Thiel Owners

I have been having extensive telephone and email conversations with Tom about my love for certain models of Thiel (mostly the 3.5 and 3.7) and the one problem all have in common: a forward and agressive tendency in the upper midrange. As Tom experiments with solutions to apply to the cs2.x models, I have been duplicating his methods on my cs3.x models. He is tireless in his creativity, coming up with theories, testing them, aquiring variations of materials to compare, etc. And my Theil 3s have been exibiting the same benefits as he describes for the 2s

Oh, there's Santa now trying to stuff a pair of Thiel O3a speakers down my chimney. Oh how I have been hoping for another pair of these.

warjarrett

Good to see you here as always. Santa is the best.

Happy Listening!

Merry Christmas! ALL

Tomthiel wrote:
"Just a thought. I suggest running the 3.5s wide open with no EQ. I remember the bass loading as critically damped, so it should approximate 12dB / octave. (But that's old memory) If you can match that rollout with a sub, the sub HF will operate in the directionality range, so 2 subs is better than 1. I for one am most in your progress."

Now we have here a subject very dear to my heart and experience. Both my Thiel O3a and CS3.5 had equalizers. I found the O3a to sound much better with a subwoofer crossed over EXACTLY  to the same curve as the EQ,  with no filter to the main speakers at all 

 The CS3.5's equalizer was a gigantic improvement, which I found to sound just as good as no eq at all. Never-the-less, there is the original Stereophile test still on the internet, which shows its EQ curve. Take out the equalizer, add one or two subwoofers, adjust their crossover frequency and slope to match that curve, and run the main Theils with no filter at all. This purist approach works and sounds like a charm. The 10"  woofers and main power amp are no longer taxed, so theoretically, distortion should be much less, and power handling much better.