Thiel Owners

tomthiel
As I started my higher end education back in the early 1990's via Stereophile and TAS subscriptions, I recall, Slew Rate being discussed quite often by the reviewers. In 2020, is this factor relevant as it pertains to power amplifiers?  I will concur with the CS 3.7 being very efficient, as well as, models CS 2.4, 2.4SE and 2.7.
Happy Listening!

Jafant - remember, I'm not an engineer; my experience is more as an observer - user. Slew rate still gets lots of attention in professional audio, especially microphones and their preamps, but it doesn't show up much in print. I have Tom Jung's original Studio Technologies Mic Pre which was reworked by Jim Williams (pro geek guru) to upgrade caps, etc. He increased the slew rate by 5x as part of his magic. The preamp improved its transparency substantially, but lots of things were done at the same time, so I can't attribute any specifics. I wonder out-loud whether slew rate gets less attention now because it is generally faster now than in the old days. Also, I can only speculate as to Power vs Pre amp importance, but I suspect SR is important everywhere equally. Some amps like Spectral place storage caps right next to the output transistors to increase slew rate substantially by purely geographical means.

My observations over the years includes SR being a major factor in transient performance and therefore detail retrieval.

tomthiel
Thank You for your insight and observations.  I was thinking along the lines of conversations that took place between you and Jim, building Thiel Audio.
Good to read that SR is still part of design and implementation these days.
Happy Listening!

Yes, Jim was an armchair electronics designer and enjoyed talking circuits with Nelson Pass, Dan D'Agostino, the Bryston Boys and others. He constantly pushed them for better transient performance, current delivery, etc. from their amps. Originally Thiel Audio fantasized making the whole chain: speakers (powered), preamps and turntables. We started before digital. It became quickly clear that we had more than our hands full with the passive speaker link in the chain.

My understanding is a faster slew rate for a given component is better -- up to a point at which little-to-no difference is heard.  Musical transients are only so fast, and if the component is substantially faster than the fastest musical transients, generally straightforward to do these days, you're good.  That's not to say within the component you don't need much faster slew rates, like the I/V converter after the DAC chip.  Sort of like high-frequency response and harmonic distortion.  Above say 300kHz and below say 0.01%, do better numbers equal better sound?  My indirect experience says after achieving these specs, focus on other elements of the circuit or internal components to optimize the sound by ear and less-conventional numerics.