Thiel Owners

Hello everyone! Wow, what an informative thread this is! I’ve really enjoyed reading through here and learning so much about Thiel speakers. Such a wealth of information.

I picked up my first pair of Thiel speakers a few months ago. I found a pair of CS7’s locally and couldn’t pass them up. When I bought them, they were described as fully functional, but, as soon as I got them home, I realized there was an issue with one of the 12" woofers. I could hear the coil rubbing the former on bass notes at moderate levels. Thankfully, Rob Gillum was able to help me out. I shipped the woofer off to him and he rebuilt it back to factory spec. Turns out the suspension was a bit tired and allowed the cone to sag which caused the VC to rub. It’s good as new now. I may rotate the other woofer 180 degrees as preventive maintenance. However, removing these woofers is no easy task. Definitely a two person job to minimize the risk of damaging the concrete baffles. The woofer alone weighs 30 lbs!

Anyway, I’ve had them up and running for a few weeks now and I’m really enjoying them! They’re much different from the other speakers I have in our home. In a good way! Excellent detail and imaging. Some of the best I’ve heard in that regard. Bass is clean and tight with no trace of boxy boominess. Really exceptional speakers! I’m running them on a modest setup at the moment; Tidal/Amazon HD, Bluesound Node 2i, SMSL M8a, Anthem Pre 2L SE and Parasound HCA-3500. I’ll be changing things up in the coming week. Curious how the CS7’s will respond. :)

Here’s a shot of them in situ:
https://flic.kr/p/2jeBrwZ
https://flic.kr/p/2jeEdNK

And check out this woofer:
https://flic.kr/p/2jipdwi

The woofer is secured to an internal cross brace via a 3/4" bolt through the phase plug/magnet.
https://flic.kr/p/2jimg5Y

Also note solid core wiring used throughout:
https://flic.kr/p/2jimjGC

Happy listening, All!

@tomthiel I have a pair of Klipsch Chorus II I will be stripping down and doing a restrain before I encounter my 3.5. I also have a pair of the lighter  oak finish (ash?) cs2.2 that has a light cup stain on top that I wouldn’t mind fixing. 

Hey Thiel 'Gonners! Just finished my last round of updates for my 3.6s including the big 100uf ClarityCap CSAs and a handful of Mills MRA-12s among other componets. The sound has, for a lack another word: CLARITY! The bass is much more controlled with better low extention. With the lack of a muddier midbass, the upper mid-band and treble extention are also more revealed. It's quite a trip to listen to them now and more to come after my back-ordered bypass caps and more Mills come in another month or so. In the mean time I'm sending my midranges to Rob at CS for rebuilding next week. While I wait though, I ordered and received a set of ScanSpeak Discovery 12w/4524gs to use in the interum. They were recommended for 3.6s by a reputable distributer but I hadn't seen mention of them here on A'gon nor has Rob heard them used in 3.6s before. I've had them for testing for about a week now and my summed mono A/B comparision reveals them to be forward and too narrow a bandwidth thus far. I'm running them through a pink noise generator for another 100 hours or so but have suspisions they'll fall short of the original, as to be expected. Perhaps some voicing in the crossover would help however, since I'm only using them in the interum, I think I'll just wait it out; yerning for Rob to send back the Vifas ASAP. Anyone else had experience with these ScanSpeaks before or have sugestions?

It sure has been fun catching up with you guys on our forum over the past few days. Looks like the 3.5 continues to get a lot of love and, with the Great Unpleasentness among us now, all these creative minds with more time on their hands, are comming up with so many really wonderful ideas for modding. Keep it up guys! It's so fun to follow your progress and hope that my 3.6 project helps others in some small way as well.

matt0404

Welcome! Good to see you here. Very informative post and system.
The HCA-3500  is still a relevant amp, IMO.  I look forward in reading more about your musical tastes. Excellent shout out for Rob Gillum.

Happy Listening!

Jafant since you want to purchase the Ayre integrated, did you also think about the Gryphon Diablo 300 ?That's one very good alternative in the same price range and you could find a used one.
Cheers.