Thiel Owners

Your confusion may come from the SE availability. Years ago, Jim developed a Signature Edition for the CS2.4. Most of the upgrades were cabinet related, but there was and is a crossover upgrade which replaces the 2 feed caps (bypassed with styrenes) with 2 ClarityCap SAs, unbypassed. SAs were best of form at the time. The sonic improvement is noticeable. Some folks buy those caps from Rob.

Our upgrades are considerably more extensive and expensive and not yet finalized.

Our upgrades are considerably more extensive and expensive and not yet finalized.

Hopefully we'll see your final product soon.

Anyway, in a parallel universe where Thiel still exists with the sound that we have come to love. But what if just for fun ...

I would partition Thiel into three distinct product lines that can leverage the driver technology from the time-coherent designs. There needs to be a Thiel house sound which is based on its magnesium/aluminum concentric drivers so people know what to expect. I assume the cost of designing the drivers is pretty high so it makes sense to spread the cost to more product line. Also having more products will improve growth and revenue.

Here is how I would position three product lines that buyers can easily identify with.

1. Home Theater

2. Luxury

3. Time - Coherent

For Home Theater, sound quality is not as critical so first order is not needed. This will shorten the design cycle but still use some variance of Thiel magnesium/aluminum or even existing drivers but matching drivers are not as critical due to the use of high order (which also should lower cost). The product will include a two way, three way, four way with the fourth being a self power subwoofer with some type of room correction. The styling language will be similar to that of the time-coherent product line. The sound should have the same musical clarity that is known of Thiel. You can use 2nd 12db roll off which is not bad. It has the clarity of the higher order filter but can retain most of the musicality of the first order design.

For Luxury, this is where Thiel can lavishly throw everything at it. The price will be in the 30 - 50K range. It does not have to have first order so that you can have a freedom of selecting different driver configuration. Think of this as Thiel own version of Dynaudio Confidence. You can have two midrange drivers, multiple bass drivers. I can think of having the concentric driver cross over at around 1000hz to a pair of midrange then cross over at around 200hz to a pair of bass drivers. Higher order can be employed. The drivers and styling should have some unity with the time-coherent product line. This is where Thiel can showcase its aristocratic side for the rich. I think this is where the new Thiel was trying to do but the problem is they abandoned all previous Thiel signature thus having absolutely no brand recognition. This would only work if you can tie in with the rest of Thiel products. Not only it will save cost from sharing the drivers and styling, but buyers will recognize them as Thiel products.

And last but not least, the Time-Coherent will remain the same as before, but it will also serve as a corner stone for other product lines in term of designing the driver and developing a styling language.

I think having products for home theater and also some very expensive, high margin products is a good idea.  Home theater especially should be active and the crossovers should be digital.  that would allow for user selectable crossover slopes which would be cool.  You want to watch an action movie, select 4th order and crank it up.  For drama you bump it down to 1st order for maximum realism.  There would need to be preprogrammed EQ overlays of the crossover to handle driver response imperfections.  Keep the traditional Thiel line for people who prefer analog or who already have electronics and just need speakers.  I definitely agree that there were some directions the company could've been taken that would have had a far greater chance of success than trying to charge 6k for 3k worth of PSB speakers.  

I think I'm ready to dive in and attempt to build a speaker box for a kit.  I'm planning on buying the Zaph|Audio SR71 kit from Madisound.  What I want to try is make the back and sides out of strips of 3/4" mdf.  They will stack on top of each other in the corners, leaving horizontal 3/4" gaps along the flat parts of the box.  I'll drill holes in the corners through all of the boards and run 1/4" threaded rod to hold them in place.  The sides and back will connect with an effective hinge at this point so I can lay the whole thing out flat and pour concrete in the gaps.  That will result in the walls being half concrete and half mdf.  I'll hold it together by tightening bolts to the threaded rod running through the corners and also through the sides in places.  It's hard to explain and I can't find an illustrative picture.  Ultimately I hope to have no wall flex typical of mdf, minimal high frequency ringing from the concrete, reasonable weight, and low materials cost.  This is my first try so we'll see how I do.  

Tom, glad to hear you have thought of a way to continue to service the mid drivers for the 3.5. I hope that Rob will find new cones and coils when his current supply runs out
These ideas about possible new developments with Thiel become more realistic if we can obtain the rights.