Nomad Audio at Steve Ks PICS

PaulHilgeman · « **on:** 19 May 2006, 06:00 pm »

Hi,

Would you guys be interested in me bringing down the new Nomad Audio speakers for a demo?

I have some interesting electronics as well.

Let me know,
Paul
Nomad Audio

EDIT - Corrected date of September 16th
Scott F. edit - Added PICS to the topic name

Scott F. · « **Reply #1 on:** 20 May 2006, 12:17 am »

Quote from: PaulHilgeman

Hi,

Would you guys be interested in me bringing down the new Nomad Audio speakers for a demo?

I have some interesting electronics as well.

Let me know,
Paul
Nomad Audio

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the offer!

Guys??

DeadFish · « **Reply #2 on:** 20 May 2006, 12:42 am »

Quote from: Scott F.

Quote from: PaulHilgeman
Hi,

Would you guys be interested in me bringing down the new Nomad Audio speakers for a demo?

I have some interesting electronics as well.

Let me know,
Paul
Nomad Audio

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the offer!

Guys??

I'm always interested in 'interesting'.

I for one would be happy to hear your 'stuff' if you are down this way, Paul. Kind of you to offer.
The trick however is oft getting people together at the same time in the same place.

Regards,
DeadFish

steve k · « **Reply #3 on:** 20 May 2006, 02:43 am »

That's nice of you to offer, Paul. I'd like to hear them. What is the sensitivity of the Nomad and is it biampable? I'm curious about the open baffle concept.

On another note, I will have to give up my seat at Electricbear's gathering.

I will be out of town that weekend so once again, sigh, I'm missing an exciting event. I'd be happy to sell my PSL to another taker.

I'd love to hear those Avalons, Tim!!

If the Nomad connection doesn't work out at Tim's, I'd be happy to host their St. Louis premier at another time assuming my amps can drive them. Talk amongst yourselves.
steve

PaulHilgeman · « **Reply #4 on:** 27 Jun 2006, 07:21 pm »

Quote from: steve k on 20 May 2006, 02:43 am

That's nice of you to offer, Paul. I'd like to hear them. What is the sensitivity of the Nomad and is it biampable? I'm curious about the open baffle concept.

On another note, I will have to give up my seat at Electricbear's gathering. I will be out of town that weekend so once again, sigh, I'm missing an exciting event. I'd be happy to sell my PSL to another taker. I'd love to hear those Avalons, Tim!!

If the Nomad connection doesn't work out at Tim's, I'd be happy to host their St. Louis premier at another time assuming my amps can drive them. Talk amongst yourselves.
steve

Hey, sorry I didnt see this earlier, I didnt get a notification ?!?

Anyways, They are around 86dB, and that is an honest figure. Recently I A/B'd with a pair of Odyssey Lorelei, and the difference must have been 3-4dB more on the Ronins.

They are pretty typical for a 4 ohm load. I really havent had any trouble with any amplifiers driving them so far, and I have tested with:

Odyssey Stratos
Bryston 3bsst
Ayre V-5xe
Ayre V3
Ayre V-1xe
Panasonic XR-45
Tidal Impact
UcD180 (Similar to CI-Audio D100)
Ucd400 (Similar to CI-Audio D200)

All were very good, and capable of playing VERY loudly without clipping.

They can be bi-wireable, or tri-wirable, all demo pairs have a single pair of posts, but I can change this if you want to.

Unfortunately this is too short of a notice for me to make it there, so we will have to try again.

How does August 18th sound?

-Paul Hilgeman

steve k · « **Reply #5 on:** 27 Jun 2006, 11:21 pm »

Hi Paul,
I'll have to get back to you on that one. Looks like you've used a lot of SS and digital amplification. Do they work with tubes? I've got about 125 wpc into 4 ohms with my monoblocks.
steve

PaulHilgeman · « **Reply #6 on:** 28 Jun 2006, 12:17 am »

Do you know what the output impedence / damping factor is. With most high-end, high-power tube amps, the damping factor is pretty high, and pretty constant with frequency, but as long as it is relatively high, it should be fine.

What speakers do you currently use, and which amp is it. The systems are not back on line.

-Paul

steve k · « **Reply #7 on:** 28 Jun 2006, 12:48 am »

They're VTL MB-125 monoblocks. Output impedance is 5 ohms. I'm using them on the bass panels of Magnepan IIIA's with a VTL ST-85 on top. I don't know the damping factor but I also use Speltz's Autoformers on the bass panels at 3X so the amps are seeing a nominal 12 ohm load from the maggies' bass panels.
s.

PaulHilgeman · « **Reply #8 on:** 28 Jun 2006, 03:19 pm »

See the attached image.

Blue is the frequency response transfer function with just the 5 ohm output impedance.

Green is the frequency response transfer function with the 5 ohm output impedance and the 3x Transformer

Red is the frequency response transfer function with the 5 ohm output impedance, plus a simple impedance compensation circuit, that flattens the impedance through the midrange, therefore we get a very simple voltage-divider with the 5 ohm series resistance and the 4 ohm speaker load, and a pretty good loss of sensitivity as a result.

In the bass region, a impedance compensation circuit is completely unreasonable, as it would need to be the size of a small refrigerator because of the massive size of the components.

The circuit with just the impedance compensation, or no transformer, would have a punchier bass. With the transformer, the bass would be almost identical to that of the speaker driven by a low output impedance amplifier.

All in all, looking at the transfer functions, and considering the bass response, the version with the transformer, and the impedance compensation would be nearly identical in terms of frequency response to it being driven by a low output impedance amplifier, there would be a subtle difference, but it would be how I would run it if I was using that amplifier.

The versions without the impedance compensation would sound quite a bit different, especially without the transformer, and wouldn’t be representative of how the speaker was designed to sound.

I have constructed this impedance compensation circuit for evaluation purposes on some of the amplifiers that I listed above. It is only moderately expensive, but none of the amplifiers had any problem driving the speakers in either situation, and the change in sound was minimal and by others and myself was listed as a simple difference, not a better/worse scenario.

Hope this helps, if you have questions, please ask.

-Paul

steve k · « **Reply #9 on:** 28 Jun 2006, 03:48 pm »

Sounds like they'll work fine, Paul. The IIIA's sensitivity are around 85dB. I just use the Autoformers to ease the load on the tube amps a bit. We can certainly try them either way. Doesn't sound like we can biamp though.

I'd be happy to have you down for a small gathering of Gassers. I can reasonably seat about 6-8 people before we start stepping on each other. I think we've seen some interest from others here. I'm out of town next week but when I get back in town we'll shoot for your August 18 date. Would that be in the evening and will you be staying over in St. Louis?
steve

PaulHilgeman · « **Reply #10 on:** 28 Jun 2006, 04:15 pm »

Actually, I looked at the calendar, and the 19th in the evening would actually be better, I had thought that the 18th was the saturday, but it is the 19th. If the 19th dosnt work, and we have to do it the 18thy, I am sure that I can arrange somthing.

Yes, I will be staying with some friends in the area.

I can actually drop them off when it is convenient saturday morning, and then come by saturday evening when you all get together, that way you can have some real time with them, then I can either take them saturday evening, or come back sunday morning to pick them up. I am pretty flexible with how we arrange things.

I look forward to meeting you guys. Let me know when you know if we can firm the date up.

Have a great rest-of-the week and a good 4th!

-Paul Hilgeman

steve k · « **Reply #11 on:** 28 Jun 2006, 04:39 pm »

Paul,
The 19th works much better for us too. I'll have time to grill some brats etc. Thanks for the kind offer. If you have any other amplification, cables etc. that you'd like to bring feel free as well. You have a good one too.

Well guys, what do you think??

steve

PaulHilgeman · « **Reply #12 on:** 28 Jun 2006, 05:17 pm »

Here is what I own, and would gladly bring:

Welborne Labs, balanced, discreet passive attenuator.

Ayre CX-7e CD Player

UcD400 amplifier, much like CIAudio D-200 Amplifier

I grew up in Milwaukee, so you can always count me in for a Brat.

-Paul

PaulHilgeman · « **Reply #13 on:** 28 Jun 2006, 05:18 pm »

Oh, and my cables are a whole grab-bag of variety. I will bring a bunch of DIY stuff, and some commercial stuff.

-Paul

Scott F. · « **Reply #14 on:** 1 Jul 2006, 09:40 pm »

Guys, Paul, Steve,

I thought I'd try my hand at the new AC moderators software and see if I couldn't split the Nomad Audio tour from the gathering at Tims place. Guess what? It worked! John R just in case you are reading this, this version of the software is much, much easier to use.

Anyway, alls I did was split off the Nomad Audio speaker tour from Tims so that we could keep track of it a bit easier. Feel free to keep posting in both threads.

PaulHilgeman · « **Reply #15 on:** 3 Aug 2006, 03:04 pm »

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to keep you posted on what is going on.

This event is definitely going to happen, but it might not be the 19th of August. We are trying to work things out now, but it will be before the end of September.

I will post here in the next few days when I know more.

Thanks for your patience,
Paul Hilgeman

steve k · « **Reply #16 on:** 3 Aug 2006, 03:39 pm »

Thanks for the update, Paul. Keep us posted. By the way, there is definitely interest in hearing the Ayre CD player too.
Thanks,
steve k

PaulHilgeman · « **Reply #17 on:** 3 Aug 2006, 04:19 pm »

Absolutely. It took two years of auditioning and that is what it came to

.

-Paul

bpape · « **Reply #18 on:** 15 Aug 2006, 01:33 pm »

Any more news on this?

Bryan

steve k · « **Reply #19 on:** 15 Aug 2006, 03:20 pm »

It's still on. Paul and I have been coordinating. More later.
steve

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