Thiel Owners

CS2.4 count update: Rob responded that there were about 2300 pairs of CS2.4s made, of which "only a few at the beginning were with Lex XO boards, before buying completed XOs from FST." That count makes more sense.

However it doesn't answer the quality decline riddle. I have (veiled) insider information that after Jim's death in 2009, and possibly earlier, Kathy cut costs in all the products. It is likely that she authorized the change from propylene to mylar caps and lesser coils. Just speculating on who and when, but we do know the what - some later versions were lower quality than earlier ones.

What I would love to know is whether Wes Philips 1991-1992 pair has Thiel or FST XOs and at what quality level. Reviews don't get much better than that one, and Wes was about as good as reviewers get. I'll see if I can tease an answer to that riddle out of Rob. More later. 

Beetle- regarding odd 2.4SE variants. Rob has done lots of customer upgrades from stock to SE xo status, either at his shop or providing parts and supervising. He uses CC SA caps, according to the original design when the SA was CC’s best. The CSA is a league up, but n my opinion.

tomthiel

Thank You for the CS 2.4 confirmation. I miss Wes (R.I.P.). His review is one for the ages.

Happy Listening!

tomthiel

What kind of cost/price is involved with CC SA caps or SCA caps ?

Happy Listening!

I wish Rob could hear my 2.4s. His upgrades can go a whole ‘nuther level, IMO, given that he is probably only replacing the coax feed caps with the SAs.

The SE version also received rave reviews from Enjoy the Music and Ultra Audio. I wonder about the crossovers in the review pair (probably the same pair for both reviews?). Were they Lex or FST. And if FST, with polyester or polypropylene caps? I also wonder if the “glassy” midrange anomaly I heard was because of overheated resistors from a previous owner. I was mostly happy when the SEs arrived in my system but they were not without flaw. @tomthiel the upgraded boards made this one sublime speaker!

Wes Phillips was one of my favorite reviewers. I trusted his ear and he was also an excellent writer.