I also opt for external cross overs for my 2.4's. I could put them in my own box if that helps. Thanks for the update. |
Good to see you - marqmike hope you are playing good tunes on your 2.4 speakers today. Happy Listening! |
Per beetlemania 's request and assist the xo interest for tomthiel et al., keep these replies to a yea or nay. I am sure these guys will have more developments and information forthcoming. Happy Listening! |
Yes or nay doesn’t work for me. It depends on the form factor.
I would think that cross-over updates might be more urgent for older models as their cross-overs are likely to be needed (due to age) as opposed to newer models that have plenty of life in their current caps, etc.
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tomthiel Not that it gives you any more information per se on the Thiel 2.7, but maybe of interest to you is this post in another forum by Philip Bamberg who worked on the 2.7: I designed the crossover for the CS2.7 upgrade to their coax mid/tweeter
driver. It was not easy. I was present at the voicing sessions in
Lexington, after some listening in my own house.
I can vouch
for both the CS3.7 and 2.7 speakers having a 2dB/decade downsloping
response from 200 to 2kHz, transitioning back to level in the treble.
This is a tonal balance curve similar to many high-end speaker brands.
However such a speaker still does not sound dark (there are other more
technically involved reasons for this).
One shining performance
feature that I can vouch for with the CS2.7 -- the bass is
spectacular. Their 10" woofer RULES, and the cabinet alignment is
excellent. Play acoustic bass or drums on this speaker to believe me.
Also,
the coax unit is impressive in its own right. The midrange is actually
flat to 20kHz (without crossover). I think the time-coherent acoustic
alignment and fast response drivers may lead to the listeners' reaction
of bright or forward.
Thiel also spends for PP and polystyrene
bypass caps for additional transparency. For these reasons, system
matching is a bit more critical with the upper Thiel models. Also, all 3
drive units have aluminum diaphragms. I promise you that I addressed
the woofer ring, and achieved excellent time and phase coherency - Thiel
was quite demanding of this as you can imagine.
While I
performed some reverse engineering of a few of their models (part of a
technical familiarization of Jim's work) I am not intimately familiar
with the design and history of all their models. I suspect that their
models over the past dozen year vary in tonal balance, and that it is a
mistake to conclude that the company voices speakers to be
bright/lean/forward overall. IOW, I think the time for audiophiles to
conclude that Thiel = Bright should come to an end.
I am no
longer under contract for Thiel, and I gain no benefit from their
sales. These are just my own objective and subjective observations.
Philip Bamberg |
