Thiel Owners

Ron, all of your failures sound like overheated voice coils, either delaminating or in the case of humming along, being loose enough to squirm on the former. The cause is most probably being fed a distorted / semi-clipped signal. The first driver was probably good out of the box and also failed via underpowering.

thanks Tom.  i guess i play them too loud but i measured and the average is about 78 db with peaks of 85.  plus the PS Audio BHK 250 amp is a hoss.  I will have to be more careful  but interestingly enough,  in the past using lesser amps with the older models, and playing at the same levels,  they did not blow.   my  guess is that the newer coax is just a bit more touchy.  thanks so much for being on this thread.  

tomthiel,

What is the role played by the difference between tube amps and solid state amps, which it comes to damaging clipping?

It’s something of a cliche to say that tube amps clip more softly than SS.Is this true to the extent that it would be less likely to get damaging clipping from a tube amp of comparable power to an SS amp?

I’ve used tube amps since the 90’s . I’ve had a great many speakers, some as insensitive as 82dB and impedance all over the place, and I’ve played them loud.

But not once have I ever blown a driver. So I’m wondering if this has much to do with my choice of tube amplification. (I use Conrad Johnson Premier 12 tube monoblocks - 140W side).

good question Prof.