Thiel Owners

silvanick...

The HapZ1es is a truly excellent piece.  I got mine “used” from a fellow member here on the site for $1200 - which they currently fetch now.  VERY worth one’s while.  

What I enjoyed about it most was it’s simplicity.  I didn’t want a “computer” or a computer interface anywhere near my stereo.  I had a Bluesound Vault2 prior to that but had difficulty in getting it set up correctly so...off it went.  The ease of loading my cd collection was very much appreciated - a cheap Apple usb cd drive did the trick.  While the Sony and every other server/player/streamer is slooooow in doing so, the HAP excelled at adding my tunes via WiFi as well. That too was slow but I could slap many tunes there and batch load.  Really well made product.  

jafant...

Yes, I had a BAT VK3i preamp with that Pass for a little while. (cheap seats model from BAT)

In retrospect I believe I preferred ARC by just a hair. Hard to remember exactly why but IMHO the Audio Research player somewhat “brighter” than the BAT - which I prefer overall. Thiels “ too bright ?”   My butt!

Kudos to both manufacturers however in that on the used market they get pretty stable price-wise.  I sold both my ARC and BAT preamps at or close to the price I paid for them.  (Excluding the cost of the tubes, obviously) Most of the other things I’ve sold here I took a 10-15% depreciation on. 

BAT & Pass Labs match very well. 

Good to see you- silvanik
nice system. I look forward in reading more about your musical tastes.Happy Listening!

oblgny
which ARC model?  You have had some sweet gear over the years.I really enjoy reading about all of the gear that has resided in your system.
Happy Listening!

Someone bought my Thiel 3.7s.



Fortunately the buyer is arranging pick up from my house, where they will be put on a pallet by the shipping company.



That has still of course left me with packing them in to their boxes. Wow...not easy! It took a loooong time just to get the first one in to it’s box, with some trial and error along the way. After hours, the top totally fitted and taped up madly, it turned out the bottom of the speaker wouldn’t quite fit all the way in to the box. Rob Gillum was very helpful in advising me through this issue to the right solution (which of course, my fault, meant unboxing the damned thing and re-doing everything).

I lost count of the number of times I muttered under my breath "Never another big speaker...never another big speaker...."

(That is, until, some other big speaker catches my eye. But I’m pretty sure this has cured me of getting another big ol’ heavy speaker, as wonderful sounding as the 3.7s have been).