Thiel Owners

jafant,

Hope you find the perfect cables for your system soon. By the way, I noticed that the same dealers that carry SwissCables also often carry the Swedish Qln speakers, which appear to be getting lots of positive reviews. I saw that the Qln speakers are designed with time-aligned drivers, but I'm not sure they use the first-order crossovers used in Thiels. Have you ever heard any of the Qln models or know anything more about them?

Hi sdl4,

I have heard the QLN Prestige 3 and perhaps I can share my thoughts about it.

At my local dealer's showroom, I find the QLN Prestige 3 is a wonderful pair of speakers. It is predominantly musical sound profile with the ability to throw the soundstage behind the speakers and (when needed) project forward. It is very three dimensional if you will.

A close friend of mine owns a pair of QLN Prestige 3. His system configuration looks something like this:

Source - Melco
DAC - Mola Mola Tambaqui
Preamp - Benchmark LA4
Power amp - Benchmark AHB2 (mono) x2

Cables - a mix of Tellurium Q Silver Diamond (USB & Speaker cable) and Acrolink Mexcel 3300 XLRs.

When it is in my friend's system, I find the QLN Prestige 3 was another level above. Music had skin, body, flesh and bone. The coherency and imaging are palpable and firm. For what it is and the system, it is resolving, detailed, yet has a good balance between neutral sound and musical flow. The overall sonic performance can rock hard with its tremendous bass and transient snares, while it can also create a jazz bar ambience that is smooth and relaxing. The real takeaway for me with Prestige 3 and Tellurium Q is the overall "flow" of music. I find it hard to articulate but my experience tells me that I enjoyed the music so much more than I could imagine, and it sounded "just right".

Even in my system (Benchmark LA4 and AHB2 monos), I am using Tellurium Q Ultra Silver XLRs and Speaker Cable with Thiel  2.7.

ydjames

Good to see you again. Thank You for citing Tellurium Q as a sonic match for Thiel speakers. This brand is on my short-list to audition.

Happy Listening!

sdl4

I will have an opportunity to audition QLN speakers on my next Swisscable demo. This will be the Prestige 5 model.  October is slated on my calendar. I will post my impressions and thoughts here.

Happy Listening!

Sdl4 - pro / high-end contains very valid concerns. I find it fascinating how people limit their bandwidths when approaching complex subjects. Benchmark makes undeniably great products and John Siau is an obviously world-class designer. I broached the subject of wire with him and his response was that the star quad configuration cancels all relevant distortions and is therefore as good as it gets. (my simplification.) I brought up "teflon" vs polypropylene dielectrics, and metal purity, crystal structure and surface polish. He dismissed those elements as irrelevant. My personal history proved those elements to be relevant and audible. People admit what they can understand and effective people tend to reject what they can't cope with. You might be well served to get some Benchmark and Morrow (on sale) for direct comparison. Please report back.