Thiel Owners

FYI:

The"more bad news at Thiel" thread panicked me a bit.

I am still deciding on which Thiels - 2.7 or 3.7 - to keep and I'll want spare drivers for whichever one (e.g. spare coax and spare woofers/passive).   I spoke to Rob G. and as I understood it, the spare parts business is still associated with Thiel at this point.   Though he can't say (doesn't know) how this will all turn out, he does still have plenty of spare parts for Thiel legacy speakers and should have them still available for the foreseeable future.

I still think I need to speed up my process of deciding so I know which drivers to order.   My new attempts to pair the 2.7s with subwoofers have really slowed me down though.  It's amazing what an absolute pain in the ass subwoofers are to integrate into my system.  (And subs are a PIA generally, if you want to get them right).

Prof,

Just curious what kind of sub you have and the steps you’ve taken so far to integrate. I too had a tough time, and still tweak my settings/position occasionally. Always interested to see the steps others take when setting up their subs. 

I also saw saw that thread and had the same immediate concerns. Any idea on the approximate costs for the replacement parts?

dhoff01,

Thiel spare parts costs, sent to me quite a while ago from Rob: 

CS3.7 coax - $525
CS3.7 woofer- $400
CS3.7 Passive- $200

The 2.7 speaker parts are, as I remember, between $50 to $100 less per part.

Sub integration:

I haven't had a chance to do much at all since my work started again.
I'd only received a pair of JL Audio e110 subs - the only size that will fight where I need them to go in my room.  Though fortunately the 110s are high quality with stellar reviews.

I first hooked them up "REL fashion" running speaker wire from the Thiel  2.7 terminals back to the sub high level inputs.   Did some mild tweaking, ran the 2.7s full range, dialed in the subs around 40 or 35 Hz.

It really changed the sound of the system.  Obvious gains in low bass, and the sound became fuller, more dimensional, more precise imaging relationships, and more lush.  It also because more rolled off and softer sounding, like my amp had been reduced in power.   So it was some gains and some set backs. 

JL tells me they really recommend against that type of connection and, like many subwoofer aficionados will tell us, the real gain in performance is to be had by crossing over the lower frequencies to the subs, relieving the main speakers for cleaner sound overall.

I've read enough reports, reviews and raves about properly integrated subwoofers to think there is something to this and I'm therefore willing to give it a try, despite my previous disdain for subwoofers.   So I plan to buy the JL CR-1 crossover which apparently makes dialing in subs a dream.  I will also likely try some DSP for the sub signal, running the sub signal through something like an SPeaker Anti Node.   This would digitize the low pass signal in order to do room correction.  I'm thinking I can handle that idea because it would be in the domain where my ears are far less sensitive.  All the upper end goodness would still be the analog signal from my CJ amps/preamp. 

Will see how it goes, but it's going to be a time consuming and pricey experiment.

If all works well, I may end up getting most of what I liked about the bigger 3.7s and more.  (I already like some aspects of the 2.7s over the 3.7s even without subs).

There is a Thiel Smart Sub on E-Bay. The late Jim Thiel built them for his speakers. Heard them years ago. They are the perfect solution. 

Oh man, I took a look for that Smart Sub on ebay and came across an auction that was literally ending in 20 minutes for a Thiel SmartSub SI 1 Integrator!

Those were said to be masterful for blending Thiels and Thiel subs, and rarely come up on the market.  My bidding finger got very itchy and I did some quick research.  Apparently they were only for use with Thiel subs and I have the JL subs.  The SI 1 went for a steal, about $800.

Makes me wonder if I should have bought one of those Thiel subs I thought about on audiogon over the years.

However, the Thiel subs are too tall to place where they need to go under my projection screen so it would have had to go behind the sofa.  Ultimately the two JL subs aligned behind my Thiel speaker are likely the best way to go anyway.