Just wanted to put a bit of an update out there for what will be coming in 2007.
Sentinel - Expect pricing and final release in early February. There will definitely be a showing at the Chicago Audio Society meet on February 18th. So far, things are coming along well. I am a bit dissatisfied with the first cabinet, the woofer is too low, and veneering these things will be very difficult at best. Constructed out of Bamboo, they will look great with the side panels as they are, since the end grain is so interesting. The other option is to pursue hardwoods for the baffle and sides, and then veneer the rear section. Either way, all of the different levels of labor and materials cost needs to mesh in a way to create a great speaker for many tastes and different budget levels.
The crossover is coming along great, I am really satisfied with what is going on so far... very promising.
Ronin - I am happy to say that the version with an integrated woofer amplifier is happening, and all details will be posted shortly, and pictures in early January. I think this will prove to be an enormous success, the flexibility of the Ronin has increased by a large margin with the integration of the woofer amplifier. First, the impedance of the midrange/tweeter combo stays at a nominal 8 ohm load, with minimums of about 6.5 ohms at 250Hz and 15,000Hz. This should make it an easier load on any amplifier and should show a solid increase in headroom on lower powered systems. Even with high powered amplifiers, the benefits of bi-amping can be tremendous. An for some icing on the cake, the woofer amplifier has a single channel of fully parametric EQ, and subsonic filter slope. This will allow you to tune the response to you room, you can get rid of a pesky room mode, or balance a suck-out etc. The subsonic filter can also aid in tuning the speakers to a room, sometimes in smaller sealed rooms, subsonics in recordings can ruin the illusion of an otherwise good performance. Keep in mind that this is adjustable per speaker, so in my room, I have a bit too much in the region below 100Hz from my right speaker and I am a bit lean on the left side since it is more open... perfect solution. Both Q, F, and gain of the equalization are adjustable in a continuous fashion. Pricing is still TBD on this, but expect it to be very reasonable.
I hope also to have a gloss black pair in January as well. This will be replacing the 'originals' that I have had in my listening room for the past year, and should be *really* sharp looking.
Based on feedback from listeners on the tour, I have implemented a contour switch for the tweeter as well, this will have a position for 'normal' and then two reduced settings, this can help tame things in brighter rooms. This is now standard on all Ronins.
Thats all for now, should be an exciting few months around here.
Paul Hilgeman
