Thiel Owners

That "getting out of the way" quality of Thiels is awfully addictive.

Over the last 25 years, I’ve heard speakers from Wilson (W/P 7, W/P 8, Sasha, Maxx), TAD (Reference One and CR-1), Revel (M20, Studio, Salon Mk 2), Avalon (Eclipse, Ascent, Eidolon, Idea), Vandersteen (Seven, Treo, Quatro, 3A Sig, 2Ce Sig II), Aerial (5 or 7?), B&W (DM12, 804), Paradigm (100), Vaughn (Triode), Vivid (Giya G3), Vienna (Klimt), Thiel (CS1.6, 2.4, 3.7, 7.2) and probably many others I’m forgetting. My favorites are, in no particularly order, TAD Ref 1, Vandersteen 7, Avalon Ascent, and Vivid Giya (Thiel CS3.7 and 7.2 just miss the list). Now, these were all in different room with different electronics and over many years of sampling. But I have a good handle on what good sound is.

I’m here to tell you that my CS2.4SEs (driven by Ayre electronics) deliver nearly all of the neutrality, resolution and transparency – my sonic priorities - of the very best speakers I’ve heard. I would have to spend an order of magnitude more money to get significantly better performance in these areas and I suspect there are only a handful of designs at closer price points that can approach or equal the sound I am getting. I suspect the Thiel’s superb coherence is due to similar materials used for all diaphragms. And the resolution and transparency is probably due to the pistonic driver behavior over the intended range of each driver. Jim Thiel did a masterful job to ensure that driver break-up modes were well-suppressed despite the slow roll-off filters.

The only shortcomings I’ve noticed are the lack of low bass (which requires much larger drivers and cabinets and $$$), image density is not quite on par with the best I’ve heard (maybe my placement is not yet optimized?), and the highs are, maybe, not quite as airy and pristine as the very best. Should I be satisfied with getting “only” 90% of a Vivid Giya for $3000?

I think I have my “last speaker” (altho’ I may upgrade the crossovers at some point).

Note that the 2.4 SE only replaced two Solen mylar feed caps with Clarity SAs. Today there are much better caps available today from Clarity, Mundorf and other brands. My personal experience (via consulting for other brands) is that the upper end of the woofer circuit is sonically important, especially with Thiel's first order filters, and that budget is the only limitation to sonic improvement in a high-resolution system. I'll keep you informed as I finalize and test my conversion.

I suspect that hot-rodded Thiels of many models might make beetle's list.

My apology for using the "B" word regarding caps. I meant esoteric high performance, not snobbery.

Thank You- Mr. Tom Thiel for continuing to provide insightful, behind-the-scenes- information for the rest of us.  Keep us posted on your acoustic projects, testing caps and drivers.

Happy Listening!