Thiel Owners

Great read Dave! The 2.4's are truly very special speakers and they are a bit picky with amps and setup. Once you have them dialed in, you are rewarded many times over though.

Another addition to the 2.4's which I'm just scratching the surface on right is is the addition of a Thiel SmartSub. I'm using a Thiel Integrator and crossing the speakers at 50Hz to a SS2. The improvement (of the 2.4's!) was just remarkable. It took everything to another level. I think I can live happily with these speakers for as long as I can make them run (or rather, as long as Rob Gillum has parts for them!)

Let me know how the new caps workout for you. I've been contemplating doing exactly the same upgrade to my 2.4's.

Dave,

Great story and it's wonderful to read how happy you are with the 2.4s.

I’m sitting here listening to vinyl on my 2.7s (Eddie Kendrick collection, among many others I’ve spun today) and the sound is so smooth, even, spacious, yet focused and punchy. That palpability the Thiels do is so mesmerizing, like a drum kit and bass have just taken up residence between the speakers, .

I sure loved the 3.7s, but often really appreciate that extra bit of kick and density I get from the 2.7s, right were the bass guitar and kick drum live.

@tomthiel

I would love to see such a list of ’best Thiel amps’.

While I’ve had SS amps of various types, including the Bryston 4B SST for a while (driving various speakers, including Thiel CS6), I’m ultimately a tube amp guy. So my addition to the list would be something like my Conrad Johnson Premier 12 mono blocks. 140W/side of push-pull tube power. There hasn’t been a speaker these can’t drive to satisfaction, and they were heaven with the Thiel CS6, 3.7 and now 2.7.

Way back in 90’s and early 2000s, although I’d heard and admired Thiel speakers for years and admired them, it was hearing CS6s driven by VAC tube amps at an old CES that started my Official Thiel Fever. "Thiels and tubes, never thought of it!" The VAC were to rich for my blood, but I managed to mostly replicate the magic using the CJ amps.

(My Pal has a vinyl set up with great speakers and he usually uses a Audio Research tube amp with a tube pre-amp.  He got a bit sick of the hassle of tubes, bought a new Bryston amp, and he's very happy.   But for me his system has taken a distinct step backward to a harder, less organic and listenable sound from what he had before.  Just goes to show how subjective this is).

I think we tend to forget about the vagaries of an actual acoustical presentation and the coloration endowed by the hall. For instance, my wife and I attended a solo piano recital a couple of nights ago. We knew the hall, we knew the performer, and it was one of two Steinways used in the hall, both of which we also knew. But there are contingencies--audience size, hall size, curtain across back of hall open or closed, the way the pianist voiced (not to mention the way the piano tuner voiced the piano), seat location, all kinds of variables. These all affect how we hear, in real live music, qualities such as attack, decay, envelope, stage, etc. that we as audiophiles use in evaluating components.

But what was very nice was when, a day later, I put on a cd of Peter Serkin playing some Wolpe , Lieberson, et al. It was just like being back in the hall. That's what the 3.7s do for me.