Thiel Owners

Viewed another way, you got an unbelievable bargain. In the realm of passive speakers, which is still the norm in home systems, their design-engineering equates to products selling in 5 figures. I know factually that multiple other manufacturers would claim $15,000 as cabinet value alone.

I understand the desire to buy stuff as cheap as possible. But, I also encourage you to consider the intrinsic value of the goods. Pick a dozen brands / products at $20K and compare your new 3.6s toe to toe. I bet you'll be thrilled.

Tom is right about the value here.  It's one of the reasons I have such a dim view of audiophiles in general.  They'll spend ridiculous amounts of money for stuff that simply doesn't perform that well.  Thiels are a bargain at MSRP and they historically haven't held value that well so you can get an obscene bargain for the performance if you buy used.  When I bought used 2 2s it really opened my eyes to this.  They replaced a pair of 3k msrp speakers from a larger company in a second system.  They were so obviously, laughably superior that I don't think there's a single person on earth that wouldn't have recognized it.  It took a while for me to accept it but I eventually concluded that the relationship between price and performance is extremely weak.  I don't know what "audiophiles" want but it's clearly not the truth.  

Pick a dozen brands / products at $20K and compare your new 3.6s toe to toe. I bet you'll be thrilled.

Yes! There are 2, maybe 3, speakers south of $20K that I would *consider* trading my CS2.4SEs for. And that's before I finish my XO upgrade . . .

the relationship between price and performance is extremely weak

Indeed, I can think think of a few models as high as $40K that I would not trade my 2.4s for. But I can also think of a handful north of $40K that I would pick over any Thiel (maybe I would change my mind after a Tom Thiel XO upgrade?). But they damn well should sound better given the chasm in pricing. The bottom line is an audiophile can be *really* happy with a pair of used Thiels and not have to worry about how to get some incremental SQ improvement . . . until after winning the lottery.
:)

jon - I know it's thin ice for a manufacturer to speak up. But I'm out of the game, so here goes. Over the years, our products were competitively evaluated by some big name as well as audiophile manufacturers. Their 'business formula' would assign a sell price of up to 10x our sell price, and then back out some 'extraneous costs', which is what they call giving the customer more than he knows. Point is that for the customer whose values are aligned with ours, Thiel prices are extremely slim.

Schubert, have a great time with your 3.6s. If they need help, Rob will help you. If you want to take them to the next performance level, we'll have an upgrade path for you. Welcome to the Thiel corner of the world. 

If they need help, Rob will help you. If you want to take them to the next performance level, we'll have an upgrade path for you.

 

IMNSHO, buying a nice pair of used Thiels might become the most-cost-effective way to get near SOTA sound. For starters, the stock versions are already excellent (as Tom noted), sonically competing with new models many times their price. Buying a used Thiel is not worrisome given the available service and parts from Coherent Source Service.

Tom Theil’s crossover upgrades should push sonic performance to the next tier. We’ll soon know. If that’s true, you can buy a nice used pair and upgrade the passive parts to get something that approaches SOTA sound. As a bonus, you have speakers that look really good in your listening room.