Thiel Owners

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.

Interesting Warren, thanks.

I had contact with Kathy and she was a thorough, graceful professional.

arvincastro

Though I prefer Conrad Johnson tube gear to ARC, I’ve certainly heard what ARC can do in various systems and appreciated it.

A pal of mine recently got rid of some nice ARC amps he’d been using for years. Wanted something beefier and more reliable and went with a big Bryston amp. He’s happy, but to my ears his system lost magic, and has taken on a more steely tone. I’m less happy listening to his system now.

I did some auditioning of various speakers yesterday, powered by Bryston amps (and I used to own a Bryston amp) and it only re-enforced my commitment to my tube amps. Everything hooked up to the Brystons was afflicted by a hardened, tight (and to my ears icey) tone.  I know that is not what people enjoying those amps in their systems will hear, but it's what I will tend to hear.   Which is why I have always gone back to tube amps.  I just don’t think I’ll ever be someone who can get along with solid state amps for my system.

Sandy - thank you for your remembrances. The 03a was the real beginning of it all. It upgraded the 03, which was Thiel's shortest run in history: one year. The 03 was our first product to address time / phase with first order slopes. We struggled nearly two years to minimize all the problems which coherence made glaringly obvious, but which melted into obscurity with higher-order crossovers. We launched the 03 in early 1978 to an encouraging audience at the Winter CES in Chicago. But back home, we were still working around the clock to identify and solve "problems".

A root problem turned out to be diffraction, which wasn't much on the radar in 1978. We nested the drivers in heavy wool felt, and brought them closer together, virtually transforming the speaker, without changing the drivers or the crossover. By the end of the year we had the 'a' iteration which we introduced at January CES 1979. The illustrious Harry Pearson, editor of Absolute Sound and to many minds the founder of "high-end", gave the 03a a glowing review, citing its many unique strengths and only its ultimate power handling capability and his unease about the equalizer as his mild reservations. He finished with something like "Thiel's 03a is a tour de force; I expect to hear more from this emerging designer." That is a paraphrase from memory.

I suspect you're right about the early 80s at Havens and Hardesty because the CS3 was introduced January 1983. Here's a quiz for the group. Has anyone ever heard of the 03b?