Thiel Owners

Thank you *so* much for all this great info, Tom!

I think any changes would be small enough to dismiss

OK, I'll keep this as an option depending on space.

I don't know the relative merits of CMR vs Mundorf.

Reading the anonymous writer at humblehomemadehifi I've concluded that person is a careful listener and has credible thoughts on cap performance. Reading the descriptions literally and between the lines, the CMR appears to be the near equal of the upper range of Mundorf, perhaps a tad less transparent but a scotch more neutral. I think I would be happy with either. From that website and others, it seems that going further up the Supreme line to Oil, Silver Gold, and SGO have rapidly diminishing returns with equally rapid $$$ increase! He/she is a fan of coupling SA with Supreme:

Making a capacitor using about 90% Clarity Cap SA and about 10% Mundorf Supreme works very well, this tends to open up the top end just nicely without altering anything else.

As of now, I'm leaning 20uF SA + 12 CSA + 1 Supreme on the woofer; 15 uF CSA + 12 CSA + 1 CMR and 12 CSA + 1 CSA + 1 CMR on the coax. The double bypass to replace the 28uF cap seems the most challenging to stay away from the coil. Maybe I can get the 27uF CSA from a European supplier - that would really help.

If you can make some trap doors in those corners, you will clean up bass standing waves and flutter echo enormously.

The other opening on the rear wall is a large (5'W x 10'H) walkway into the next room, conveniently in the corner! I have a bookshelf in the other corner on the rear wall. I also have cloth window shades (the front wall is almost all glass) and plants on the floor and hanging along the front wall. One-half of the floor is tile, so I also added a rug on most of that. This room was *really* bright when I moved in but I'm pretty happy with it now. Running a tone sweep fails to reveal any unacceptable room modes.

I like where you are going. It might be possible to move the coil, if there is room in the cabinet. We could move the 0.15mH coil outboard past the end of the panel. That would require crimping and soldering lead extensions - not desirable, but possible. Damp all the caps with putty (BluTac, Mortite, etc.) especially if you stack the caps vertically, to damp microphonics. Note that the power capacity of the chosen caps matters-at least as much as original spec. And if the film-wrap direction is marked, match the original.

Although I've been intrigued by the idea of hot-rodding my Thiels, it sounds like it's a lot of playing-with-fire.  Something of a crap shoot in terms of ending up with similar tolerances/values for replacement parts, vs sticking with the originals that were part of the original design.

@tomthiel *Super* helpful. I owe you a beer or three. Next step is to pull a radiator and see how much room I have to work with. The solution with SA/CSA/Mundorf Supreme is the least expensive (of the options I'm considering) and with the smallest profile. I’d like to go with CSA/CMR on the coax, however, if space allows.

Something of a crap shoot in terms of ending up with similar tolerances/values for replacement parts, vs sticking with the originals that were part of the original design.

A bit of a puzzle to get the correct cap combos that match the original values but not too onerous. I suppose it’s not without risk but I’d be REALLY surprised if I end up with worse sound. Hedging against that possibility is one reason to stick with Clarity on the coax feeds. If it does end up making things worse, Rob Gillum has extras of the SAs that were the in the CS2.4SE. Having Tom Thiel guide me gives me a lot of confidence.

This kind of wrangling of details normally occurs behind the design curtain and the buyer gets what he gets with myriad value judgements / assumptions bundled in the mix. It is not for the faint of heart; the process will lead to critical listening / comparison and then value engineering assessment to assure that the gains are solid / uncompromised and the costs are no more than necessary. Eventually I hope to have upgrade paths for various legacy Thiel products that Rob can supply. We're doing this first trial in view of this supportive group. Thank you, beetle, for jumping in.