Thiel Owners

Tom,
WoW!  800S cans. They certainly must sound better than my HD 600s. The circular transducer must make a difference. 

I agree. Everything that sounds coherent via the electrostatics also sounds coherent with my 2.7s.  

I think the major difference between dynamic and electrostatic  cans is in the compliance and mass of the respective transducers. (Thiele-Small parameters: Small signals.)

( I use the HD600s when my "bat-ears" neighbor grouses about my nocturnal listening habits .)

George

George - I auditioned the HD600s and the 800s. The 800-S is a big step up due to controlling a resonance at about 8K and the angled circular transducer. As I mentioned, my decision was for alignment with the recording community, not doubting that your electrostatics might sound better. BTW, I see the Audeze cans making serious inroads into high end recording.

Looking for CS1.5s. I've spent a good part of the past year building a lab with measurement equipment, various playback chains, a hot-rod garage of models and accumulating knowledge and ideas. Many pieces of the puzzle are in place, and I have decided to take on the CS1.5 as my first project. It is highly rated, well loved, simple two way, good parts availability, and old enough to need assistance. I'll learn a lot from them to apply to more complex models. 2.2 and 3.6 are next in line.

But I don't have any CS1.5s, nor does Rob. So, please know that I am looking for a pair or two as workhorses, in any condition, with or without good drivers.  Thanks for any help you can give.

@bighempin 

I would desolder. Note that Thiel used unleaded solder which has a higher melting point. Your iron/gun should be at least 140 watts. Speaker should be on its back so that the driver can’t fall out and prevents solder from dripping onto the driver. There is enough slack in the wire to access the terminal but not much more. A second pair of hands is very helpful. I did this solo on my 2.4s by setting the driver on a shim above its hole which leaves plenty of room to get at the terminal.

It’s not that difficult but you can gain confidence by practicing soldering and unsoldering bare wire.

I suggest adding the second pair of posts when modding the XO. Beetle may chime in - he looked in to that with his 2.4 upgrade.

My experience with bi-wireable Vandersteens led me to explore this option with my CS2.4s and Tom Thiel encouraged me to try it. Also, the OEM binding posts have brass whereas the Cardas CPBP are rhodium over silver. The OEM hook up wire in my “SE” version was sourced from FST and, based on the parts quality on the FST-sourced boards, I suspected was sub-optimal (those of you with Lexington boards have higher quality parts). I replaced the posts and wire with Cardas and added separate binding posts for the low and high pass boards.

I sonically compared single runs of speaker cable from the amp using Cardas copper jumper plates to double runs of identical cables. The biwire configuration consistently sounded more relaxed and liquid. Some songs also sounded a bit more dimensional and clear via biwire. The latter characters are especially subtle but I heard the effect on more than one song.

This is not an easy or inexpensive upgrade but certainly worth it for me. The low-hanging fruit, however, is to upgrade the caps and resistors, maybe the coils if you have boards made by FST (it appears that Thiel Audio started using FST shortly after Jim Thiel’s passing). So, start with the XO parts, especially if you’re on a budget. But if you’re insane (like me) and want to squeeze every iota of performance out of your Thiels then dual binding posts should be on the agenda!