Thiel Owners

Hi All,

I have a couple of CS5 questions for the Thiel experts. 

1. how does one determine if they have CS5's or CS5i's? I read somewhere, I think on this thread, that there is no marking on the outside of the speakers to tell? My serial numbers are 1225 and 1226.

2. When I turn my system on with the preamp allowing no volume, I can hear different sounding "hisses" from each of the three small speakers on the top. This is audible only with my ear within six inches of each speaker. Is this normal? Or is it a sign that something is wearing in the crossover, etc. Or could it be coming from another piece of equipment like a tube preamp?

Thanks for listening,

Dsper, 

Thanks for your post, Tom.
Interesting that Rob found the ESAs to sound worse. My experience was that nearly every change improved the sonics. Perhaps because I had a good coach ;^)

I am considering those electronic upgrades as end of project decisions. My focus is on re-bracing and re-baffling which is progressing well.

As you know, I'm a big fan of upgrading the passive parts. And I think a lot of the improvement I hear can be had for less money. That said, I'm looking forward to trying your baffle treatment.

the 630V caps and far-more-expensive Mundorfs et al were simply too big for the space on the XO board

The higher voltage versions, with thicker film, are reported to sound better. I didn't compare different voltages on the coax feeds but did directly compare 160 and 250V versions on the woofer shunts. Some say that shunt cap quality makes little, if any, difference in SQ but, to my ears, the higher voltage version sounded a bit more relaxed and with more bass heft and impact. A subtle difference but one I am willing to pay for.

In my case, the larger caps were not an issue because I started with completely new boards/layout. So, no need to fit a new cap into an existing space.

Beetle - I concur with your results and consider the passive parts to be important and know the work Thiel put into finding best bang for buck, always knowing that more bang could be bought. The shunts are in my experience more important than generally thought. In an AC resonance circuit all parts are in play. I am approaching the physical stuff first for practical reasons; I can compare multiple speakers with various treatments to gain experience with less investment.
Dsper - the hiss is coming from the amp chain, not the speaker.The CS5 has rubber pads on the upper and floor woofer and the 5i has center weights.

With all these variables related to parts of a passive xo, any experience how a passive xo compares to a digital active xo? Maybe I should hook up my passive xo again.