Thiel Owners

Hi from the UK...

I have owned by Thiel 2.4s for about 8 years.

System is:
LP12, Ittok, Kore, Cirkus, RigB Audio Technical 150Sa  etc...

Consonance Ref 2.2 CD player

Croft Micro25R pre (Valves)

Musical Fidelity 550K power amps (that have been heavily modified with new PSU, masses of capacitors etc...  All done by John Sampson who was the UK Musical Fidelity Service Manager for years).  They were 500w pc into 8 ohms, 900w into 4 ohms but are way past that now.

All cables from "The Missing Link".  UK based, Mark hand makes truly special cables.
Thiel 2.4 (upgraded to SE spec thanks to Rob)

Question to the forum is where next...  

I love the music my system plays but am always looking for the 'what next'..

Ideas would be really appreciated

shaundevuk

Thank You for citing your system- very nice gear.
At your particular level, I would not change anything. If, by chance, a pair of CS 2.4SE crosses your radar, consider a loudspeaker upgrade. 
You can expect more aural goodness that the stock CS 2.4 already provides.

Happy Listening!

shaundevuk

Welcome! to the forum.  Good to see you here.

Happy Listening!

@beetlemania
IMO, Thiels are generally very transparent...

Some of you may recall my recent posts where I expressed a desire for a more live presence with my Thiel CS5i's. I also thought about beatlemania's post about the transparency of Thiels in general because I was starting to come to the opposite conclusion after having owned 3.6's and now 5i's. It was/is getting to the point of contemplating a change to a more efficient speaker and a tube amp.

My experience with the CS5i's has been that better transports and DACs can provide more detail which gets one closer to better transparency/live presence.

I had been researching DACs in the $5000 range as a possible improvement for quite some time but thought I would try what the $1000 price point was all about. The $899 Soekris was a step in the right direction as I have chronicled in an earlier post.

Anyway, I had been reading about the Mojo Audio Mystique V3 DAC and noticed that they were starting to come up on the used market as folks with deeper pockets than mine have moved on to the new Mystique EVO.

I acquired a V3 earlier this week and am astounded at the improvement I am hearing from the CS5i's. The bass is deeper, the dynamics are better, and soundstage and imaging have improved. I can look at a speaker and "see" an instrument in front of the speaker which has never happened before. I believe I am hearing background noises that I could not hear before. In general the sound is more fleshed out. 

To tie this all together, I think beetlemania may be right about transparency. My caveat would be that the old comment that Thiels require good (probably higher priced) amplification to sound their best also extends to requiring a higher quality source.

Anyway, the move to a more efficient speaker is now on hold for a bit while I listen to the Mystique settle in.

Thanks for listening,

Dsper

Happy Friday! All