Thiel Owners

@tomthiel -

Wow...what an incredible story! This is what a lot of us audiophiles/geeks love to hear...the why & how that goes behind the scenes. Now I know why there is some shared “architecture” between the CS6 & the 3.7. However, the idea of a modern CS4 with a powered sub AND a folded horn...Who wouldn’t want to hear that?!?!?Thanks for sharing, Tom!

As a side note, my family origins lie in the Philippines. Back in the 80’s & early 90’s, Thiel speakers were held in such high regard there & throughout SE Asia that they became status symbols to many in the hobby. In fact, throughout Asia, while it was fine to have Japanese electronics, you weren’t truly high-end unless you had American speakers. For many, that meant JBL, Klipsch & Thiel.

Thanks & please keep the stories coming, Tom...truly fascinating reading!

Arvin

I’ve yet to hear a horn I didn’t hate.

I spoke with Rob at coherent source and he is sending me the upgrade components for my original 2.4's to make them 2.4SE's. Also I am going to send in my grill covers to have him put on some fresh ones. After 12 years of sitting in the house they do show a little age. I purchased the speakers brand new and have always loved them. He told me that they will sound even better with the changes I will make. I also just picked up my old amp that I loved as well, the Ayre V-5XE. This one is a rare one as it is black and at the time Ayre charged an extra $250 for the black chassis. Right now I just have a Marantz AV-7701 Pre-Pro that I use with my HT set-up, but it does have balanced pre-outs. I will eventually buy the Ayre K-5x, there is one on Ebay right now for $1,600 and I am very tempted. I would send it into Ayre and for $1,200 they would upgrade it to the K-5xeMP. As for my source I just bought an Oppo UDP-205 player. 

@f1wheels That should be a really nice sounding system, unless the Ayre kills another coax :o

Please let us know how changing the caps goes for you. I will be making a more comprehensive change to my XOs, maybe next month. I imagine Rob Gillum has supplied good instructions for you to follow but we can all learn from your experience.

Ya,
I told Rob about the driver issue and he also was scratching his head. One of the drivers actually separated where it is cemented to the magnet. The other one started making a distinctive cracking noise on any high-frequency recording.
Well if it was the amp or anything else upstream I am starting out with different gear so it shouldn’t happen again. I am anxious to get the V-5xe in black. I remember when I bought mine but at the time could not afford a new one so Agon to the rescue. This one is a one-owner unit and I had Ayre look up the Serial number. The unit was made in early 2008 and has never been to Ayre for any type of repairs or work.
I sure am tempted as there is a K-5x pre-amp on Ebay right now for only $1.600. If I send it to Ayre for $1,200 they would upgrade it to the full K-5xeMP current model.
I am looking forward to getting the caps from Rob along with some high quality silver solder. He told me with the new caps that I will definitely notice the change in sound. The only problem I am having now is trying to find good IC’s but at a price that does not get close to the cost of the actual components.