Last weekend I had the chance to visit Glenn Poor's Audio and Video in Champaign IL, had some questions about my BAT VK-55, and luckily Geoff Poor was in the house. I told him about my set-up, he said he sold Thiel back in the day, loved their speakers, was complimentary of my amp/speaker pairing (salesman alert!), and then, unprompted, he offered up that "most people don't remember, but Tom Thiel was a true craftsmen, the fit-n-finish of his cabinets were always superb, and what a lot of people don't realize is the enclosure and cabinet design and manufacture was a good part of what made the speakers sound so good."
Then he had me listen to some new Quads and I was blown away, even with the flash-drops.
Enjoy your weekend listening to music!