Soft dome tweeter replacement for Thiel 3.6s


I am a long time Thiel owner and still in love with my Thiel 3.6s. They are driven by Mark Levinson 23.5 amp and Cary Audio SLP 03 tube preamp with NOS tubes.

I have a question about replacing Thiel 3.6 Vifa tweeters with soft dome tweeters. Rob Gillum at Coherent Source Service sent me a pair of soft dome tweeters. After replacement, my immediate observation was that slight harshness in the upper octave has disappeared compared to the original Vifa tweeter. Imaging is still excellent, but I feel that they were ever so slightly better focused with the Vifa tweeters. I am talking about nuances here, not differences as clear as day & night.

I know the late Jim Thiel (May He Rest in Peace!) was very particular about his crossovers being optimized to each driver. So I am just thinking even though soft dome tweeter works, the Vifa tweeter may still be a better fit. Appreciate your experience/feedback if you have replaced tweeters in 3.6s.

p.s. I am going to ask Rob to replace the ferro-fluids of the original Vifa tweeters and hope that will reduce the harshness/brightness. After all these are more than 20+ years old

pwerahera

I replaced the Vifa tweeters in my Von Schweikert VR-4 speakers with Scanspeak D2905 soft dome tweeters. I found an NOS set of the original Vifa tweeters, but I think the Scanspeak sound better. 

The Vifa tweeter that was commonly used back in the day was a pretty inexpensive tweeter. 

If you haven't already, you should post this on jafant's Thiel Owners thread.  Lots of experience there.

rcprince

Good to see you talking about Thiel speakers. Drop by the thread sometime.

 

Happy Listening!

pwerahera

You are certainly on the right track-consulting and working with Mr. Rob Gillum at CSS.  Feel free to join Us over on the Thiel Owners thread. Many fans and owners of 3.6 loudspeaker on the Panel.

 

Happy Listening!

@jafant

@rcprince

I posted this earlier in the Thiel Owners thread, but didn't get a response. So I deleted that and re-post as a new one here. Thanks for the reply.