Thiel is officially closed!!

Aren’t they sometimes "seized" and that kinda thing, so they disappear?

If there are loans, the bank will want their money back. If there are not loans, the owners will want to cut their losses. Any spare drivers will surely be available from someone - they won't be locked up or thrown away if they are worth money. @jafant reported that Rob Gillium has arranged to buy the service aspect of Thiel. There is cause to be alarmed but it sounds like Thiel owners will still get repairs and replacement parts.

Thiel owners, it goes without saying but please take good care of your speakers. Mine are precious reproducers of music and I would be very sad if they no longer worked. There is Vandersteen, of course, but they don’t sound like Thiel, and shouldn’t. I hope that someone from Jim’s inner circle can find a way and have the motivation to restart and carry forward Jim’s design philosophy and expertise. I won’t hold my breath.

RIP Thiel.  You really passed with the venerable Jim Thiel in 2009.  I’ll always have the fondest memories of Thiel.  I still believe to this day my best system ever was with Thiel CS2 2, Classe 200 monoblocks, ARC ls25 preamp, ARC CD3 and MIT cabling.  We move forward.

beetlemania,

Given the way Thiel has been run since the new ownership, I’d presume the worst case scenario in terms of finances.

Jafant mentioned Rob Gillium was working on become a proprietor for Theil legacy parts/work...but I don’t know that was completed, or what the closure of Thiel means for that venture.

Though, I’m guessing that it was clear Thiel wasn’t going to be in the business of servicing legacy speakers and with writing on the wall, I’m hoping Rob was actually preparing with this day in mind, so he could still service legacy Thiels, not linked to the fortunes of the current Thiel company.

I hope.

I'm also concerned regarding Ayre with the recent passing of Charles Hansen.

Ayre has a leg up relative to what happened at Thiel. Jim Thiel pretty much failed to train another engineer that could carry the legacy and vision in his absence. When Kathy Gornik sold Thiel, the new owners brought on an engineer that *completely* threw out all of Thiel's design principles (first-order crossovers, pistonic drivers, sloped cabinets, etc)! Why even keep the Thiel name other than brand recognition?

In the case of Ayre, Ariel Brown has worked with Hansen for something on the order of 20 years. No doubt things will be different at Ayre but I suspect we'll continue to see more designs with Hansen's philosophy (no negative feedback, fully balanced, etc.). We should know very soon - supposed to be a new integrated with onboard DAC released directly.