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THIEL Audio their demise...

It was with great sadness this morning when I visited the THIEL Audio website and saw photos of the 'new' designs.
When Jim Thiel designed speakers, there was a form follows function in place. He tried to create the 'Electrostatic Sound' using conventional drivers. Whether you agreed with his 'house sound' was as usual in audio, a personal preference. Some thought the sound 'bright' in the upper mid range. That's fine, personal 'taste' in sound drives us all to various products. One man's 'clear' is another man's 'bright'. But Jim's design philosophy was, 1st order crossovers, time alignment, low distortion--and that was his pursuit for thirty years.
Now, I go to their site and see, 'me too' looking boxes, no alignment (that I can see) and no mention of 1st order, low distortion.
Oh, they probably sound OK--maybe pretty good--but it's not the same company. I recognize the reason for buying a 'Name Brand' with international distribution, I did it myself eight years ago. However, any changes I made were notable improvements--in other words, I didn't buy a Monet and remove the oil and put a water color on the canvas.
I lost a friend when Jim died, and now the world has lost a great speaker line.
Larry
lrsky
bombaywalla's avatar
bombaywalla
1,958 posts
 
Yes, I had a similar experience. Soon after Jim's unfortunate demise I emailed the lady who was his right hand at that time & was apparently running the company then & asked her whether she would maintain the time-coherent design philosophy that Jim had developed over the years & what she knew about this sort of speaker design. I got no reply to my email. :(
Upon Jim's passing, I wrote that company off as a viable speaker company to buy products from.
I surmise here that nobody at the new Thiel understands time coherent speaker design [it's not an easy topic & most of the industry does not understand it as evident in the products that are available in the market. Now, add Thiel to that list! :( ]
unsound
7,329 posts
 
Lrsky, unfortunately; well said.
First we lost John Dunlavy.
Then we lost Jim Thiel.
In the first instance, all was lost.
In the second instance, all was lost,... and then they trampled on a good mans name. Sure they paid for it, but still its all sad, very sad.
dtc's avatar
dtc
1,047 posts
 
Bombaywalla - Kathy was a co-founder of the company along with Jim. They were friends in college. She was a major reason for Thiel's success. He was the designer, she did all the business and sales. It is unfortunately that she did not email you back but it was a very difficult time for her. They had started to revamp the company and then Jim passed away from years of smoking. New owners were brought in to finance the revamp. When the new owners took over, she was suppose to continue on the board, but she left (fired?) almost immediately because of major disagreements with the new owners.

Kathy is a fine lady and was a great partner for Jim. She has moved on, but I am sure she also has some regrets about the current direction of the company she helped found.
dtc's avatar
dtc
1,047 posts
 
Add Cary Audio to the list. Dennis Had founded the company and was the company for many years. He was the one who made single ended tube amplifiers popular. He designed all the tube amps in Cary's current line but often said he had no idea how to design a solid state piece. He brought in new investors as he headed towards retirement and they basically pushed him aside. Dennis was a fine tube designer, but Cary no longer even does new tube amp designs. Their new designs are solid state and are manufactured in China.

Another one of the pioneers whose company has really changed its focus. Of course, his designs are hard to improve upon.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
Its very difficult to design time and phase correct speakers. This is probably one of those cases where the company was bought for the name, but the new owner doesn't have the skill to continue the founders work. It looks like the same thing happened to Wadia.
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