Thiel Owners

jeroboam - I recently borrowed a pair of CS2.4s (#3729-3730) with post "Thiel-grade" passive parts: (Solen caps, ERSE coils, etc.) These later crossovers morphed to Chinese-made fiberglass boards with cloned parts, polyester caps, etc. that I found to have less detail, a more cutting edge, and a little less cohesiveness and body than earlier Thiel in-house boards. Earlier in this thread Beetlemania shared his journey through replacing all elements of his (similar vintage) 2.4 crossovers with better-than-original parts on newly laid-out boards. Good journey, good reading. Your serial numbers would aid in identifying your vintage.

My update on the Thiel Renaissance project is that it is still alive, albeit in the background. Life has its own demands and I am presently without a shop/studio to make much headway on this project. However, my present progress is significant and exciting; co-developing some fluid-flow solutions for more settled wave-form launch from the drivers into free air. Clarity and naturalness are improved in an area that I would have never imagined even existed.

For reasons of simplicity, I am focusing my development work on Thiel's simplest product, the model 02 (1976-1984) where ideas and changes can be iterated more productively than with more complex models. My intention is to introduce a limited edition of this stand-mount monitor that builds on Jim's life work to create a very refined speaker with high musical engagement. All developments and technologies apply to later models.  Details when things get closer to reality.  

tomthiel
Thank You for the update. Your due diligence will payoff once another shop/studio is procured. I hope that you are well this fine Fall day.
Happy Listening!

My intention is to introduce a limited edition of this stand-mount monitor that builds on Jim's life work to create a very refined speaker with high musical engagement.

Looking forward to it!  :-)

Tom, thank you for the post. I still have my Owner's Certificate, which states my serial numbers are 985 and 986. These speakers are awesome and they impress everyone who comes by to hear them. I would never part with them. I look forward to hearing more details about your project when available!

jafant, thank you. My musical tastes lean heavily to classical piano, with a chunk of jazz and 60s/70s rock thrown in. I've seen (and met) many pianists in person, from Ashkenazy to Igor Levit to Yuja Wang. I used to regularly attend the Lucerne Piano Festival (which is sadly no longer being produced). Next Friday I'll be in Chicago to hear Trifonov.

Do you own the SA-10? I wish that I could audition it, but it would likely involve quite a drive. I'll see if I can locate a dealer in Chicago while I'm there next weekend. Maybe I can also listen to the Bryston, too.

jeroboam - for the record, your 2.4s were made in Lexington with masonite point to point XO boards with American / European passive parts, and best-of-form wire. I and others consider them to be better than the later units with Chinese XOs and wire.

In my explorations, I was impressed by the level of plateau-optimization of that product. Every element is as good as every other element, so that no money was wasted in the implementation. The exception is the drivers. I (and others) have replaced components and topologies, and the speaker gets better and better. But, at considerable cost. My work is to produce an upgrade at the top of the next cost pleateau: wasting no money while performing at a higher level. We have done it a few times on a few products and one of these days we'll have ways and methods to implement those changes for those who wish.