Thiel Owners

I was following with interest the thread a couple weeks ago about how Thiel's moving from sealed to radiator/ported woofers threw off the low-frequency phase coherency by 360 degrees. How does this make for a "coherent phase" loudspeaker if so much of the frequency range isn't aligned at all?

Stereopile always makes frequency response measurements of port vs woofer. My 2.4 shows that above 100Hz, the radiator's output is 15-20dB below the woofer. So if I'm playing music with no bass content below 100Hz, do I have a reasonably coherent phase speaker?

And as all Thiels were no longer sealed after the late-90s, why do their spec sheets state "Phase Response: +-10 degrees"?? (or 5 deg with 2.3 & 2.4)   Given Thiel's comprehensive tech data, why is this so vague?   As it states no frequency, is it unspoken that this is only valid above the woofer's passband? The clean-decay step response plots suggest at least the 'time' coherency to be true.

My 2.4 brochure states "Completely Time and Phase Coherent." Then it states the 'time' portion is from the slanted baffle and the 'phase' portion is the first-order slopes *between the drivers* -- is this to suggest that what happens outside the XO, ie the bass loading, is 'outside' a driver rather than 'between' drivers??  And therefore low frequencies are inapplicable to the "complete" phase coherence and +-5* spec?  That seems very un-Thiel-like, and I'm sure someone long before me would ask that question!

I'm sure someone on this thread has the necessary acoustics (or marketing-speak) background to offer insight here. All my pre-Thiel speakers were sealed so I'm finding this, uh, interesting...

A couple of things of interest with my Thiel CS3.7. 

My problems with George Harrisons ATMP was due to me having my music server on a PowerLine network which is attached to my Ethernet network. This was fine for a long time but some things have changed and I got caught by lack of bandwidth when streaming ATMP. I moved my music server to a MacMini that is now directly on the Ethernet network and the ATMP issue is gone. It sounds perfect.

I sold my headphone amp and have the new LSA Voyager 350 GAN amp in to replace it. However, I also have it hooked up to my Thiels and I think this is going to be a winning combo. It costs $3000 and it seems like a great match for the 3.7. I will post again after I have over 100 hours on the amp.

yyzsantabarbara

Thank You for the extra follow up regarding music server/streamer progress. We have a few members on the Panel who are into computer audio applications. 
On the flipside, my physical copy of the 5-CD set arrives next week.
I am looking forward in hearing this Album remixed plus all of the session out-takes.

Happy Listening!

Guys - I'll have some things to say about Thiel's take on positioning.Meanwhile, is there a physicist or other knowledgeable person here to address sdecker's query about 'interesting' bass alignment? It's important, and veiled in obscurity, and reflex bass is the industry standard. Any comments?

Twisted phrases for sure..There is some software I have been exploring and it does show phase variations of the same driver in various box designs and even port length. You can see the vent air speed to minimize turbulence within the port. More you know the more the need to know more. Tom