Thiel Owners

Thiel 1.5, Prima Luna tubes, OppoSE, Nordost & Anti Cables- paradise. Hope to have 3.6 (or 2.4) some day, while waiting for a donation of Quads.

Good to see you-  Ifssbn1

how do you like the CS 1.5 w/ Nordost/Anti-cable combo?

Happy Listening!

Guys any of you going to the Munich show next month ?
I'll be there friday and saturday.
If some of you are going and want to meet let me know.

oblgny,
Wow, your statement of THIELS are Maggies with more bass... that's a very sage comment. When I worked for him, we discussed design in depth many times... he would say, Electrostatic/Panel speakers were the best... that sound, (cabinetless) was his goal. Man, you really nailed it.

Larry

Larry (irsky),

Do you mean you worked for Jim Thiel?

I had a conversation with Jim at a CES years ago and we got into his motivation regarding speaker design.  He told me that he'd originally been very enthusiastic about panel speakers (stats and ribbons) because of what they did so well.  But ultimately he concluded there were some inherent design limitations that he couldn't see getting past, and that though he felt box speakers were not quite at the level of planar performance, there was more potential to be exploited in future designs, so he went with box speaker route.

I have to say that Jim was certainly right.  To my ears the limitations of panels remain to this day, especially electrostatics.  That is a certain weightless lack of air-moving quality that, though transparent, doesn't excite the room.  It's like watching musicians perform in another room, as it were. This is just were good dynamic speakers excel - Jim's designs being a perfect example - of bringing forth that density and presence in the sound.   This I think is behind the comments we often hear about Thiels being like "maggie's with bass."  It's not just the bass region, but Thiels produce a transparency and tonality quite like maggies, but with the air-pushing presence through the whole spectrum.