Thiel Owners
Hi Again Everyone, Hope you’re all getting ready for some great holiday season listening. Disconcerting recent news/rumors about Thiel’s possible demise isn’t it, though not exactly the surprise of 2017. Frankly, in the voice of the best Bond villains: "we’ve been expecting you." My main, and admittedly selfish, fear is what happens if I sent something off for service and the company was suddenly closed down. As I explained in detail here a few months ago, I was able to do a 100% effective repair on a minute tear in one of my midrange drivers, but I’d still like to get both pairs fully refurbed at some point. The issue is that I don’t want to disturb anything while my repair holds up and right now there’s no reason to think it won’t, or that I couldn’t perform the same repair again. But what happens to our precious bits and pieces that may be in Kentucky at time of close down etc? I’m sure Rob would do what he can, but obviously events can happen fast and unpredictably when a company closes, for whatever reason. Let’s hope that the ship steadies. I confess that confidence isn’t high. The new MD so far seems oblivious to two channel and solely appears to be on some sort of mission to use lifestyle marketing to sell upscale Bluetooth speakers to millennial types. Maybe the longer term plan is better than it currently looks? However I do wish another audiophile speaker manufacturer would attempt a buyout, as the current management appears to know as much about real hifi as I do about what is fashionable clothing/style these days i.e. zilch. Still loving my 3.5s and currently feeding them with tubes. Beautiful sound. |
unsound- your story is very close to my own. My first taste of Thiel occurred at Soundscape in Baltimore. This dealer/retailer featured a pair of CS 2.4 and Vandersteen 2 CE Signature, 3A models. I was able to switch between all (3) for several months. The CS 2.4 won as it had the richest sound/timbre to my ears. Happy Listening! |
Thanks for your welcome, jafant, and for your reply, Prof. I have some deadlines looming and a family member going through some serious medical issues, so I’ll have to limit my time here. I’ll try to respond to your queries a bit at a time. My system: AMG Viella turntable with Benz Micro LPS-MR cartridge on an HRS M3X isolation platform; Sonore ultraRendu powered by Uptone Audio LPS-1; Classé CP-800 with on-board phono stage, 192 kHz DAC, and ethernet; Classé CT-2300 stereo amp; Thiel CS3.7s, Thiel SW-1 (retired), 2X JL Audio Fathom f112s, now with solo Thiel PXO5 crossover, but soon to be replaced by Thiel SI-1 Integrator; Stealth cables: hyperphono, Indra v10, Dream; GIK room treatments: early reflection points, corner soffit bass traps, array of 50 Hz tuned bass traps on rear wall with “alpha” blonde wood diffusion grills; Isolation and vibration control: various Stillpoints, BDR shelves and cones; Running Springs Audio Dmitri power conditioner with HZ cord. (Most of my gear was purchased used at steep discounts. Still, it adds up.) I did run the SW-1 in a horizontal position because my wife didn’t approve vertical. This was challenging, because I had to invent an isolation and vibration control system since I have a suspended wood floor. It worked pretty well, but not perfectly. I’m going to try Auralex Subdude IIs under the JLAs, maybe a simpler and more effective solution? In the end, changes to our living room furniture ruled out the horizontal SW-1 for reasons probably similar to those Prof mentioned. I worked with (free) acoustic consultants at GIK to develop my acoustic treatments. Most of it is standard treatment of early reflection points and soffit traps in the corners. More notable was severe SBIR cancellation off the rear wall. This was killing bass at the listening position. The tuned bass trap array was the only way to solve this, and as promised by GIK, it works. I made numerous measurements with Room Eq Wizard (REW) to understand my room's acoustics and to inform the GIK consultants. Room treatments are essential to get the best out of your system (but I understand this isn’t always possible — I’d like to also treat early reflections off our ceiling, but that’s a bridge too far). In particular, low bass will muddy up your high end if you don’t control low-end reverberation times. Adding a sub can make this problem worse. This might be why some people find that adding a sub makes their system sound rolled off on top. Prof, check out these links related to subs in general and an interesting case study of getting phase and time-coherent integration with JLA subs and a Marchand crossover. http://www.soundoctor.com/whitepapers/subs.htm http://www.soundoctor.com/studio/ Unfortunately, in my case, I'd have to put my subs right next to me on the sofa to replicate this solution in my room (heh). I don't want to push Marchand too hard, in part because I've never heard or touched one. But based on what I've read, they should be just as compatible with JLA subs as the CR-1. Compare the controls on the XM66 http://www.marchandelec.com/xm66.html to the CR-1, I think they're very similar. |
