Thiel Owners

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.

tomthiel

CSA caps : corrected.

Happy Listening!

beetlemania

In both SE auditions, I detected, no glassy presentation within the Midrange register. Even though the pairs are quite apart S/N wise, I enjoyed the same presentation and sound quality. A measure sweeter than a stock 2.4 model.
I really must hear your upgraded pair sometime in the future.

Happy Listening!

2nd Note;
with every DAC/Server piece of gear up to the $20K mark, my ears detect,  that "glassy" presentation and sound in the Midrange register(s).

Happy Listening!

I certainly do not hear a glassy presentation with my Ayre QB-9. But even if the Ayre is guilty of this sonic trait, as you suggest, that is *not* what I heard with the SEs when I first got them. It was a trait not apparent with my Vandersteens or Thiel CS1.6 and it was mostly, if not entirely, cured by replacing the OEM resistors with Mills. And the Tom Thiel crossover upgrade brought the performance up to near SOTA other than in bass performance (no help for that given the 8” driver and passive radiator) and image density. So, what I’m talking about has nothing to do with the source or amp.