Ramiro Ramírez has worked in professional audio, from the actual beginning of the installation of plants for manufacturing, to the processes of technology transfer, product design and engineering, production management and administrative and management.
By Richard Santa
With 36 years of experience in the audiovisual industry, Mexican engineer Ramiro Ramírez has been a witness to the evolution of audio in his country, both from the manufacture and handling of products. He spoke with AVI LATINOAMÉRICA about his experiences in these years and his vision of the industry.
After graduating in 1980 from Communications and Electronics Engineering at the University of Guadalajara, he immediately linked to the audiovisual industry in the company Acoustic Control of Mexico, where he spent 10 years and then went through Acoustic International, Meridian Audio Labs, Tecno-Trabajos Acústicos, until he reached Sensey Electronics, where he has been for 11 years.
He remembers that before finishing his degree he was already cutting baffles in the garage of his house at the point of saw, with so little craft, that they were made of solid pine brushed, rubberized and joined with nails. These were two- and three-way baffles, with universal frequency separators of the Philmore brand, purchased in the center's electronics stores.
"Those baffles sounded really bad. Specifications?; And what did he get that with? No, the specifications didn't exist in my universe yet. Already later a neighbor who studied at cereti half-taught me, and among other things he told me: 'Make them a hole in front ... The bass sounds better." And I started to notice, and I saw that it was true.
It was not until I joined Acoustic Control in Mexico, that I met the first Guru of electronics and acoustics who transmitted to me the first elementary knowledge about the design of loudspeakers. Your name? Russell Vance Allee, then head of engineering at acoustic's plant in Van Nuys, CA."
"Russ", as everyone knows him, is passionate about audio and electronics, and a born master. In his extensive career, he has worked the same for NASA, designing LNA's for tracking spy satellites, or the same for Fender (he is the designer of the popular "Passport" system), in addition to a handful of American companies with which he also collaborated. He also had his own company called AMP (Amplified Music Products), where he produced some models that continue to be a reference among American purist enthusiasts, fans of bass amplifiers.
Ramiro Ramírez added that "being Russ a person unable to stay for himself with his extensive knowledge, I took advantage of the circumstances and his patience, asking again and again how much doubt came to mind, while he gave me books and hardware built by himself, to be able to make my first SPL and impedance graphs with the help of an Excel sheet. It was thanks to him that I understood extensively the operation of an acoustic cabinet and knew advanced terms of the behavior of acoustic waves and what refers to them. "
Design and research
Sensey Electronics, where Ramiro Ramirez currently works, is located in Guadalajara. His work is mainly related to the design of new products and the modification and updating of current models.
As part of his work, he said that "once a system is prototyped and built, it is necessary to make field measurements to observe its behavior as a whole. The Engineering and PRO Audio department that is responsible for carrying out these measurements. When these tests are done, I'm usually an observer, to get feedback on any issues firsthand."
Therefore, for this Mexican engineer the main challenge of his work is the development of products with the highest reliability and quality at the best possible price. This implies a teamwork, in which several people contribute the best to carry out the task.
When talking about the evolution of the industry, Ramiro Ramírez compares his beginnings in live events with what he lives today. "I realize the real progress made in this imperfect world of acoustics. We understand that the natural environment through which sound waves are transported is very capricious, fickle and dependent on different variables. There is no doubt that there has been an evolution. The use of computers and useful programs have changed everything. Today we can simulate baffle responses or entire systems in a virtual scenario, modifying a large number of parameters and variables, both for design and for real-time operation."
The importance of knowledge and technique
There are many stories and experiences lived by our Professional of the month in this long career, but there is one anecdote in particular that he likes very much. During an outdoor sponsorship event many years ago, he and his team carried a linear arrangement system consisting of eight boxes per side of a passive model called the LA-212, and which is composed of two 12" speakers, connected in parallel, handling 600W effective in 4 Ohm for the low medium track, plus a compression driver for the high frequency track, with power management of 120W effective in 16 Ohm.
The sensitivity of these components is very high (99 dB/1W/1m for the horn and 111 dB/1W/1m for the compression driver). For reasons of logistics and transportation, it was decided to work the means at 2 Ohm and the treble at 4 Ohm; in this way a single amplifier capable of delivering a minimum of 480 W per channel in 4 Ohm for all treble and two amplifiers capable of delivering a minimum of 1,200 W per channel in 2 Ohm for all media speakers would suffice, all this without counting the bass tracks.
So it was enough a single rack with only three amplifiers for a whole line of 8 baffles in linear arrangement. On that occasion the racks were armed with two amplifiers model HCF-PRO40 (1,900W/channel in 2 Ohm) and an amplifier model HCF-PRO30 (1,030W/channel in 4 Ohm), both of the Back-Stage brand.
As it was a great event, other systems were installed in other scenarios, all of them clones of big brands, deploying piles of racks of immense power to feed fists of energy-devouring speakers, but of low sensitivity, serving as a reference for installers, and causing their system to look anemic.
He added that "several times I heard the comment of the peepers who came to browse during the installation: 'That rack can not ... He's not going to lift them... It's a lot of speakers for three amplifiers." When it came time for the event, not only was our system heard with more sound pressure, but with more clarity, thanks to the perfect phase alignment work done by one of our engineers with the use of a digital processor, while the other systems were not calibrated with an advanced method."
For him, this anecdote serves, on the one hand, to emphasize the importance of choosing components that have the highest possible efficiency, in order to use less powerful, less heavy and less expensive amplification, and at the same time serves to exemplify the importance of carrying out a measurement and alignment work as close as possible to perfection, to get the most out of the equipment you work with.
Chiva at heart
When he is not dedicated to the development of new audio products, Ramiro Ramírez divides his free time between his family, composed of his wife, his two children and his granddaughter, and his hobbies, among which are reading, guitar and good music, astronomy and science fiction.
Sport is also another of his favorite pastimes. He practices jogging and is fond of sports on wheels such as motorcycling and motorsport. In addition, he is a fan of Las Chivas de Guadalajara, so he declares himself a "Chiva of heart".
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