Thiel Owners


Guys-

I just scored a sweet pair of CS 2.4SE loudspeakers. Anyone else currently or previously owned this model?
Owners of the CS 2.4 or CS 2.7 are free to chime in as well. Thiel are excellent w/ both tubed or solid-state gear!

Keep me posted & Happy Listening!
jafant
jafant,
I currently own a pair of Magnepan 20.7's. My amp is an LSA Audio Statement ... from the LSA Group that I founded in '06. 150 watts per channel into 8ohms, doubling into 4ohms and almost doubling again into 2. Has a tube pre section and is highly updated with some of the best parts available. Cheap op amps were deleted. The design being done by through the Genius of John Tucker, currently owner of Exemplar.
My Audiophile odyssey began in the late '70's. By '81 I had become a full blown nut. I purchased THIEL 03a loudspeakers from a dealer and picked them up in Lexington, just down the road from Louisville, Ky. That's where I met Tom, Jim and Kathy. Their obvious passion and love for music coupled with their obvious intelligence made me think, 'One day I'm going to be in the Audio Business.' Two years later, I walked away from a job as Vice President of a Company and opened the doors of my very own High End Store. THIEL was the anchor for me. If I couldn't have them I probably wouldn't have done it.  
The Iraq War and a simultaneous ruptured appendix conspired to help me close my doors after about 12 years.
Some years later, in fall of '97, I got a call on my answering machine from Jim Thiel. Those of us who knew him can appreciate this very succinct message. "Hey Larry, this is Jim Thiel.... long pause... I'm calling to find out if you'd like to be THIEL'S National Sales Manager... long pause... bye.'
I thought it over for about 2 milliseconds and called back. By 3:00 I was a THIEL employee.
For those of you who did not know Jim or Tom, and without pandering.... I have to say that they are BOTH two of the most intelligent and inventive people I've met... and I've now been around for 69 years.
That's pretty much it.
Thanks for asking and I hope this wasn't too boring!
Larry 
 
Good to see you- tomthiel
I look forward in reading more about your speaker project/experiment as well. I think that we have found our project mangers between you and beetlemania. I wish I had the skill to DIY my speakers in the same fashion as you guys. Keep up the excellent work!
Happy Listening!
Much Thanks! Larry

good to read about another Industry Professional joining this group. Your experience as a dealer/retailer and Sales Manager for Thiel matters!
We can all learn and benefit from you. Not boring at all, glad you found us and welcome aboard!
Happy Listening!
I would appreciate you modifying one speaker and perform whatever comparative tests you can between old and new. We can build a knowledge base here on the forum for the benefit of all, including yet to be identified upgraders everywhere.
Thinking about this more, I'm sure I have Beatles or Sinatra or the like in mono, so maybe not so hard to compare as I first imagined. Probably need to let the new caps burn in for a couple hundred hours before comparing. I'll certainly report back, probably won't find time until April or later to do the surgery.

tomthiel, "...signal-shaping was done within the amplification envelope..." Wow, that seems quite ambitious, especially when considering it probably would all have been done in analog then. In today's digital era development time an effort would probably be dramatically reduced. I remember just before Jim's passing that he  thought that Class D was best limited to sub-woofers. Much time has passed, and perhaps Jim might have come to appreciate the current status of Class D more, or, perhaps not.

I agree with you regarding perhaps moving to a higher impedance. Though at the risk of appearing petty, I think moving the minimal impedance to 4 Ohms would be most interesting. The required amplifier budget has scared me off the CS5i's.