Thiel Owners

Hello Sandy - good to see you here. This forum is my sole on-line activity. My experience tracks yours. In all the years of demonstrating and exhibiting 3.5s, we (Thiel Audio) NEVER blew a driver, even when purposely tempting fate with high levels for extended time. But, news from the field mounted, we warranted many drivers, especially midranges with burned coils. The story was almost always moderately powered amps - 50 watts is enough to fry voice coils, but not enough to stay clean. Program material was almost always soundtracks or other oo-wow exhibition pieces. Rooms were usually large - required power rises as a cube function of size - it escalates very fast. And the "felons" often had compromised hearing - think rock concerts. A core liability of first order slops is vulnerability.

The first replacement driver was free under warranty, with a lesson and warning. If they blew another driver, the dealer had the option how to charge - we supplied the driver to the dealer at our cost. After that they were on their own. Under normal use with normal program material, a driver should last many years. But, "normal" has drifted to much higher demands than the old days.

JA - one dovetail of the XO project with my musical instrument work is that I use the same listening, mic, software and equipment setup for both purposes. So, I am taking measurements while making the guitar, and making archival recordings for later comparisons. I can compare those progress measurements against playback measurements in the same place in the same room, for a very fine-tuned reference standard. 

@jafant 

Yes...I am quite happy with my ARC gear!  However, I do have to admit that if I ever decide to move to another brand, it would be to Pass...I've heard several systems driven by Nelson Pass' gear and every time, I walk away working out the trade-in math in my head...

Hope you're well!

Arvin

tomthiel

The first time I ever heard a Thiel speaker was at Havens and Hardesty in Seal Beach, CA. Somebody from Thiel was there, just trying to convince Mr. Hardesty to carry them, which they did, soon after. I was blown away by the specificity of imaging, even from outside the speakers, and the presentation of depth from far behind the speakers . No speaker ever did that for me before. I wanted a pair, but I was a penny-less college student, so I bought a pair used. When the 3.0 came out, I never had an interest in upgrading, based on hearing them at CES. But hearing the 3.5, and reading about it in the magazines, sold me immediately, and I bought a pair new (from Havens and Hardesty).

Now, besides my new CS3.7 and subwoofer, I have 3 pairs of CS3.5 in storage (originals still have the blown midrange, the extra 2 were for spare midranges but they are too nice to take apart), two pair of O3a (one pair have never been out of service since I bought them used as current models), two pair of O2 (they need woofer re-foam, so I’ve never heard them), and two pair of CS2.x (also have not listened to them yet). The older CS2.x I intended to use for rear channel speakers maybe, and the newer CS2.x I only bought very recently to participate in Tom’s upgrade kit project. So I still have a lot to experience with my older Thiels. The O3a, in my opinion, are very close in sound to the CS3.5, particularly the spectacular imaging and low-level detail retrieval. I have never heard CS3.0 or CS3.6, except at CES, and I didn’t think they ever really sounded great at a show, like they might have in a real home environment. For some reason, the CS3.5 always DID sound VERY good at CES, Chicago (Blackstone Hotel) and Las Vegas (Sahara and Riviera).

At CES, Jim and Kathy were never available for me to chat with, so I always spoke with Tom at the shows. Jim was somewhat uncomfortable just chatting in general, so he was always tucked away in the meeting rooms, and Kathy was always busy doing business in those rooms. When not so busy, she just never seemed to be approachable. But Tom was ALWAYS extremely warm and approachable.

Just so all of you know, Tom is a super warm and down-to-earth guy; as they say, the kind who you would really like to have a beer with. I perceived Jim as seriously introspective (as you might expect a genius to be), and Kathy just seemed all business, no fun. And then, after Tom stopped going to CES, there was Martin (I think was his name... or was his guitar a Martin?... anyway, he was a Tony Rice fan), who was also very nice to chat with. He worked for Thiel for a LONG time.

--Warren (AKA Sandy)

Oh, by the way, that first pair of Thiel speakers I ever heard, at Havens & Hardesty, was the O3a, predecessor to the CS3, CS3.5, CS3.6, etc. I wonder what year that was, probably early 1980s.

Thiel was as-yet off the audiophile map at that time, having just received a review in either TAS or Stereophile, which of course was extremely complimentary, particularly about the O3a's amazing imaging, including from way outside the speakers' locations. Also about "depth", imaging from way beyond the back wall. Imaging and depth were all the rage at that time, not emphasized so much now-a-days.