointed to see them in such a p***-poor setting. I couldn't really make any kind of meaningful judgment about them at all. I hope they return and show in a better space. Most of what I've heard 'through the grapevine' has echoed mick wolfe's comments- vocal clarity due to no xover in the vocal region, omni making a large 'sweet spot', especially helpful in small rooms, near-fullrange driver (current models have a 'supertweeter' for the really high ranges) for phase coherence. I presume the smaller models would scale to a larger room well with the help of a sub. mick would probably have a better guess about that.

In regard to the Ohm 1000 scaling in a bigger space..... not bad, but there's a reason you move up the Ohm lineup to match room volume. I've moved them out into my casual/HT set-up which is a combination dining/great room. This is an experiment I've done a couple times just to verify what I'm about to say. This space is probably 3500 cu. ft.+ in volume.  Even with 2 HSU subs, the 1000's had to be pushed uncomfortably hard to energize an area of this size. While they're fine for back ground casual listening in this setting, if I want "crank things up" with an unstressed sense of scale, out will come my Zu's, JBL's  or Spatials. With that said and to be fair, none of these 3 could match the magic of the 1000 in the smaller room, or even work at all. So in summary.... the 1000 is rated for a max room volume of 1600 cu. ft. When I stepped outside these guidelines, much of the magic was lost. I would take Ohm's room volume chart seriously when selecting one of their speakers.

[dB Cooper]

Thanks mick. Good to know. Ohm seems like a good company. To return to the OP question, Larsens are quite good but we are definitely talking about two different design approaches vís a vis the Ohms. Scaling issues seem to have entered the designer's minds at Larsen too.