Danhirsh,
When I said that about THIEL, I was sort of saying it about all loudspeakers. We all have our favorites--maybe a function of our hearing.
Being overly sensitive to the high frequencies, I neverthless loved the articulation of the THIEL Loudspeakers as well as the scientific approach that he employed in his designs, that, plus Jim was my mentor in High End Audio, got me involved in the industry in the early '80's. Plus, he was a giant of an intellect regardless of one's personal tastes in loudspeakers. His work was brilliant in so many ways.
When I worked for him, I found him to be much greater than I could even have imagined. Oftentimes, at a distance, those we admire, become less through daily contact--the opposite was true of Jim--he was as hard of a working person, dedicated, that I have ever known--AND a really great and gentle man too--and for all of his personal gifts, the most humble genius I've ever met.
One day in his lab, while discussing his designs I told him that I liked the CS5 above all his others, and thought that it had to do with limited bandwidth that the drivers were asked to cover--a fact which I felt gave the speakers a more effortless sound. Plus the overall, 'brightness' that some people did not like in the THIEL's was absent in the CS5--likely due to midrange offset. We were in total agreement on these points.
For those who don't know, the CS5 was his first and last Cost No Object design, done in late '88--a project which lasted many, many months. It was designed, in part, if I recall correctly, due to the Asian market asking Jim to design a 'no holds barred' product.
Crossovers, (by memory here) of 70Hz, 400Hz 2K, 3K gave the speaker a really great image density (that's what I meant when talking about midrange 'offset') that some first order crossovers don't seem to possess, perhaps due to 'lobing' and other cancellation issues consistent with that design. To me, it was a GREAT SPEAKER...and a wonderful Birthday present that year from my wife.
For anyone who's thinking of this price (about 3 to 5K perhaps) a well taken care of used pair is a real bargain.
Larry
When I said that about THIEL, I was sort of saying it about all loudspeakers. We all have our favorites--maybe a function of our hearing.
Being overly sensitive to the high frequencies, I neverthless loved the articulation of the THIEL Loudspeakers as well as the scientific approach that he employed in his designs, that, plus Jim was my mentor in High End Audio, got me involved in the industry in the early '80's. Plus, he was a giant of an intellect regardless of one's personal tastes in loudspeakers. His work was brilliant in so many ways.
When I worked for him, I found him to be much greater than I could even have imagined. Oftentimes, at a distance, those we admire, become less through daily contact--the opposite was true of Jim--he was as hard of a working person, dedicated, that I have ever known--AND a really great and gentle man too--and for all of his personal gifts, the most humble genius I've ever met.
One day in his lab, while discussing his designs I told him that I liked the CS5 above all his others, and thought that it had to do with limited bandwidth that the drivers were asked to cover--a fact which I felt gave the speakers a more effortless sound. Plus the overall, 'brightness' that some people did not like in the THIEL's was absent in the CS5--likely due to midrange offset. We were in total agreement on these points.
For those who don't know, the CS5 was his first and last Cost No Object design, done in late '88--a project which lasted many, many months. It was designed, in part, if I recall correctly, due to the Asian market asking Jim to design a 'no holds barred' product.
Crossovers, (by memory here) of 70Hz, 400Hz 2K, 3K gave the speaker a really great image density (that's what I meant when talking about midrange 'offset') that some first order crossovers don't seem to possess, perhaps due to 'lobing' and other cancellation issues consistent with that design. To me, it was a GREAT SPEAKER...and a wonderful Birthday present that year from my wife.
For anyone who's thinking of this price (about 3 to 5K perhaps) a well taken care of used pair is a real bargain.
Larry