Thiel Owners

@tomthiel - 

I emailed Rob and he was kind enough to put screws in the mail to me.  I'd be interested in trying brass - just want to be wary of stripping the material the screws go into.

Tom - your missive runs parallel to my experience. In the case of my outboard crossovers, and mounting my internal crossovers and back-plates - I am using all nylon. Drivers need more strength so I use brass.

naimfan - stripping is an issue with screws directly into MDF. I use "Wood Hardener" from Minwax available at the hardware store, or you can use thin super glue dribbled into the hole since the internal threads are already formed via previous screws.
Take care with brass screws; they're not as strong as steel.

On my mids or woofers I use brass inserts into the wood or in my case cast granite. I then seat the drivers with mortite/rope caulk and thread in the brass fasteners. Tom

Thiel migrated away from direct wood fastening to inserts sometime after I left. There are advantages of reliability over multiple uses. However, metal on metal under vibration will (reliably?) vibrate loose. Breakaway Locktite helps as does Mortite onto the threads. But over the years, inserted fasteners seem to come loose and direct to wood fasteners seem to remain tight. I'm going with plan A and use direct fastening. Of course castings need inserts. Brass is a good solution, or other non-magnetic substances - non-conductive is even better, since electrical fields are affected by any conductive material, magnetic or not.

Thanks @jafant. I've been enjoying paging through all the threads. It's especially fun to see notes from @tomthiel, right from the source. My system is pretty simple. A Bryston BP-20 preamp to match the 4B amp. A Marantz 6004 for CDs. Straightwire interconnects. A Panamax line conditioner for power, running through a dedicated circuit to the panel. I'm not too convinced that the power stuff does much, but I was able to get the circuit added when we rewired our house. With a basic system like this, my feeling is that it's about at a plateau of quality vs. cost tradeoffs. I bought everything used. And I would need to spend a pretty significant chunk of money to get a marked improvement in sound. The things I'd do some time is a better turntable than the $200 job my wife bought, and a second Bryston amp so I could run them bridged and better feed those Thiel beasts.