Thiel Owners

@sgmlaw 
I was disappointed to learn that my late SEs had Chinese-sourced crossovers and probably would not have bought them had I known this. Nevertheless, the drivers are superb and the cabinets are good . . . and now Tom Thiel is working on an upgrade that will handily surpass any OEM Thiel XO regardless of its source. My new boards have Clarity Caps (UK), Erse coils (USA, Rob Gillum told me some coils were sourced from Jantzen), Mills resistors (USA and Mexico), and Cardas or Straightwire (USA).

Why ?

tomthiel
my nut for the mis-interpretation of root word wire. Agreed, a straight wire does indeed exhibit behaviors beyond resistance, capacitance and inductance.  Thank You for the connection between StraightWire and Thiel Audio. Those guys were early adopters like M.I.T. and Transparent Audio (not counting Monster Cable brand) for aftermarket applications. Very interesting.
Happy Listening!

beetlemaniaI recall that you own #163/164 speakers. I own #177/178 speakers.It would be interesting to learn if all of these individual loudspeakers were built and shipped in one lot? Or, were they built and released in smaller lots by a certain number within each lot? Much Thanks for identifying the country of origin for Clarity Caps, Erse Coils, Jantzen, Mills Resistors.
Where are Mundorf, Dueland and Path sourced?
Andy, Holco, Tom and You,  have certainly accomplished your homework on this project. Have fun you guys.
Happy Listening!

I share the surprise of learning of Chinese sourced components. I am gradually making sense of the history and can speak more readily after the Thiel bankruptcy closes.

I will say that Jim's decisions were careful and considered. I know that FST, the Chinese manufacturing source, was chosen for Thiel's Home Theater product components in the mid 90s and that Jim worked with them in his last years on the 3.7 drivers, which could not have been developed any other way.

So, even though I and many others judge Chinese components less worthy, the facts may not support that opinion. However, my own research and observations lead me to return to Thiel's traditional use of best-of-form sources which are generally European, Japanese and/or American. So much subtle sophistication goes into creating the very best of anything, that I don't trust even an ISO 9001 spec unless I verify the results for myself.

I have learned that the CYC caps in the 3.7 use a Chinese film claimed to be equivalent to the best. Solen and most other very sophisticated brands use it also. I believe from trustworthy input that that film underperforms the best-in-world Japanese and Danish film, from which Thiel's prior custom caps were wound. I am returning to known best of form suppliers even if the Chinese suppliers might be as good. I would have to prove it for myself.

In the case of wire, Beetlemania's 2.4 coils were from the Chinese source with same claims as above. I can't compare wire alloy or manufacture methods and specs, but I can say B's 2.4 coils were visibly inferior in wind quality. Thiel's known ERSE and Jantzen coils are my choice. And so forth and so on. We only know what we know. We don't know what rigor or trade-offs were applied to late Thiel products, especially after Jim's death, but even before that. I saw a photo of Jim showing off a CS3.7 crossover with all CYC caps.

For my part, I plan to create iterations that best serve the musical capabilities of the design intent.