Thiel Owners

Guys I need a bit of unbiased advice. That may be a stretch here;)

Im considering upgrading my caps to SE spec on my CS2.4's. 

im sure the SE guys will jump in and say do it but before I do I'd like to hear your thoughts since there is a bit of risk doing this myself and I'm not sure what the benefits will be. 

First off I've never listened and thought - I need more clarity. I have thought need more mid bass. My understanding is frequency response doesn't change but clarity does. 

Ive never heard the SE's either. 

I can can get the parts for $400 bucks, assuming I do the work myself is this upgrade worth it?   Mind you I'm no expert with soldering and will need to YouTube how to solder to bring my skills up to speed.  I can solder two cables together or to a binding post, but I've never soldered to a board. 

@last_lemming Soundstage/ultra audio and feel the music both reviewed the SE version albeit they did not directly compare to the standard version. The only difference related to SQ was two capacitors in the coax feed. These are Clarity Cap SAs which Rob Gillum has at Coherent Source Service. I think you will find this a worthwhile upgrade. But these have now been surpassed by two generations of Clarity Caps. 

This is a *really* long thread to slog thru but maybe start January 2018 when Tom Thiel started posting. Mr. Thiel is working on crossover upgrades for legacy Thiels and the CS2.4 is among the first models getting his attention. He is planning Clarity CSAs in the coax feeds, probably with 1% Multicap bypasses. Other caps are also likely to be CSAs including a custom low voltage cap in the shunt positions.

Resistors will be Mills MRA 12s. I replaced my OEM resistors with Mills. Here are my comments copied from elsewhere in this thread: “the Mills has a fuller, richer sound although my perception of this varied from song to song. I heard little, if any, difference on solo trumpet but a pronounced difference on the well-recorded 2L Mozart violin concerto. Guitars and voices were more "full-bodied" on folk-rock, blues, and bluegrass. More “tonally-rich” might be another way to describe it. On a Chesky test recording, percussions were more emotionally engaging, toe-tapping. The Mills also seems to have a bit more texture or, at least, it was easier to hear into the microdynamics. I think this is related to my initial impression of a "lower noise floor”.”

"I hear more bass impact, a more spacious soundstage, and, especially, an ease of presentation. The MRAs even seem to have mitigated a somewhat “glassy” quality in the midrange."

If you are itching to upgrade, get the SAs from CSS and Mills resistors from Sonic Craft. Otherwise, wait a few more months and get the full kit from Tom Thiel/CSS after the upgrade is finalized. 

tomthiel,
thank you so much providing such informations, already found a supplier here in Italy selling the Mills MRA12 resistors that I'd couple with Clarity Caps CSA series capacitors (waht do you think about my choice?...even this available in my country), so in short time I'll take out the crossovers to check it and to make all the possible improvements, I'm not in hurry to finalize the job, I want really get the best sound is possible from my CS 3.6, in meanwhile I can continue to enjoy the music from my second system based on a pair of Diapason Adamantes speaker (first series) driven by an old but great class A integrated amp, the Sudgen A21A.
I'm already in touch with Rob Gillum at CS because I'm in the process to buy a full set of spare drivers (....just in case!) thus I'll try to get from him the specs of the CS 3.6 XO.
Tomthiel, say me how we can stay in touch because I'm seriously interested on your next 3.6 XO improved design, I don't know, have'u a mailing list or some other way that can let us to know when it's the time?

Again, many thanks and have a nice day to all fellows here.

Sil - I like your choice. It is where we landed after considerable study.

I and beetlemania will be posting progress on this forum. As the solutions become finalized, we will set up some form of communication through CoherentSource. But for now, just stay tuned here.

last_lemming

Good to see you. Beetlemania and tomthiel are working on the latest and greatest cross-over upgrades that will release later this year.
To my ears, I liked the CS 2.4SE by a very slight margin over the stock CS 2.4 loudspeaker. Several differences both internally and externally (cosmetic) exist on the 2.4SE. There are (2) caps on the co-ax feed vis Clarity Cap SAs.  SQ is a little more sublime and sweeter on the 2.4SE.
I could have lived very easily w the stock CS 2.4 model (it is that good).

Keep me posted.
Happy Listening!