Thiel Owners

In my limited experience with repairing Thiel 3.5 midranges a couple of years back the performance of Thiel in general warrants what is truly an “investment” as opposed to a mere “repair”.  Even with the $600 + dollars invested into a pair of speakers that cost me approximately the same,  (methinks) where could one spend $1200 on a pair of new speakers and get the performance/Sonics of Thiel?

We all know the answer to that question. 

I just sold off my pair of 3.6 to a fellow member who drove 250 miles to pick them up - amazing how Thiel fans are willing to spend the time and effort to get ‘em, ain’t it?  I drove an equivalent distance to pick up my first pair of 3.5’s. 

I drove an equivalent distance to pick up my first pair of 3.5’s.

I recall reading on audioasylum that Charles Hansen thought the 3.5s were Thiel's best sounding speaker with the 3.7s a close second. But maybe I'm hallucinating as I can't find that post now.

To check for the leak, you can gently push in on the woofer and Passive diaphragms at the same time.

I'm very reluctant to try this. Supposedly, dimpled drivers have no measurable or audible effects but . . .

Maybe you can use something with a bigger surface area than fingers yet still softish?

ronkent

To check for the leak, you can gently push in on the woofer and Passive diaphragms at the same time.

beetlemani

I'm very reluctant to try this. Supposedly, dimpled drivers have no measurable or audible effects but . ..

To check for the leak, you press on the diaphragm, not the dustcap.

If I got this correct I think what I appreciated most from Tom Thiel was the speakers Jim made needed to make music sound real and not at the expense of accuracy. Accuracy certainly is in the mix because these speakers sound about as real as a speaker can reasonably get. Because of that I think they walk a fine line and when people get an unfavorable impression of them i think they have not be set up well.  I have never found them to be bright, lean, fat, tubby, warm, cold. They are about as spot on in the middle for me as a speaker can get. Makes them easy for me to season to taste. Better than most speakers I have had or heard. I think about it their tall order of mimicking a point source, phase and time coherence, a real live music presentation, well balanced tonally they kind of combine the best aspects of different types of speakers to a point it is not hard to get excited listening to music on them. Actually it is harder to control your excitement about these speakers. 
Thanks Tom for the suggestion for upgrading the tweeter/mid range caps. I am going to do that.