[John151]

When Paul Hilgeman, owner of Nomad Audio, posted the info on his new speaker design, I was intrigued to say the least.  My listening room was designed for Maggies, so Paul’s dipole concept is of great interest to me.   Also, Paul has chosen a sealed enclosure for the woofer, which I prefer over ported designs, and which is becoming very hard to find these days.  So when Paul sent me a PM offering to give me an audition,   I enthusiastically accepted (he only lives about 3 miles away).  

Paul's amp wasn't available for the audition, so I brought over my Odyssey Stratos Extreme, Odyssey Tempest, and Groneberg Quatro IC cables.  The source was Paul's Ayre CX-7e CD Player.  Speaker cables were Paul’s DIY cables.

Now, the hard part:  I want to relate my experience, but this is not something that comes easy to me.   I prefer to use the term "impressions"  vs “review” or “critique” because I simply am not much of a critic, and I am a lousy writer.    I enjoy listening to good music on a good rig, and I am not very analytical about the sound.  I either enjoy it, or I don’t.  As a listener, I am easily fatigued, sensitive to bass, and tend to have a short attention span musically.  So, if the system doesn’t move me, I quickly lose interest.

I brought along a few CDs to help me evaluate the Ronins.  The first CD was Shinedown’s “Leave A Whisper”.  As a whole, this CD is mediocre for me, but I love the last 3 tracks (which the CD case shows as the “Sanborn Sessions”).  My reasons for selecting this CD is that the vocals on Simple Man can be very harsh, and at loud volumes, a few notes can be actually painful, and will quickly induce fatigue.  Also, I wanted to see how well the Ronins brought out the detail of the excellent acoustical guitar work on the last 3 tracks.  I played these tracks at a high volume, and they simply sounded great!  

Next up were several CDs by Govt Mule.  What I have found is that on the right system, Govt Mule really moves me as there is lots of emotion.  However, on most systems, the emotion is somehow lost.  Warren Hayes sounded superb, and that raspy, blues vocal sound was oh so clear, allowing the emotion to fill the room.  Speaking of room, Paul’s listening room is in his basement, as is mine.  However, our two basements are about as different as two basements can be, so I am wondering how well these speakers will sound in my home (remember my listening room was designed for dipole speakers).  Paul has agreed to bring over a pair of his Ronins in the near future for an audition.  I am really looking forward to that!  

Okay, what kind of speaker review would this be be w/o some of the standard adjectives that people use to describe sound.  Lets see, open, airy, good imaging, 3 dimensional sound stage, tight bass, and smooth highs, all come to mind. However, I think the term "very enjoyable" might some it up nicely.  Yes, I like that term.  I enjoyed listening to these speakers, which, for me, is all that really matters!

In summary, after listening to several excellent tracks, and a few hours of discussing construction and design, I walked away very impressed.   Paul has both the knowledge and passion required to design and build custom Audiophile speakers.  He is also a very nice guy, and I expect that he has all the right stuff to make this a successful venture.  

Here is the URL for Nomad Audio:  http://www.nomad-audio.com/

John

[TheChairGuy]

John - I think you are giving yourself short-shrift as a writer...that was a good job  

TCG / John (a fast disappearing first name today, no?)

[NealH]

Thanks for the comments on this speaker John151.  Can you also briefly discribe your perceived differences between the Ronin and the Maggies?

[John151]

Thanks for the comments on this speaker John151.  Can you also briefly discribe your perceived differences between the Ronin and the Maggies?

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I sold my Maggies last year, and now have a pair of Odyssey Lorelies.  

I can compare to Maggies from memory, but I would prefer to wait until I here these speakers in my listening room.

[TF1216]

Did you have a chance to listen to the Ronins in your basement yet?

When you did audition them at Paul's house how did you like the acoustic version of "45" and did you listen to song 2, "Left out"?  Those two Shinedown songs are a couple of my favorites that I think would be interesting to hear on an audiophile speaker such as Pual's.

[mca]

Did you ever get a pair of these speakers in your listening room?

[satfrat]

I too have Lorelei's, 2 sets to be exact. Could you relate any impressions on any simularites and/or differences between the Ronins & Lorelei's with the material your described? Have you thought about taking a pair home for an inhouse audition? Considering how close you live to the source, I'm surprised you just didn't do that instead of hauling your equipment to Paul's home.

Thank you.
Robin

[PaulHilgeman]

John,

I still have your CD as well if you are tuned into this...

-Paul

[John151]

Paul - I have been on acoustical sabbatical over the summer, and am now slowly getting back into two channel addiction mode.  I will send up a PM.

satfrat - Paul did bring over a pair of Ronins to my house.  I had them for about 48 hours.  For me, the biggest difference was in the bottom end bass.  The Ronins use a 12" woofer in a sealed enclosure, where the Lors have a ~ 8" woofer, in a ported cabinet.  I prefer sealed enclosures as I am very sensitive to bass, and the Lors are my first ported speakers.  Not surprisingly, I found the Ronins bass to be me much more to my liking – cleaner, tighter, faster.  On simple tracks, the Lorelies bass is more pronounced, and may even have the advantage (especially if you like strong bass with lots of punch).  It really is amazing how much bass comes from the Lorelei's.  However, on complicated tracks, where the Lorelies bass driver has to cover a lot of ground, things get a little muddy in the lower end.  Not a problem for smooth jazz, but for a really rock’n tracks, played at high levels, the difference is significant. 

Note that neither speaker throws out heart pounding bass that has that “defibrillator” affect.  The Ronnin’s bass is smooth and subtle, such that it enhances the midrange, but does not over power it.  As a teenager, I owned a pair of EV’s with a 12” woofer.  Those things rocked the house.  But, that was back when louder was better. 

Both speakers image well, but the Ronins have a 3 dimensional sound that is similar to the Maggies I used to own.  The Ronins are also very well balanced between lows, midrange, and highs – makes for a very seamless sound.  I pair is probably in my future.
 

[JoshK]

The Ronins, IIRC, use a 10", not 12". 

[satfrat]

Thank you for the reply John.

[PaulHilgeman]

Wow, this is an old thread...

Yes, a 10"

John, Check your PM's

-Paul

[John151]

Wow, this is an old thread...

-Paul

An oldie, but a goody. 

I put my money where my mouth is, and just ordered a pair of RMD Ronins.   Luckily Paul is as patient with his customers as he is passionate about his products.   

[satfrat]

Wow, this is an old thread...

-Paul

An oldie, but a goody. 

I put my money where my mouth is, and just ordered a pair of RMD Ronins.   Luckily Paul is as patient with his customers as he is passionate about his products.   

  So you'll be giving up the Lorelei's? Those Ronins must be an awesome sweet loudspeaker. The bass has never been an issue with my 2 pair of Lorelei's as I set my processor to run them small and complement them with a subwoofer. But still, I'd love someday to have an opportunity to hear the type of loudspeaker that the Ronin is, just to see if they image as well as my Lorelei's do. Maybe you can post a picture of them when you get everything setup?


Cheers,
Robin

[ctviggen]

The Nomad is an interesting speaker.  I like how a lot of speakers are providing the option of adding an internal amp to drive the bass.

[John151]

I am not sure if the bass issue is just my personal preference, or if it is the room.  My speakers previous to the Lors were Maggies, which sounded great, but had huge WAF issues.  I got rid of them to keep the peace  - turns out that when the wife says "do what ever you want", she doesn't really mean you can do what ever you want.     The Ronins are much closer to the Maggies than the Lors, so that may be part of the equation.

The Ronin is indeed an interesting speaker.  One of the benefits of working with a small company like Nomad is that you have just about any option you can think of.   Down the road I might task Paul with building a center channel speaker (although I expect the Ronins will image so well that it won't be needed). 

[mcullinan]

I am not sure if the bass issue is just my personal preference, or if it is the room.  My speakers previous to the Lors were Maggies, which sounded great, but had huge WAF issues.  I got rid of them to keep the peace  - turns out that when the wife says "do what ever you want", she doesn't really mean you can do what ever you want.     The Ronins are much closer to the Maggies than the Lors, so that may be part of the equation.

The Ronin is indeed an interesting speaker.  One of the benefits of working with a small company like Nomad is that you have just about any option you can think of.   Down the road I might task Paul with building a center channel speaker (although I expect the Ronins will image so well that it won't be needed). 

Hehe I love the do whatever you want bit.. my wife does the same thing... Not to rant, but I pretty much give my love, my other half free reign over house agenda, can she give me some 48" x12" x 16": love? hmm..
Mike

[John151]

Well, I have had the Ronins in house for several months now, so I thought I would bring closure to this thread with my experience to date.  First off, they look fantastic.  The cherry with black plinths really does it for me.  I didn't choose these speakers for their looks, and had no idea how the cherry would turn out (these are the first non-bamboo versions I have seen), so this is all pure gravy for me!  My exact speakers can be viewed on the Nomad website here:  http://www.nomad-audio.com/images/cherry%20ronin%20web.jpg. 

As for the sound, well, let me start at the beginning:

Several years ago I made some major system changes in the interest of convenience and WAF, which resulted in a complete loss of that intangible quality that makes you look forward to listening.  The sound was only slightly better than the average A/V receiver with matching speakers. While all of my components were highly regarded here at A/C, the system as a whole just did not work well in my listening room.  I became depressed, and quickly lost interest in audio, and was considering giving up 2 channel all together.  However, upon discovering the Ronins, I decided to make a last ditch effort to get back the magic that my system had lost.  After ordering the Ronins, I started making changes to my system like there was no tomorrow (even though I told myself to wait and change one thing at a time).  By the time the Ronins arrived, I had new cables, a new DAC (Lite DAC 62 from Pacific Valve),  a Candella PreAmp, and a variety of NOS tubes.  Also, my main amp had taken a hit during all of this, and was sent in for servicing just before the Ronins arrived.  I switched to my back-up amp, which may not have even been fully broken in.  Thus, there were lots of variables in the equation, and although I tried to get everything broken in before the Ronins arrived, it is not likely that I succeeded. 

The Ronins sounded very good on day one, and steadily improved with time.  Because of all of the recent changes, I could not be certain as to exactly what was breaking in, but the overall sound was definitely improving with time.  After about two months, the sound started to stablize, and I was very happy with the result.  Imaging was great, bass was clean and tight, no fatigue, little details were crystal clear, etc.  However,  I felt there was still room left in my system for improvement, especially with vocals and piano. Some notes just did not sound the way I thought they should, and some vocal tracks were subdued and were overshadowed by some of the instruments.  I wondered if my system was simply "revealing", or if something was not working well.  While I had improved my system considerably, it was not as captivating as I wanted.  My system design strategy was to match warm electronics (i.e. some tubes), with a very neutral speaker (which the Ronin RMD definitely is), to get a sound that is full and rich,  yet detailed and airy. My thinking may be flawed here, but this is what made sense to me, and seemed to be working, but I needed one more change. In thinking about where I could make an improvement, I realized that the only place I did not have tubes was in the amp - this was my back up amp after all (even though a very good one).  On a bit of a whim, I purchased a Vincent SP-331 amp from Sam Roberts at Roberts Acoustics.  Wow, what a difference this amp made!  This was the missing link!  My system is now at a point that just blows my mind - it has the magical sound that I was after, and then some.  I never thought I would own a system that sounds this good!  I honestly expect to keep this system largely as is for a very long time to come.

Now I just need to learn to relax, and enjoy the music. 

[PaulHilgeman]

I never thought I would own a system that sounds this good! 

Those are great things to hear!!!!!

Words to keep manufacturing speakers by (for me at least).

-Paul