Thiel Owners

Prof - there is some low-hanging fruit for the 2.7 upgrade. A 400uF electrolytic midrange series feed cap (although well bypassed) is certainly limiting the clarity-directness. Other XO tweaks too. The 2.7 baffle is nicely optimized, but I bet we'll gain some harmonic delicacy with treatment.

Yes, I’ve also wondered before about what might happen if the 2.7 baffle were further re-enforced. Though not being a speaker designer, I wouldn’t know the trade-offs. I’d imagine that if, say, you tried to re-enforce it from within, adding thickness with some material behind the baffle, you start intruding on inner cabinet volume, which could screw up some other parameters of the design?

BTW, I’ve now heard the much lauded Kii Three speakers twice, which use DSP to correct both for frequency response and time/phase coherence.

Maybe I still haven’t had a good demo of those speakers, but in neither set up did they sound as timbrally natural to my ears as my Thiels, nor did they image with the specificity and density of the Thiels.

JA - circling back to 1.6 and 1.7 sales: Rob says approximately 2500 pairs of 1.6 and 1000 pair of 1.7 were sold. The preponderance of evidence suggests the 1.7 has 4th order Butterworth XO slopes for time coincidence, but not phase coherence.

Prof - the 2.7 baffle is 3" thick and well-braced. I doubt that it is moving much. The baffle treatment I am developing is a 3-layer felt and fabric overlay to make the baffle surface virtually disappear. This territory is new to me, and I am making progress, and have 4 pair under development with 3 co-conspirators.

Tom,
Cool!