Thiel Owners

sdecker - from my perspective, I appreciate your thoughts very much. This thread is my sole involvement with the world of internet opinions. Because I am committed to Thiel speakers as my life-long transducer, and because Thiel performs in somewhat idiocentric ways with some equipment, I find it quite helpful to hear people's opinions about the system performance with various gear. Also, in this on-going community we gradually develop a sense of various contributors' tastes, values and approaches to their sense of rightness and musical engagement.

I don't consider such reviews and commentary in any way improper or off topic. Of course it's not my call to make, but I did think expressing my opinion might encourage discussion around the issue of what is or isn't on or off topic. JA has consistently encouraged broad musical dialogue.

As an aside, my Sony SCD-1 was delivered by a friend today to Bill Thalmann in Virginia for his assessment and possible resurrection. It will spend a few days in his audio ICU and I hope to have a report next week. I'm really fairly in the dark regarding its performance relative to other spinners - I got it because it was Thiel's and had been upgraded and it was, after all, the first of the genre and a heroic engineering effort, especially for 1999. I'll be open to hearing how you guys think it stacks up with more modern gear.

tomthiel

Thank You for the SCD-1 update. I can certainly appreciate an 'Audio ICU'. Great sense of humor there.  Mr. Bill Thalmann has an excellent reputation in the Audio repair/restoration business. I can hardly await for his diagnosis. 

We all know that older does not mean obsolete. Historically, key pieces of Audio gear set and continues to set a Gold standard. The SA-11S2 is an opportunity to for me to evaluate Marantz's version of a Reference CD/SACD player. Add to the fact that Fuses and op-amps, can exchange for better presentation and sound, makes the spinner more attractive. 
This purchase is a gateway to the  SA-10 Reference CD/DAC/SACD player in current production. 

As always, I enjoy reading about Thiel Audio history. Specifically, the gear you guys utilized in the sound lab, as Jim was developing his signature loudspeaker sound.  Musical engagement indeed.

Happy Listening!

Happy Friday! All

sdecker

2nd Note:
A long-winded review is certainly welcome here anytime.  Your impression on CD playback from the SA-11S2 mimics my impression of the Esoteric DV-60. Each of the (3) CD filters did nothing for my ears.
On the flipside, SACD playback is excellent. I found it ( and still do) a strange interpretation of the music. I simply could not find the (CD) groove?  I wonder if CD playback improves on the upper-tier Esoteric models?  
There are enough Audio and owner reviews on the Marantz SA-10 Reference player across several forums. Overall impressions and thoughts are positive on CD/DAC/SACD playback. To date, I have not read a negative/poor review.  Not bad for a sub $10K digital machine.

Happy Listening!

Well the SA10 is twice the price of the SA-11S2 and designed nearly a decade later, so I would certainly expect it to sound better, especially following the critical feedback Marantz got from their relatively murky sonics back in the day.  The front panel ergos are improved, there are digital inputs, their in-house transport is two generations newer, and PCM is immediately transcoded to DSD.  I'd venture to say these players could well be sonic apples and oranges. 

You found the SACD format as a whole to be a "strange interpretation of the music" or Esoteric's playback of it?

CD playback should now be as good as the format allows on any player over $2K.  Low-rez PCM ought to have been figured out by now.  Different flavors and approaches, sure, but pulling everything off the CD should be understood -- I may be wrong.

I spent a day listening to the dCS Puccini SACD player nine years ago (vs other units, including my own DAC FWIW): that was the best SACD playback I've yet heard, and I'm sure a decade later newer designs sound as good for less money.