Thiel speaker service


Hello, I just wanted to pass along about Rob at Coherent Sound and the repair he did on a tweeter/midrange driver that needed repair on my Thiel CS 2.3 speakers. Rob was very helpful and informative and the fastest turnaround time for a repair I have ever seen. The price was reasonable considering the repair that needed to be done, I would like to see more businesses operate that way. Anyway got the driver installed and the speakers sound great. I would highly recommend any Thiel owner to Rob for repairs.
128x128hoghead1
I sold a busted Thiel CS3.7 COAX driver last week. The buyer is sending it to Rob to fix the tweeter.

Rob remotely helped me rebuild my totally messed up CS3.7. Could not have done that without his help.
Rob is fantastic!  He diagnosed a problem for me remotely, sent me the part, then helped me over the phone put it on. He was exceptionally fair with the price. Too bad Thiel went down like they did. 
I also had a great experience with Rob regarding rebuilding the woofer in my CS6. I dearly love these speakers and it was a huge relief to be able to repair them.

Regarding Thiel's demise, there are different ways to look at it. Jim Thiel was a genius and he doggedly pursued his vision for phase and time coherence in spite of technical challenges that most speaker designers feel are insurmountable. He did not have an understudy nor did he have a team of engineers doing most of the work. When he died the company pretty much died with him.  According to his brother, Tom, they tried to find someone to replace him but were unsuccessful. The new owners tried to steer the company in a new direction but couldn't make a go of it.

There's an anecdote that has Jim talking to a major high end speaker manufacturer at a trade show and he's reluctant to discuss an idea because he hasn't patented it yet. The other executive laughed and said something to the effect, "I don't know why you waste money on patents. Nobody is going to try to copy what you do. What you are doing is impossible."

High end audio speakers are an extremely complicated component with difficult tradeoffs. I would dare say that most successful high end speakers are the result of one person's vision. David Wilson was fortunate to have a son who was capable and interested in taking over the design process of their speakers. Jim Thiel was not so lucky.
hoghead1

Good to read that you had a favorable experience with Mr. Rob Gillum at CSS. Feel free to join us over on the Thiel Owners thread. We have a few CS 2.3 fans and owners on the Panel.

Happy Listening!