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Thiel Owners

Guys-

I just scored a sweet pair of CS 2.4SE loudspeakers. Anyone else currently or previously owned this model?
Owners of the CS 2.4 or CS 2.7 are free to chime in as well. Thiel are excellent w/ both tubed or solid-state gear!

Keep me posted & Happy Listening!
128x128jafant
Post removed 
jthifi
8 posts
 
tomthiel- thank you for your continued input about Pass designs, it is very helpful. By chance prior to reading your post, I stumbled across the firstwatt.com website. It was fun to connect some dots between your comments and Nelson Pass.

unsound- thank you for bringing to my attention the re-listing on eBay of the S300. I appreciate your advice on what to ask and certainly plan on doing my due diligence. I must admit I am a bit hesitant to purchase something this old. I have only once ventured into the used audio equipment market when I purchased a pair of KEF Q900 speakers (from a long-standing local Audiogon member with impeccable ratings) so I felt pretty confident about what I was getting.
 
unsound
7,329 posts
 

@JTHIFI, those Thresholds were over engineered and built to the most conservative and highest standards, i.e. the transistors are operating at only 20% of rated output.
The only real wear concerns would be caps, power switch (a circuit breaker), feet and maybe connectors, and perhaps bias status. The caps (most expensive part) and binding posts are advertised as replaced and even upgraded.
Should you ever need service the new Threshold offers it, and I’m told Nelson Pass endorsed Jon Soderberg’s (past tech when Pass ran Threshold) Vintage Amp Repair (whom I can personally recommend) offers it as well. Just think, the amp is about the same age as your speakers and isn’t mechanical like your speakers.
FWIW, Nelson Pass seems to put a lot of emphasis on Class A output. The Threshold’s actually offer more Class A bias than the more recent comparable and even above Pass Labs models. Some prefer the bi-polar outputs bass response and lower impedance capabilities of the Threshold’s. The model up for auction doesn’t have the benefit of balanced inputs and circuitry like the Threshold e series (heck some of those e series Thresholds even hard dual tranies) or the Pass Labs claim to fame "super-symmetrical” balanced circuitry and inputs of the Pass Labs amps. But if your running through your Bluesound Node 2i with it’s single ended only outputs it doesn’t matter. Why pay for features you won’t use?

BTW, I seem to notice the price of these old Thresholds not trending down, but instead up.

tomthiel's avatar
tomthiel
1,669 posts
 
jthifi - don't you love it when he talks that way?I am referring to a Stasis design, and not the original A series. Stasis was the dynamic bias which has morphed and grown throughout Nelson's career.
unsound - I now may remember that we used a 400e at Thiel, but it's all a little fuzzy around the edges. Nonetheless, Pass is an extraordinary designer and any piece of his historical progress seems valid to me.
beetlemania
834 posts
 
coincident driver takes the compromise out of nearfield listening.

When I have the house to myself for the evening, I pull the coffee table out and sit on a wooden low back chair in front of my couch. I am unable to hear deleterious effects from the coffee table (ie, reflections) but this chair puts my ears probably 3-4” lower and, maybe, 7’ from the speakers. I get great sound from my “normal” position (ears an inch or two below tweeter axis and 8.5-9’ away) but this “nearfield” position is intoxicatingly immediate and engaging. From trials bringing the couch away from the rear wall and closer to the speakers, I think the lower position is more responsible for improved SQ but being closer seems to help, also.

 

 

I believe that what is causing the page to stretch horizontally, at least when viewed in Firefox, is the long URL in Unsound’s post dated 4-3-2019 at 12:32 p.m. EDT.

Yes, the problem seems to be the ebay link in that post and it shows in Firefox but not Safari.


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