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Ohm Walsh 4 Refoam Questions

himm37

himm37

Well-Known Member
I recently aquired, (make that scored, thanks LPD and AK) a very nice pair of Ohm Walsh 4's, that need to be refoamed. If I need to send them to Ohm, they charge $300 plus shipping, I know these speakers are well worth putting that much into, however I don't see any reason I can't do them myself. I opened up one of the "cans" and posted a picture:

Link

It looks like it should be a standard refoam, the cone measures exactly 8 inches in diameter. Has anyone done these, or know of I reason not to?

Thanks in Advance!

Update 8/24/08; I Re-uploaded the pictures, all links are working again
 
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It was just a matter of removing the 8 wood screws that held the can to the base. Once I did that I slowly pried around the edges to seperate the cap. It was bonded together by some kind of sealer that stayed soft. Once the cap is off, the woofer is sitting in the can, held in place by the same sealer, I'll probably pull it out to get a complete view of it, to see if it's a common, or Ohm only driver, I'm very curius now, and about the tweeter also!

It does look like a regular woofer to me, I'll get the foam and give it a shot. Let me know if you want me to post the pics.
 
Yep.. post the pics when you finish. Heck it saves a lot of money if it can be done this way. There is no way on earth I am gonna pay Ohm $300 just to refoam the woofers. :nono:
 
wow, thanks for the pics. The Walsh f's definitely had some quirky, unconventional drivers, but those really look quite ordinary. I've heard before that the "can" type walshes were made of a down-firing woofer and one or more tweeters, but I didn't realize how really conventional they were.

As to motorstereo's comments, I have a pair of C2's, and I'm actually quite impressed by the build quality. They are quite conventional, and the crossovers are very simple, conssiting merely of a couple caps for the mid and tweeter, with no chokes for high roll-off, but the magnets are huge, the frames solid and sturdy, and the cabinets thick and well-made with very nice veneer. They seem pretty no-frills to me, but with a commitment to quality where it counts. That said, I've never seen the model L, and their claims about the mystique of the walsh drivers--how the F's are irrepairable (which many here on AK say is patently false, based on personal experience) and how the later models have a "ripple" effect--seem like marketing run amok in order to prey on the big spenders to get them to pony up for the latest model.
 
FRS too!

Just to let anyone who might be waiting to see how this goes, I didn't forget. I've got a bunch of speakers I need to order surrounds for, including a newly aquired pair of Ohm FRS's, the smaller ones. I took these apart and again it apears to use fairly standard drivers! The biggest differance I see is that the crossover is mounted up top, inside the can. The funny thing is that last night I was playing around with a couple of different turntables, and when I caused a couple of thumps, I saw a flash of light coming from the right side can! I thought "I sure hope that was a light bulb", sure enough it uses 2 bulbs, one for each driver. I will be giving the crossovers a once over also.

I posted 3 pics: Pic1 Pic2 Pic3

I'll update both as I go along, Right now I gotta go, It's off to see David Bromberg!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Wow that last pic looks a tad scary. The FRS uses paper tweeters? Interesting. Hey, worked for my L's.
 
Gah! I the days of cheap circuit boards, etc, I'm amazed anyone still does crossovers like that. I could build something nicer, even.

For what they're charging for speakers, that's pretty dismal build quality.

Do audio reveiwers ever pop the lid on speakers they review to see what the internal guts really are like?
 
This may be a stupid question, but are those the only drives in the Walsh 4's? The only drivers are in those cans on top? The rest of the speaker is just a housing?
 
Searching said:
This may be a stupid question, but are those the only drives in the Walsh 4's? The only drivers are in those cans on top? The rest of the speaker is just a housing?
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Yup.
 
Most of Ohm's Walsh speakers use the general Walsh-type design but driven by standard speakers. The Ohm F's are actual Walshe drivers and probably were too expensive and finicky to keep in production.

I personally have to give Ohm some credit, they still provide a lot of support for their speakers after many years. And full trade-in programs. The charge for a refoam is $250 for the pair according to their website. I don't think this is entirely out of line on something that cost $2K 20+ years ago. It's when you start getting into the other repair options that it gets a little far-fetched. The "high repair" ($150ea) and "low repair" ($300ea) are probably just driver replacement and I doubt the can is terribly time-consuming to work on. But again, you are dealing with factory repair of an old speaker sold in small numbers by a small company.

The $2000 and up upgrades seem of limited value to me, unless you don't mind a diminishing return on an investment. The upgrades I'm familar with are new drivers, a new can and mounting base, new fabric hats, new crossovers, and some hardware. Not exactly a small number of parts but I highly doubt actually worth anywhere near two grand, either in parts or R&D costs.

I just recently traded away my pair of Walsh 4's. In my case I had planned on refoaming and otherise reconditioning them, but I realized my room situation was poor and my time probably better spent on things I had a more practical use for.

I also had a pair of inexpensive Ohm E conventional bookshelf speakers several years ago. These were great speakers for the small size. And Ohm still offers full support and even upgrades (!) for them, at extremely reasonable prices.
 
I'm going to hold off judgement on Ohm, the speakers and the Company untill both these are done. I will say that $250.00 to refoam these is NOT out of line. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who owns a pair of these. If your choices are limited to having these done by somebody who is unfamilier with them, and IS going to charge more then just refoaming two woofers due to the extra labor, or having them done by the factory, I think many would have them done by Ohm.

As to the original cost, and upgrade options, remember that most of the companies from this era have "sold out" to some extent, or are gone. Ohm is operating without mass marketed BPC supplying huge revenue.

The final judgement will be how they sound when they are done!
 
Thanks for the pictures himm37, I've always wondered what's inside my Walsh 2's, I'm guessing it's similar to what's inside your 4's. I am suprised by the simplicity of the driver and the rube goldberg appearance, but what comes out of my 2's sounds good to me, so I can't knock it. I have several of Ohm's other more conventional speakers and I can't knock them either. The build quality of my C2's is very good, and my I's are excellent also. I have a pair of E's in my bedroom (with a Proton AI-3100 "system") and they sound great too. Good luck with the refoam, keep the pictures coming.
 
Thanks for this thread, I'm also curious about Ohm Walsh speakers but must admit those pics make me wonder about this company. I've never heard any but would like to someday.
 
Just to clarify, the pictures are of two completly different speakers. The first post is of the Walsh 4's, I have not pulled the woofer out of the can yet. I will do that later this week when the foam arrives. The crossovers on these are in the cabinet, not up top, I believe.

The second series of pics are from the FRS series speakers, the smaller of the two they made.
 
Part of the crossover is in the can on the Walsh 4's. I've only looked in them with a flashlight, but they seemed more orderly than the ones that were posted.

Something folks need to keep in mind is that Ohm only sells two models of new loudspeaker, and fully supports dozens of models made into the late '70s. Getting any work or upgrades done is bound to expensive, since it's probably their major income source.
 
I just redid the pair of model 4s that I got from JohninMA. I'm no expert at speaker repair but these are pretty easy once you get the can open.

I didn't bother trying to take the woofer out of the can, I just worked it in there. Besides it gives you a nice place to rest it on your lap while you're busy trying to get the remnants off.

I don't know what they used for glue but it's sticky still to this day on the basket. I used an X-acto knife and just kept rolling it up a 1/16" at a time. Slow and tedious but it works. As for the part on the cone that's a different story. I cut any extra off that I could and then soaked the rest with alcohol. If you keep applying the alcohol and rubbing between your fingers it will finally give in and come off.

As for anyone that hasn't heard them, they are a treat. Pay no attention to the innard pictures, they have nothing to do with the sound fortunately. Most speakers insides are nothing impressive and who really cares anyway? It's the sound I'm after, could care less if they look like the cat threw up on them.

As for the cost of Ohm re-doing these for you, I don't see that it's out of line if you can't/don't want to do it yourself. It's a time consuming thing, probably taking me all of 3 hours between the 2 woogers. Time is money and I like to make both but I had the surrounds left over from another project so I opened the can. Glad I did, I like them quite a bit.

As for the upgrades by Ohm I guess I'm kind of impressed that they still support a product that's 20 years old. Is it worth the cost of upgrade? That's something only the listener can figure out. They do have a 45 day guarantee if you don't like the results I think.
 
As for anyone that hasn't heard them, they are a treat. Pay no attention to the innard pictures, they have nothing to do with the sound fortunately. Most speakers insides are nothing impressive and who really cares anyway? It's the sound I'm after, could care less if they look like the cat threw up on them.
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I dissagree. When I see something like that, it tells me the product isn't really well engineered, and not built with the kind of quality I'd put my money on. Really, that kind of construction looks like a high school science fair project, not a speaker costing hundreds.

Quality starts at the drawing board and ends when the product goes into the dumpster. It's the same reason why I gladly spend a lot on my Macintosh computer, but wouldn't buy a Dell - if you've ever seen one of the aluminum towers, you see that they CARED about the thing. Wires are routed cleanly, things are easily accessed, everything's sturdy. Heck, the hardware to mount a 2nd hard drive is even there in it's own little holder, not some plastic bag taped up. Even the packaging was done to make my life easy. That's why I don't consider $2500 on this computer a waste of money.

I was always curious about Ohm's speakers and was thinking of them, but after seeing the innards, I'm crossing them off my list. That's just not the level of construction I'm going to spend my money on. :thumbsdn:
 
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Open any speaker and see what it gets you. A couple drivers, some electronic pieces, and a box. New Cornwalls are $3500/pr. Wanna know what's in them? I'll give you a clue, it ain't $3500 worth of stuff.

Are you listening to the sound or are you worrying about what's inside the box that you can't see? I'll worry about the sound and not how the wire is run inside the box.

Whatever guys, tain't worth arguing about.
 
Sansui may have better constructions but a majority of them sounds like cr... The Walsh are beautiful to look at. I hesitate to judge the inside until I open mine up and take a look. On sound the Walsh are second to none and I've owned so many speakers.
 
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