Thiel Owners

@beetlemania 

I have a question ( and your opinion ) about your guage selection for both the woofer in/out and the coax in/out .
All Thiel speakers used 18awg in and out , Tom Thiel has advised 
increasing the the guage from speaker post to X-over boards ,
which I am planing on doing .
I will be increasing the input to 11.5awg since I am using 9.5awg
Cardas chassis wire for speaker wires .

Question While I've thought about using different gauges to the speakers ( 11.5 to woofers , 15.5 to mids and 17.5 to the tweeters )
do you believe that the different gauges worked for you
( you said you had a smile on your face )
or do you think that using the same gauge ( 17.5 ) as in OEM would have been the way to go ?

I'll be installing 9.5awg and Cardas posts in and on my amp ,
then Cardas posts on the Speakers ( just placed my order for ) .
I plan on replacing the speaker wiring as the first upgrade .


Thanks
Rob

Hello Thiel aficionados,

I have a friend who is building a new home and he is going to have a bonus room above the garage that will be a dedicated man cave (in the sky). He has asked me to assist him in putting together a $5k system, using new or used components. I'm keeping an eye on the local Craigslist to see if anything pops up.

There is a pair of gloss black Thiel CS2.3 available locally. They were purchased new in 2000 from a local hi-end shop and they have all of the original packaging and accessories. Currently asking a tic over $1000. Is this a potentially good option at this price? 

Thanks for any feedback or guidance. Not locked into Thiel, just searching locally for a good value in a hi-end speaker.

@reubent, When considering Thiel’s; leave ample room in the budget for amplification. Not all Thiel’s have the same amplifier requirements. Also consider placement and seating position.  

Reubent - a general note: The 2.3 was the first generation of the passive coax. That coax and the woofer were bettered by the 2.4. But the crossover topologies are the same, and many of the values are same or similar. Eventual performance upgrades will apply to both models, and 2.4 drivers should become retrofittable to 2.3s with appropriate XO changes.

@vair68robert

Cardas Audio recommended 11 ga input on the woofer but Tom T steered me to this solution:
Woofer: input 15 + 17.5 twisted together (effective gauge 13)
output to woofer: 15
Coax: input 15
output 17.5

Note that you have to tin the Cardas Litz. I bought a solder pot for this purpose (Cardas charges $5 per end). PM me if you want my solder pot. Tom also instructed me to hand twist +/- wires to, IIRC, three turns per inch.

The final result was very satisfying. Hard to describe in words . . . Sort of snapped the soundscape into a coherent focus. A nice culmination to all the upgrades I made to the XO.


Also, I used the opportunity to make my 2.4s bi-wirable, replaced the single pair of OEM binding posts (which were partly brass) with two pairs of Cardas CPBP (rhodium over silver). I used Cardas jumper plates to compare bi- vs single runs of speaker cables. IME, the biwire solution sounded more liquid and engaging.


I’m a happy camper. Had my DAC upgraded (Ayre QB-9 Twenty) and that is probably the last change I will make to my system other than to try Tom’s baffle treatment on the 2.4s.