Thiel Owners

I hate cables.  I really do.

Started with:

Computer (running wtfplay) --> Synergistic Active USB --> MSB Analog --> Chord Cobra VEE2 --> Krell FBI --> Audioquest 4 --> Thiel 2.7

Current state:

Computer (running wtfplay) --> Synergistic Active USB --> MSB Analog --> Transparent Reference XL MM2 --> Krell FBI --> Acoustic Zen Satori --> Thiel 2.7

Had the opportunity to pick up a pair of the Transparent Reference XL MM2 interconnects for a fraction of the retail price so I jumped on it.

Put them in from DAC to Integrated amp.

Instantly hated it. It made the treble for lack of a better term "scratchy". So I put the Straightwire Maestros in for the AQ. That turned a colorful but scratchy sound into greyscale.

Have a pair of Acoustic Zen Satori speaker cables laying on the floor. Put those in and voila! it all comes together. I had tried the AZ cables several times and they always disappointed. With the Transparent cables in between the DAC and amp they are amazing.

Was listening to the Shostakovich 7 with the CSO and Bernstein on DG.  Toward the end of the 4th movement the brass is doubled.  The normal section is stereo right as per usual and the additional players are on stereo left.  I have never heard something so massive on record.  Live is another story.  The color was on par with what I have heard them do live.  The range and impact was there. It was glorious.

@snbeall Remembered I wrote this post:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/thiel-owners-2/post?highlight=Summarize%2Bclarity&postid=...

snbeall- regarding the 02 / SCS / PP series. I do consider them true Thiels to the core. Yes, they use second order slopes because they were designed with home theater considerations, etc. But, Jim's implementation used both drivers positive polarity and a non-conventional alignment. That alignment plus the dispersion characteristics of the two drivers with large diameter differences, results in a flat room response and no excess energy at the crossover point. The 02 is quite unique in that regard. The fact that a box speaker can be placed on its side and/or at any height makes it susceptible to non-alignlment, which Jim's personality couldn't tolerate. So, the 02 directly led to the SCS with the coincident / concentric tweeter which yields a coherent wavefront, albeit with broader phase angle swings than first order, but never falling farther out-of-phase as do inverted polarity implementations.
Note that I use a pair of PowerPoint 1.2s as my room-filling / mixing references. That 45° launch was patented and is uniquely effective. My only suitable space in my studio is near the corners at the wall-ceiling joint, which works quite well - I have also demonstrated them on a floor, which works better. Ceiling was their design environment if you have a suitable situation. I built outboard crossovers for all ClarityCaps and Mills resistors. Better than stock.
I do have a quibble with the concentric driver in general. Through time Jim was able to create the double cone for a shallow, wave-guide geometry of the front cone with a deep, straight-back reinforcing back cone - minimizing the cupped hands effect, but it's still there a little. My enamourment with the 02 is to make a stand monitor with two discrete drivers, with Jim's second order style crossover and without the inherent problems of the concentric driver. Note that I do appreciate the concentric driver's ability to deliver coherent sound relatively independent of listener position. We can't always get it all. (Except perhaps with the radial wave 7 coaxes.

All - progress is being made toward the schematics and closure of the Thiel legalistics. I'll announce when I can.

Harry - good to see you. Thiel did have early exposure to Monster, I don't remember the models, but it was with their high-end offerings. I remember Audioquest bettering our Monsters and so on and so forth.
I don't know whether I mentioned our significant relationship with Monster. Jim had designed and patented a head amp circuit (his first patent) in the early days of moving coil cartridges where their very low outputs presented serious problems to the input circuitry of phone stages. Monster exclusively marketed that head amp and we swapped / beta-tested products with them until the late 1980s when cartridge outputs got higher, preamp circuits improved and CDs ran away with the market. I have a couple of those head amps if anyone wants to try one in a low-output moving coil system.