Just within the last few months, a Brooklyn-based company named Ohm Acoustics attracted international attention with a highly innovative speaker design called the Ohm Walsh 2. Named after the late Lincoln Walsh, a physicist who first formulated its design concept, this speaker thumbs its nose at established norms to combine two normally contradictory attributes: multidirectional sound spread and precise stereo focus. The effect of this arrangement is eminently satisfying. A spacious acoustic ambience is linked with a ”reachout-and-touch-it” immediacy that this listener has experienced only with the very best speakers. This one sells for $700 a pair, proving that American products can still represent good value for the money.