Thiel Owners

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.

Happy Friday! All

tomthiel,

"...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..."

Tom, please bear with a couple of basic questions:

1. Reducing hiss then, is around acquiring quieter components in the chain. This would then also reduce the noise floor and allow more detail to be heard?
2. If I want to check if I have CS5's or CS5i's, I simply unscrew one of the woofers and look at it?

Thanks for your advice!

Dsper