J - thanks for the lead. My purchases are on hold until I find a new workplace; unless, of course, something drops into my lap. I don’t really know the SE status - here’s what I think I know: The 2.4SE was introduced in 2008, which is about a year before Jim’s death after battling cancer about 5 years. So, it is a personal swan-song at some level. When I picked up with Rob around 2018 when New Thiel was going out of business, I believe about 100 pairs had been sold. One thing I would like to find out is whether those SE crossovers were executed in Lexington style or not. The few SE-type upgrades that I have seen are modifications of FST crossovers with ClarityCap SA substitutions in the coax feed. Normal old-Thiel MO would include early SEs having been executed in classic Thiel style.
Since the SAs are now a few generations old and we can substantially upgrade the XO performance over the original SE edition, that leaves mainly the red birdseye maple cabinets and other cosmetic niceties. My fantasy collection would include one such pair of 2.4SEs with Renaissance outboard crossovers.