Should I buy used Thiel CS5

This info on the caps below in italics is from the owner that stripped them, and "time alignment" parts info from Thiel.

complexity and total number of parts. whatever problem Mr Thiel was attempting to solve.

The two midrange units, for example, are electrically "moved backward," by the equivalents of ¾" and 3/8" respectively, to bring their acoustic centers into the correct alignment.

It does *look* like there are 2 ELs at the bottom of the pic

All coils apart from one are air-cored, and the capacitors are polypropylene and pure polystyrene types


Cheers George

@georgehifi
Yes, I read all of your earlier post. I’m just saying it looks, LOOKS, like there are two ELs on that board. All the yellow caps are probably the custom-for-Thiel polystyrenes. On other models I’m more familiar with these were 1 uF bypasses (much of what I know comes from Tom Thiel). The larger black ones with red ends look like Solen polypropylenes. But there are two smaller black ones with a middle hump and rounded ends that are similar shape to ELs.

For example (Link)

But there are two smaller black ones with a middle hump and rounded ends that are similar shape to ELs

Possible, but the guy that stripped those xovers and posted the pics says they are plastics,
Those ones have "two little men" on them after I zoomed in on them, which I’ve never seen, and they seemed to have been bypased with poly’s
If they are bi-polars electros then yes change them as they are only a couple of dollars each.

Cheers George

I must also consider the first order crossover and the extra work that it places on drive units. No doubt there has to be some voice coils in those drivers that are near burnt after 30 years of use. I will have to call cohert source service to see if they have replacement drivers for the CS5. 

@jeffvegas, when making that call, you might want to inquire about availability and costs for upgrading to CS5i status, as well as about possible future upgrade possibilities.