Thiel Owners


Guys-

I just scored a sweet pair of CS 2.4SE loudspeakers. Anyone else currently or previously owned this model?
Owners of the CS 2.4 or CS 2.7 are free to chime in as well. Thiel are excellent w/ both tubed or solid-state gear!

Keep me posted & Happy Listening!
128x128jafant
tomthiel,

I'm only 70, so you have two extra years of knowledge acquisition compared to me. Hope you keep letting interesting ideas seep in. 

Thanks for the thoughts about my 8m cable runs. I've been worried about the long speaker cables, but I can't easily rearrange my multi-purpose living room to move the amps close to the speakers. Most people now seem to recommend going with short speaker cables and long interconnects rather than the other way around, just as you suggested. I spoke to a tech at Cardas about my long speaker runs, and he said that the Parsec cables should work very well at lengths up to at least 30 feet. I hope he's right about this. The Parsec is the latest evolution of the classic Quadlink, which may have been a cable you've come across in one of your previous audio endeavors.


sdl4

Excellent! Good to read that Shunyata is a sonic match. 

Happy Listening!
Jon_5912,

About wire/cable effects, I’m with you - a bit skeptical (and feeling bad about it). That said, I have to think that if there are effects, many would come from length, not to mention physical connections/interfaces (as tomthiel has found), so that eliminating or reducing them would be a good goal.

The end result of what you describe as you shorten the connection chain is the active speaker. And the end result of your other notion of taking it a step further and keeping the signal in the digital domain as far as possible are Meridian’s DSP speakers. It’s why I’ve owned a pair for two decades. My Thiels are a more recent enjoyment.



tomthiel,

I can’t help but think that going active was discussed/explored @ Thiel Audio. Could you comment? I can’t imagine what could have been produced were Meridian to use Thiel drivers....

It ruins all the mix and match tinkering that many audiophiles love, but I think you would get a lot more of the younger generation (not to mention spouses) interested in audiophile sound. And honestly get better sound in the end. KEF and Devialet are interesting current examples.

In my perfect world, there would be standardized module sizes similar in principle to rack mount 1U, 2U, etc. that manufacturers could produce and swap out to update as advances come. 



 similar to the improvements in beetlemania's 2.4 upgrade. 

Two years later, I remain of the opinion that these are my last speakers. Compared to the very be$$$t speakers/systems I’ve heard, the list of faults is short:
1) no audible output below ~30 Hz;
2) low bass is not as resolved as a quality sealed box design (eg, Avalon Ascent);
3) image density not SOTA (eg, TAD Ref One).

1 is noticeable only on music with organ. 2 is only apparent in direct comparison. Those two faults could be addressed with, maybe, a stereo pair of the Vandersteen subwoofers and I would have a near SOTA system at a relatively “affordable” price (but not excited to have two more large boxes in my living room). Meanwhile, my sonic priorities - resolution, transparency, and neutrality - are very close to the best I’ve heard at any price.

Bravo, Jim and Tom Thiel. Thank you.