Thiel Owners

Thanks for mentioning that. Those studies assume that anything that is scrambled can be descrambled with no deleterious artifacts. Part of my profession has been pointing out those "inaudible problems" in mixes and masters. I and my clients can hear the difference between a correct, unaltered take, vs one that has been "linearized", etc.

You know, a big part of the demise of "New Thiel" was that they chose to believe Toole, et al rather than construct their own comparisons. I offered to participate in those comparisons, and they said "no thanks"; they said knew what they were doing.

I and my clients can hear the difference between a correct, unaltered take, vs one that has been "linearized"

Personally I also have my doubt as to the "software linearization" technique. It just seems too easy. Also we don’t know what type of hardware that was used in the studies. A lot of the DSP method was done on hardware that a bit on the humble side, and those hardware may represent a bottleneck in the studies and may have masked some of the differences.

I know for certain that many amp, cable and source practitioners and critics use Thiel as a tool to "see into" the source chain. I find that significant.

I find that interesting is that now it’s probably harder to purchase Thiel speakers, what speakers do they use to evaluate their equipment now?

Also the link I post demonstrates bit of an irony. Studios have resorted to using software to linearize the phase of their studio monitors, which means they obviously have to agree that it matters, but the article came off as saying the difference was not much.

Andy - it's good to point out not only the article's conclusion, but also other aspects such as why are they doing it, and what is significant to whom. As a whole, the professional community thinks that wire doesn't matter. Audiophile sensibilities and nuances are often not on their radar. If a factor doesn't hold up to ABX scrutiny, they dismiss it out of hand. I have developed a neurological model showing how ABX is irrelevant to nuance. And many top-drawer pro audio practitioners know that they must "live with" a component or solution for a week or two in order to "get it". That's a different world than ABX, where a snap judgement is made regarding whether X matches A or B. It is their gold standard, but I believe it is testing the judgement priorities of the subject rather than the subtle, complex merits of a component or solution.

Tomthiel,

I strongly agree with your statement about ABX testing and the pressure it puts on the judgment skills of the listener. I have participated in ABX tests of auditory judgment online and am able to tolerate the ABX procedures when the discriminations are not subtle, but as you say "ABX is irrelevant to nuance." 

What is often overlooked by proponents of ABX is that the judgment of whether two sounds or musical passages are different requires only to find a single element of "difference" while confirmation of "sameness" requires exploring all possible elements that can be perceived and matched by the human ear/brain. This task quickly stresses my cognitive systems and makes me want to shut down completely or simply focus on one or two possible elements to evaluate for sameness or difference. 

Unlike many critics of ABX, though, I do see the value of blind testing in addition to extended non-blind testing. For me, blind testing should be preceded by training the listener to hear differences between components in open listening and then confirming or disconfirming the results in blind testing. I also would argue for eliminating the "sameness" judgment that requires excessive cognitive processing and instead make it clear that each sound/music sample in a blind test is being played on a different component. The paradigm would still be blinded because the listener wouldn't know which component is which and the probability of success with random responding would remain at 50%. 

I am still using Thiel speakers after 28 years because you, your brother, and other folks at Thiel Audio heard nuances in your speakers that still make them a joy to listen to today.