Thiel Owners

tomthiel
I did ask desmond888 to join us here once he has established a finished product. Beetle has posted the link to his particular thread as above. Thank You Beetle- I know that you guys have been talking back and forth. Exciting times indeed.
Happy Listening!

@tomthiel This thread
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/thiel-cs2-4-upgrade-to-cs-2-4-se

Thanks beetlemania for the pic.  Based on the pic, I drew up the schematic and I would like to make a few comments.  Since this forum does not allow posting picture, I had to create a thread at DIYaudio.com so that I could post the schematic.  Please see the link below.  You could download the schematic in .png format.
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/332679-thiel-cs2-4-xover-schematics.html

Here are my comments on the xover upgrade:

Mid+Tweeter xover:
Since there are a lot of caps and resistors, it would cost a lot of money to upgrade them all.  Here is the order in which I would prioritize:
1. Cap C1 & C2: these are the most significant since all the current will flow through these so I would upgrade these first.  I would use some high end cap such as Mundorf supreme or Jantzen silver or equivalent.
2. Cap C8 has a 16ohm resistor in front of it, so the current through these will be very little so you probably won't need any expensive caps.  I would use some basic audiophile grade quality cap such as Clarity.
3. Cap C6 & C7 may not be critical.  They along with inductor L2 form a notch filter at around 2.5KHz and most of the time, there is no current through them.  R4 is actuall more critical (see below) so again, use some basic audiophile grade cap such as Clarity.
4. Resistor R4 is next most critical since all the current will flow through these so I would use the best one you could afford.
5. Next up is resistor R1 and R2 which have relatively very large value, so they are not as critical as R4, but resistors are relatively inexpensive so I would replace them.  
6. Cap C3, C4, inductor L1, and R3 are not very critical since they form a notch filter at around 150Hz, but since these electrolytic caps may be old so you may want to replace C3 and C4 due to age concern.  These should be electrolytic since they are not very critical.

Base xover:
In general, at low frequency, the caps are not too critical, but since the CS2.4 crosses the bass and mid at relatively high freq. at around 1kHz, it may make a difference.  Also, both caps C9 & C10 both are being formed with respective inductors so there is no point of buying expensive caps.  I would keep the existing caps.
But I would change the resistor R5 to something decent since there is still some current flowing through them.  Although most of the current will flow through L3, it may be worth it to upgrade R5.

I would like to make a correction from my post above.

3. Cap C6 & C7 may not be critical. They along with inductor L2 form a notch filter at around 2.5KHz and most of the time, there is no current through them. R4 is actuall more critical (see below) so again, use some basic audiophile grade cap such as Clarity. 

C6 & and C7 are critical so you should use high end cap such as Mundorf or Jatnzen silver or equivalent.  

@andy2
have you compared Clarity, Mundorf, and Jantzen (or others)? Which ones?

have you compared Clarity, Mundorf, and Jantzen (or others)? Which ones?

I have used the Clarity CSA (the older version, not the latest one with their newer Copper Technology), Mundorf Supreme cap, and Jantzen Z-Silver.

The CSA is OK I think but compared to the Mundorf supreme cap, it has a bit of a haze and the soundstage is a bit constricted and lacking three dimensionality.

When I used the Mundorf Supreme, I was actually a bit surprised at the amount of improvement.  There is additional soundstage bloom, more palpable, and a marked improvement in detail retrieval.  For example, in Cowboy Junkies Trinity Session, the background noise of the recordings is quite a bit more apparent with the Mundorf vs. the Clarity.

The Jantzen Supreme Z silver has everything of the Mundorf Supreme but adds a subtle layer of extra detail in the treble.  It is very detail and may be just a bit too much detail on the treble but in a good way though.  It also needs a longer break in time.  If you have a high end setup, I would recommend the Jantzen over the Mundorf but both are very good and the difference is minimal.