Everyone,
Know I'm late to the game but wanted to throw in another good and spectacular word on Rob Gillum. I do not own a pair of Thiels yet, partially with my worry of loud enough reproduction on my tube amp, and making it a goal to get some eventually. One day.
As such, I live in Lexington KY. A colleague who I work with has a boyfriend who lives in Connecticut and who's Thiel floorstandings were damaged by flooding. Got them serviced, well taken care of, and drivers back to new. From what I hear, everything is great as he was originally super upset and worried about them when damaged.
I only wish I lived here in Lexington before the Thiel buyout. Even though don't have official engineering background, I do have some base knowledge and wished I would have gotten to learn more about these and construction first hand.