Thiel Owners

With respect to unsound post regarding to baffle size, not to say which one is the most "correct", but there seems to be different design philosophies.  Sonus Faber makes a few very wide baffle speakers.  Thiel is somewhat in between with the curved baffle.  Vandersteen basically eliminates the baffle altogether for most of its designs.

In my opinion, the wide baffle has its advantage but it also has its disadvantage.  The wide baffle shifts the diffraction freq. lower, but then the problem is the low freq. image would suffer - that is the low freq. image would become "phasey" and shifting around and not stable.

I don't think you can eliminate diffraction completely.  It's a matter of how to control diffraction for a given speaker design.  

Just to show how the front baffle can affect the soundstage image, I found that (and most others) a small standmount monitor seems to be the best in term of "disappearing" since they have very small "sound foot print" with respect to the baffle size.  Most large speakers cannot do this as well as small standmount since its baffle geometry is much larger and inevitably will get in the way of the sound front.  

Anyway, baffle size, shape, and geometry will bring up different opinions and I guess different designers will have their own preferences.  

^I have sometimes wondered if the imaging advantage of small cabinets might not be in part due to the often limited bass response of these speakers?

That is a valid argument, but I found it is consistent in different type of instruments regardless of bass response.  But anyway, as I mentioned in my previous post, this topic can bring up different opinions that people will end up having their own belief.

I'm getting ready to dive in and begin my project of modding my 3.5. I'm wondering if anyone else is interested in collaborating as it would be more fun. My initial exploration indicated that this speaker is begging for tri amping. It would allow eq the base without stressing the mid range driver. I have found a good substitute for the scanspeak mid range driver that I want to try out. It means I'll have to learn to use various simulation software but at least these are all free and in the public domain. My tweeter is still fine but as these are also no longer available, may look into a substitute. Actually my long-term interest is to mod the coax from the 3.7 (been spoiled by them) and make them work for the 3.5 . I already have support from Rob G. and Tom T. but they are too busy to devote much time to this project, so message me if you have time and energy to devote to this. Thanks

Rules - I believe that your undertaking will be of great value to Thiel fans. The 3.5 was a pivotal product in Thiel's emergence; but it has lots of room to grow. The cabinet is a significant piece of technology, so re-outfitting its DNA for a new life is exciting. Of the 5000+ pairs sold, I suspect a high percentage are salvageable. Those coils are of the SOTA-aerospace 6-9s variety as are the ultra-bypass nano caps.