Thiel Owners

tomthiel, thanks for the grill history! I'm particularly curious about the implementation of the wave guides. What were the goals for their implementation, and to that end how successful where they?

Tom, 

I have an SS2.2. I'll have to move it out from the back wall to get the serial number.(It weighs a short ton!) The 2.2 has a different "back panel" than the 2. Looking back, I probably got one of the last ones produced, as when I went back to the dealer a month later to get a second one, he said there were no more.   It's interesting I was able to get the PX05 with a caption for use with the 2.7 speakers. (The PX02 was out of production).  I have not tried it via the LTE input, although the owners manual shows the capability to connect both the passive PX and an LTE at the same time.  

Unsound - the dispersion at the midrange upper end is narrower than the tweeter's lower end. The wave guide creates some directionality at the low end of the tweeter to better match the midrange for smoother image projection vs frequency. They were quite successful in that the polar pattern is more regular vs frequency. Thiel got away from grilles with frames as addressed above, so that element went away. But . . . the shallow midrange cone was engineered as a waveguide for all the coincident drivers. The deep straight-sided back cone supplies strength when triangulated with the shallow, curved front waveguide cone. Wonders never cease.

brayeagle - I suspect your SS2.2 might have been made by Bash, but I am guessing. I'd love your date of purchase and serial number if you can ever manage the wrestle .

tomthiel, did these waveguides mitigate lobing issues?

No. Lobing is inherent in first order filter slopes; it has to do with additive phase physics. If one tried to massage or average the lobed output, it would adversely affect the power response. However, the sloped baffle (rather than discrete steps with on-axis drivers) serves quite well to manage the lobing: the 15° down-lobe launches toward the listener, making a larger vertical window than would otherwise be the case. The combined launch waves from all the drivers blend quite well at 10' listening distance. Closer requires more careful setup.