Thiel Owners

Just a thought on Thiel in general...

Obviously Jim Thiel did not work within a vacuum all those years.  I have to assume that he assembled a fine team of craftsmen to assist in bringing his theories to fruition. 

My question is, where did they all go when the new regime arrived and chose to abandon all that he worked for?  I know a small part of the story already gained from articles on the web, so I guess my question here is does anyone have any further information?

By the way, this thread is one of the most informative and enjoyable ones I've come across here.  The comments and suggestions I've received from many of the posts have made vast improvements in my system to date. Intelligent, rational discourse is as enjoyable to me as is listening to music. 

Great thread, folks. 

I have a pair of 3.6s. And I want to say upfront, that I love my system. I was new to all of this, and the 3.6s were the first component purchase. And then the research soon took me to how important it was to power them correctly. So, initially I considered matching it with a Levinson, and called the current Thiel people, who recommended Bryston, which I settled on. At first, I looked at a lesser model, but decided to pony up for a few hundred dollars more and get the 4B SST, at 300w. The preamp was a long painful story, and once again ultimately ponied up a bit more than budget, and got a Tom Evans Vibe. Now some of this stuff is a bit uncommon, but good stuff (and expensive in it's time) but I was patient and got good deals on all of it. After a brief, initial go-round with cables/wires from monoprice, I returned the speaker wires, and began to focus on Anticables and Paul Speltz. I started with speaker cables. (Budget was pretty exhausted at this point.) And then several months later ditched the monoprice RCA interconnects for Anticable ICs, more or less completing the system, which is how it sits now.
It was interesting: Through all of this, since I'm starting with no media collection, I'd subscribed to Tidal for lossless. And they have a page at their site where they'll play about six songs, and you choose A/B which one is lossless. If you get most all of them correct, they'll gift you a free month. The interesting thing is, try as I might, I could not succeed in correctly picking these -- until the final ICs from Anticables. Then it was clear; and I got six out of six. I was fascinated at just how much strong equipment I had, and it was that last element that enabled the system to "sing".
The next upgrade (who knows when the budget will allow) will be for Anticable power cord. And then a second, for the amp. Yeah, I know I'm starting to sound like an advertisement, but I REALLY like their stuff. 
What I'd not yet mentioned is that I finished it with an OPPO blu-ray/media server, which I also like very much. Plugged my AppleTV into it, as well as a few terabytes of Network Attached Storage, for lossless downloads, and TIDAL streaming.

In all, I probably went about $500 over original budget for each of the amp and preamp. But I like the match; and really have no question that my current level of quality was driven by the Thiels. But I'm glad for the journey.

Donzi...

Jafant here is a vocal proponent of finding the correct cabling for our equipment. Until I began membership here I had a snake pit collection of various brands that I gave little thought to overall. 

It's difficult for me to acknowledge that I've been a member here for only three years - and I mean that in a good way. Since joining this community my system has improved far beyond what it once was.

When I snared my first pair of 3.5's I was using what I would now term Radio Shack 12 gauge wire from a spool, and yet the Thiels literally "wowed" me upon first listen. One of the first "high end" speaker cables I purchased were entry level Anti-Cables from Mr. Speltz. I still have two pairs of different lengths due to changes in my audio stands, both Salamander. 

Currently I have Transparent cabling throughout my system.  I'd never before compared brands with across-the-board application since it's rather costly to do so, but it seems to be the only method of fairly reaching an opinion. 

Today, as a result of your post I am going to reacquaint myself with my Anti-Cables speaker connects. From what I recall upon my first experience they made an articulate loudspeaker become even more so. And that's saying a LOT when it comes to my Thiels. 

Excellent exchange of ideas, intel and thoughts about our beloved speakers- unsound and Dave.  I look forward in your continued contributions. Happy Listening!