Thiel Owners

Hello to everyone on this forum. I have recently taken possession of a pair of CS3's that my late uncle purchased new 3/17/1984, serial numbers 0275 & 0276 and am in need of repair advice from this wonderfully knowledgeable group.

1) I am in the process of replacing the non-functional original Dynaudio  tweeters with Morel MDT 32S. The Morels are deeper by approximately 5mm so I need to remove material at the back of the cavity to accommodate. What is the best tool for the application?

2) The bass equalizer has a noisy (hissing, popping) right channel and I want to have it repaired. Does anyone have a recommendation other than the venerable Rob Gillum?  

Thank You,

Jim

I would not change the inductors but would change the resistors to the Path brand or with the Vishay nude resistors and build a bridge so you can reach a 5 to 10 watt power rating..Cost for the Vishay product would be over $100 per position. Other improvement would be to remove the crossover from the box so as to avoid the head banging it receives when internal. If mounted external then you have it at hand and can experiment at will. I have my boards mounted on 1.5 in. Audiopoints 1 in each corner away from the 2 inductors.Tom D

Tom - I admire your deep-end solutions. I bet they sound good!

For my part, finding cost-effective upgrades that fit the general (albeit stretched) value proposition of Thiel Audio has landed me on Mills 12 watt audio resistors, quite good for $5.

I agree about removing the XO from the enclosure. Not only is there head-banging, there's gradually rising ambient temperature and proximity to driver magnetic fields. The CS2.4 got the XOs pretty far from the drivers, but better is better. I have two forms of exterior mounting. Full-blown is a separate cabinet about 2' behind the speaker that facilitates air-flow and allows more space between circuits. The first-tier upgrade puts the XO on the back of the cabinet. With vibrational isolation tech, we get pretty far along that road. We also get airflow and spread opportunities. I'm pleased with the improvements over stock - especially when the music gets dense, loud or long - the presentation stays much cleaner and more relaxed.

The Mills are a great value at $5.00 but the Path are much better at $25.00.Maybe the Path's are not 5 times better but for me the difference is significant depending on how many are needed. The Paths are closer to the Vishay bridge builds. Tom

I get it. Too bad Thiel XOs are so complex. But that's what it takes to control a driver over 7 octaves without having detrimental effects on frequency, phase and time response.

One of these days I'll find the opportunity to put a Path in the critical tweeter feed.

TT