The entire Ohm line, and, in fact, the company itself, owe their existence to the Walsh driver developed by the late Lincoln Walsh (1903–1971).…
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The Ohm Walsh 5 displaces the Ohm F at the top of the Ohm line, and the current Walsh 5 production run represents a "limited edition" of 500 pairs worldwide. There's even a certificate of authenticity—hand-signed by Ohm Acoustics President John Strohbeen—packed with the speakers that makes it all official. I think that this is more than a clever marketing gesture and clearly demonstrates Ohm Acoustics' pride in their new flagship loudspeaker.
Some manufacturers (Bose, for example) have taken a design path I have dubbed "enhanced stereo," and which some folks might be more inclined to call "artificial stereo." These designs deliberately generate side reflections with the expressed idea of increasing the intensity of the lateral room reflections and thereby enhancing the spaciousness of the reproduced soundstage. I see this as a viable approach, but it must be understood axiomatically that such designs trade off timbrel accuracy for the illusion of a live soundstage. There is no free lunch. You can involve the listening room in…
Dick Olsher returned to the Ohm Walsh 5 in August 1988 (Vol.11 No.8):
The folks at Ohm would love to have us believe that there "is no place like Ohm." I know Dorothy believes that, but last time I listened to the Walsh 5 there were enough things wrong with it to spoil the Ohm-coming. To be sure, there was plenty of imaging magic; you might even say that, indeed, "there's no space like Ohm." But a slightly opaque and colored midrange seriously curtailed my enthusiasm for the speaker. All puns aside, I firmly believed back then that this was a speaker on the verge of greatness. So when…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: two-way, floorstanding, reflex-loaded loudpseaker. Driver complement: Ohm-Walsh full-range driver and a titanium-dome supertweeter. Bass Frequency response: 25Hz–25kHz, ±4dB. Sensitivity: 90dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Power requirements: 50W minimum, 500W maximum.
Dimensions: 17.5" x 17.5" at the base, tapering to 15" x 15" at the top; 43" tall. Weight: 95 lbs each.
Price: $4800/pair (1988); $6995/pair when last manufactured; no longer available (2007).
Manufacturer: Ohm Acoustics Corp., 241 Taaffe Place, Brooklyn, NY 11205. Tel…
In his July 2003 "The Fifth Element" column, John Marks enthusiastically wrote about the Benchmark Media Systems DAC1 D/A processor and headphone amplifier. Comparing its sound playing CDs with that of a three-times-more-expensive Marantz SA-14 SACD player, he concluded that the DAC 1's "Red Book" performance was at least as good as that of the Marantz, being "slightly more articulate in the musical line, and slightly more detailed in spatial nuances, particularly the localization of individual images in space, and in soundstage depth."
I wrote a Follow-Up review of the DAC1 in…
The use of a computer as a source introduces a whole raft of variables that, if not allowed for, can wreak havoc with the sound. Benchmark's website offers overall advice on computer setup and specific advice on using a Mac running OSX. The most important thing to note is that you need to run the Apple-supplied utility called Audio MIDI, and set the sample rate in this utility to match the sample rate of the audio you want to listen to. Otherwise, sample-rate conversion is applied to the audio, which will degrade the sound. You also need to set the playback software's volume control (if…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: D/A processor with volume control, HPA2 headphone outputs, and UltraLock clock circuit. Digital inputs (4): AES/EBU (XLR), S/PDIF (BNC, TosLink), USB. Sample rates handled: 28–195kHz (S/PDIF, AES/EBU), 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96kHz (USB). Analog outputs: 1 pair RCA, 1 pair balanced XLR, 2 ¼" stereo phone jacks for headphones. Maximum output levels: 23V RMS (29dBu) balanced (factory-calibrated for 12.3V, 24dBu); 2.75V RMS (11dBu) unbalanced (factory-calibrated for 2V, 8dBu); 8.7V RMS (21dBu) for headphone jacks. (Balanced outputs can be padded down in three…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Ayre C-5xe, Pioneer DV-578A universal players; Logitech (Slim Devices) Transporter WiFi network music player with Apple Mac mini running OSX for media storage; Mark Levinson No.30.6, Bel Canto e.One DAC3, Musical Fidelity X-DACV8 D/A processors.
Preamplifiers: Parasound Halo JC 2, Ayre K-5xe, Mark Levinson No.380S.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.33H, Parasound Halo JC 1 monoblocks; Boulder 860.
Loudspeakers: Harbeth HL-P3ES2, Sonus Faber Cremona Elipsa, KEF Reference 207/2.
Headphones: Sennheiser HD650.
Cables: Digital:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I examined the Benchmark's measured behavior using three different test systems: the National Instruments–based Miller QC Suite, my vintage Audio Precision System One Dual Domain, and a loaned sample of Audio Precision's top-model SYS2722 system (see this issue's "As We See It.").
Looking first at the DAC1 USB's performance when fed data via its conventional AES/EBU and S/PDIF inputs, it locked to data with sample rates ranging from 32 to 192kHz (though the frequency response with 192kHz data didn't appear to be any higher than with 96kHz data). The maximum…
Manufacturer's Comment #1
Editor: Thank you for reviewing the DAC1 USB. Your keen observations and measurements of the USB's performance were a bit of a surprise to us, given the intense testing that we had performed during development. For a variety of reasons, I believe that we have developed the best USB audio technology currently available. The problem is that operating systems and media players can and do change frequently. We have re-created your tests, created some additional tests, and have performed a rather exhaustive (and exhausting) test of the available players and operating…