Thiel Owners

The pictured XO looks just like mine. If 2951-2 look like that, they're from the same era. Those black caps are polyester-mylar (one down from polypropylene), the coils are well-made from CDA-102 wire, which is high-end regulation wire, one step down from Thiel CDA-101, which is the best available. I tested these resistors and found them to be the non-inductive resistors that Jim had designed and made by ERSE. Although they look like normal sand-cast, but are better. Note that these PCBs are actually point to point layouts with no traces that can cause troubles. This wire has Thiel signature teflon insulation. All in, I would be happy with these boards, unlike some we have seen with obviously poorly wound coils and unknown insulation.

That said, if you're DIY-inclined, you could elevate the sonics by upgrading all resistors to Mills MRA-12s and all film caps to CSAs with the 100uF electrolytics to some upgrade recommended on this forum. I have eliminated all electrolytics and have developed an affordable CSA-type 100uF cap that works well. Not ready yet. 

I don't want to open Pandora's Box regarding product iterations and quality levels. I'm told that all 2.4s were assembled in Lexington, approved by Jim and tested to the historical standards. I have expressed my personal disappointment that some particulars of parts quality eroded after my watch. But, compared to competitive products in design and execution, I suspect Thiel stayed way up on the value charts.

jazzman - you should be fine. It seems most of the "difficult period" might have been 2003-2004. Thiel probably found better sources, plus China definitely improved its development and manufacturing chops year on year. 

The the tell-tale test is looking at your boards for the winding quality of the coils.

Imhififan,

For fun and a further learning experience you should try replacing what certainly appears to be steel fasteners holding your crossovers in place. I would do only 1 at first as my guess would be an imbalance left to right. Probably need to settle  in for 12 or more hours. If you do hear an imbalance or change in response then do the other speaker to match.

My preferred fastener is brass a non ferrous material.Steel will bend the intended field of flux.

I did this 20 uears ago replaciing steel fasteners with brass in and around the crossover of my Dunlavy SC4.. Then replace the cast resistors for Mills or Path for simple and quality upgrade. TomD.

@tomthiel 

The pure by clarity caps is not being produced in 14 and 28uF.

I've sent an email asking if they would do custom made caps and will let you know if they do... 

On a somewhat sombre note.. I've managed to kill one of my coaxes (SCS3-N) 🤦🏻‍♂️

I really do hope Rob at coherent sound can either fix it (those units were 700 Euros a piece at the time) or fix me up with a new unit as he already has with the SCS's.. 

All the parts are ordered and/ or one the way, but this little accident is going to delay things a tad.. 

@beetlemania 

I'm not concerned with how big the capacitors will turn out to be, as I'm not going to stick them back in the cabinet. They will be fixed on a board, outside the speaker, with a bi-wire coming from the board into the 2.4: for this I'll need to put two more terminal posts at the back..

Cheers

Pieter

...

How hard can I push the radiator on the 2.4?

It seems to be a bit more than I've already applied and I don't want to push too hard ( I've the feeling it's glued tight..)