Thiel Owners

Oh yeah, I've visited it before!

The ongoing mystery has always been if the site is one big troll (not implausible given that seems to be Kait's modus operandi), vs anything serious.  I think the site is mostly a troll, like many of Kait's comments here, though I think he's sometimes serious in his comments on this forum.  He says enough wacky things though, with apparent sincerity, that the line between fiction and honesty with him is hard to discern.

I'm listening to Bill Evans Piano Player after having listened to CD10 of the Bach Recordings box set I got last year.  There's certainly an ember alive here.  I think of high end audio as a sort of musical tourism.  We can hear an incredible variety of music reproduced fantastically well without going anywhere.  It's a luxury that most people don't appreciate.  Based on what I've read, I believe Thiel intended to give people of modest means the ability to experience this.  I appreciate it and enjoy it immensely.

tomthiel..... I would spend so long time reading and knowing more and more about Thiel Audio history, you , Jim and all others actors of this fascinating monument to the music that you was/are, all this being said I try to launch a rock in the water: Tom, why do not write down a book on Thiel Audio..... I would pay any amount for it right now.
I firmly think that you are the best candidate to do this and pretty sure many other fellows here are agree with me.

michael - regarding the CS7, which was the flagship model with plenty of greatness; and sell cheaply on the used market. 1995 was the time of rapid development of fully in-house drivers. Between the CS6, 7, 3.6 and especially the CS2.3 coax, so much was learned to improve the drivers, that Jim redesigned the 7 with all new in-house drivers and, of course, redesigned crossovers to support the changes. Broad opinion says the upgrade 7.2 was spectacular. 7s are fully retrofittable to 7.2s - the cabinets are identical and the crossovers are modifiable. If you buy 7s inexpensively, you may have the option to fully upgrade, if Rob at Coherent Source Service still has 7.2 drivers. My wish-list includes hot-rodding the 7.2 - there is room for improvement. I have mentioned here before that just because the 3.7 obsoleted the 6 and 7.2, that was for logistics of simplified manufacture pending Jim's death, and not because the 3.7 is superior to the 6 and 7.2.

Sorry to bear the sad news, but the 7 is a qualitatively better speaker than the 3.5, especially in a large room. In many ways the 7.2 is the pinnacle of Jim's life work and a 7.3 was in development when his health failed. If you can afford them, I suspect you will never regret getting them. Consider the amplifier caveats, the 7 is far harder to drive. We can circumvent a big part of the amp problem via dividing the inputs into bass and upper ranges for separate amplification, which would require 2 amps. Jim's objection to bi-amping / bi-wiring revolved around various mis-use issues, not fundamental principles. But we can keep that straight with amp and cable choices that consider those signal integration problems carefully.

silvanik - in Slovenian your name means forest dweller. Are you a tree hugger?
I am. Anyhow, yes a book . . . This forum is the first try I have made to unleash some of these thoughts. I am rearranging my life for the possibility of writing such a book along with the related audio work. The story offers considerable fascination as something based in a particular time and place in history, with considerable detail that is obscure and far richer and potentially meaningful than the standard story you have read. These forum posts are sketches for that book. Thank you for your encouragement.