[PaulHilgeman]

Greetings, hope you all had a great Thanksgiving here in the US and a great weekend elsewhere.

Following the template:

1.  Introduce yourself.  My name is Paul Hilgeman (obviously), I live in the NW Suburbs of Chicago, but have previously lived in Milwaukee, WI and Valparaiso, IN.  I have a EE from Valparaiso University.  For the last decade I have been literally obsessed with audio reproduction from several fronts, electronics, speakers, and even a bit of recording.  For many of those years I was a poor college student and did most of it myself, amps, preamps, speakers, you name it.  I developed my skills in speaker design and found the most enjoyment and challenge there.  About 3 years ago, I made the decision that I would bring to market a truly unique loudspeaker that fills a niche occupied by no one.  The goals, objectives and features of this speaker would be extremely unique based on several things that I had been working on; it was the combination of these things that resulted in the design called the "Ronin".

2.  Introduce your product.  The Ronin is a very unique loudspeaker; I will summarize the basics and then go into the details.  It is a 3-way, with a silk dome tweeter, an 8" magnesium cone midrange and a 10" aluminum woofer.  The crossover from woofer to midrange are 3rd order acoustic, and from the midrange to the tweeter are 4th order acoustic.  The crossover points are 250Hz and 1300Hz respectively.  The woofer is in a sealed box, with an F3 of 42Hz and an F10 of 24Hz, in most rooms, the measured F3 will be in the mid 20's.   Impedance is 3.5 ohms or greater, sensitivity is 87.5dB/W. They are easily driven by most amplifiers tube and SS that can put out 30W or more depending on listening tastes and environement.

The midrange is mounted on an open baffle and there is no containment of the rear-wave.  This is done for two main reasons.  First, no sound waves are bounced around the cabinet and re-radiated through the cone or cabinet walls coloring the reproduced sound.  Second, this sets up the speaker for proper power response.  Typically a speaker will transition from radiating only forward to radiating in an omni-directional pattern through about 300Hz to 1000Hz.  This is the most difficult part of a speaker to voice and is very room and placement dependant.  The dipole midrange reduces the output of the midrange to the sides of the speaker to a large degree.  This allows the speaker to have a very flat frequency response on axis and off-axis.  More typical closed box speakers will have excess radiation in the range below the 'baffle step' resulting in a bloated sound if placed too close to a boundary. 

The tweeter is mounted in the center of the midrange.  This again is done for two main reasons.  First, the acoustic centers of both drivers are aligned; at no angle above or below will the listener be non-equidistant from both drivers.  Second, it forms a waveguide that limits the radiation of the tweeter at it's lower operating range and reduces distortion, allowing it to cross over pretty low.  Typically a tweeter mounted on a flat baffle will have quite a bit of output directly to the sides and up and down.  A midrange or midwoofer will generally start beaming by the time it crosses over to the tweeter.  This means that the tweeter will almost always have excess off-axis output just above the crossover region.  This is why the 'BBC Dip' was created, to offset this effect.  The waveguide loading reduces the off-axis output of the tweeter through it's lower operating range, providing a very smooth transition from the midrange to the tweeter both on and off-axis.

The cabinet is constructed of solid bamboo, and is well braced in the woofer chamber.  Bamboo was chosen for a variety of reasons.  First, it is very stiff and strong because of the fact that it is constructed in a cross-ply construction with strips running vertically on both the front and rear face and strips running perpendicular through the core.  There are literally thousands of glue joins per speaker.  Bamboo is also a very quickly renewable resource, growing to maturity in 5 years.  The glues used in making the cross-ply bamboo are completely formaldehyde free and non-toxic.  This is in sharp contrast to typical MDF which has been banned several countries.  The bamboo is available in both a natural color and caramelized, which is darker.  It can also be stained a variety of colors and veneer and piano black are always options.  The finish is a very tough water based lacquer; it too is non-toxic.

Nomad Audio also sells a UcD based Class D amplifier called the Niagara.  It is simply a very good amplifier.  I make no testament to it being the ultimate amplifier, but it is far better than anything I could afford with more than 75 watts, therefore I offer it.  It is a dual-mono amplifier based on the UcD400 module by Hypex.  I hand-modify each module.

Within the next few months, a second speaker model will be available; it will be a stand-mounted sibling of the Ronin.  Construction is complete and several drivers have been tested, I am currently voicing out the crossover on a couple different sets of drivers right now and listening.  I can post some pics soon, but I'd expect final details in January.  It will be called the Sentinel and will use a 7" coaxial driver and an 8" woofer.  Current prototypes are 9.5" wide, 15" deep and 21" tall.

3.  Explain why our products are good match for the site.  I personally think that Nomad Audio's products, both speaker and amplifiers, exude value and good sound.  There have been several reviews of the Ronin, anywhere from generally positive to extremely positive.  Most of these are based on the Ronin Road Trip that will probably be going through February.  The pricing of the Niagara Amplifier is extremely competitive with the new chassis model on special for $1600 through January 1st.  The Ronin is also very competitively priced for a large floor standing three-way using top shelf drivers and crossover components.  Both products are priced below their respective sound quality values. 

4.  Acknowledge that you understand the "30-day inactivity rule".  Acknowledged. 

Lastly, please post your opinions of this in addition to just voting, I would be curious to hear your thoughts.

Thank you,
Paul Hilgeman
Nomad Audio

[PaulHilgeman]

Bump!

[MaxCast]

FYI, JohnR is traveling and might be late to this party.

[PaulHilgeman]

Bump!

[Daygloworange]

Paul,

Nice to see you here at AudioCircle. Hope everything works out with your manufacturer's status. I like your use of bamboo as a cabinet material. I had the opportunity to work with some a number of years ago and was quite shocked with the physical properties of it. Interesting choice.

What were the choices which led you to use it in your speaker?

Cheers

[PaulHilgeman]

Hey DGO.

Yeah, it is pretty incredible stuff, I was first exposed to it about 2 years ago.  I picked up a 8" by 8" piece of it, you can immediately feel the rigidity and density.  During the development process of the Ronin, I built an entire speaker out of MDF and also out of Bamboo, the bamboo  definitively had a tighter, cleaner sound to it.  I was really surprised by this myself as the MDF was well braced and very dead when knocking on it. MDF is pretty weird and inconsistent stuff.  It is nice is some ways, but not in others.  All but the absolute top shelf stuff is very dense at the surface and then powdery and soft in the core. 

The other reason is a big one.  MDF is not healthy stuff at all, the glues used it is are full of formaldehyde, and when it is cut and machined breaks into TINY particles.  Both tiny particles of wood and formaldehyde are carcinogens and I really don't want to be breathing it. 

Here is a link from the UK, where I think the stuff might even be banned, but I am not sure:

http://www.childrensfurniture.co.uk/mdf.html

I do plan on veneering a set soon for myself, and for customers in the future if they are interested, but for the most part since it can be stained any color is really not that objectionable.  The 'inlaid' look of the cross-ply patterns is nice as well.

-Paul Hilgeman

[Kevin Haskins]

I'd vote to let Paul have a circle.   He uses sound principles in his product design and looks to be a valuable addition to AC. 

[Daygloworange]

During the development process of the Ronin, I built an entire speaker out of MDF and also out of Bamboo, the bamboo  definitively had a tighter, cleaner sound to it.

Very interesting. Yes, very dense. I couldn't believe it myself. Your findings on the differences in sound are interesting. I have a few 4'x8' sheets of 19mm thick solid phenolic in my shop. It is very, very heavy. I think something like 350(+) lbs per sheet. MDF by comparison is around 95lbs per sheet for a 19mm thickness. I have toyed around with the idea of building a speaker with the phenolic, but haven't yet. This stuff is very, very expensive. But I just might. It's also difficult to machine, very similar to machining solid aluminum.

Yes, I also think it would be great to have Paul as a manufacturer on AudioCircle as well. There are quite a few innovators here, I think Paul would fit in nicely.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers

[PaulHilgeman]

Thanks guys, you are correct, I value sound principles, innovation, and integrity very highly.

As to phenolic materials, yes, the stuff is ridiculous, how flexible is it, I have never had the opportunity to see a piece that large, is it stiff like corian, or more bendable?

[Daygloworange]

It's very, very dense. Quite stiff. Probably stiffer than Corian, denser to machine. It's very hard on tooling.

Cheers

[GHM]

I say..give the man a circle! That way I can bug him daily about a cheaper less glamorous version of his speakers!

[PaulHilgeman]

Hey GHM,

Don't know if you are watching this thread or not (Sentinel Development Thread):

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=34093.0

It will definitely be cheaper, but three-way crossovers will always cost quite a bit more than two way crossovers as long as they are done right.

It might as well be called a mini-Ronin.  7" coax driver, and 8" bass driver, not quite as much bass extension and not as much sensitivity or power handling (dynamic range), other than that, initial tests put it right on track with the Ronin.

I have done testing with a single coaxial driver to generate any bass at all it would have to be in a box (not an open baffle dipole), but it is a bit of a mixed bag, the virtues of coax mixed with the downsides of the midrange having to do all of the bass work typical of a two way are not much of my thing.  If you can't tell already I am a big fan of not stressing the midrange driver.  When the crossover is done right, it is magic having a true midrange.  After the Sentinel I have plans to pursue it further, there are certain things that can really help, namely a double tuned bass reflex to lower driver excursions in the bass and midbass regions.  Stay tuned.

-Paul

[GHM]

Thanks Paul! I missed this thread. That speaker looks like a winner and it's not even together yet!
Yes I'm definitely interested in seeing how this project turns out. aa I'm looking for a speaker to put on 25 inch stands I already have. Or will this speaker come equiped with stands?