Thiel Owners

    
big_greg wrote" If there are other suggestions to tame them, I’d love to hear them."

A gentle amount of EQ will work wonders.

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big_greg -I agree with Cascadesphil that Thiel’s can be more sensitive to input signal than most brands. In my opinion, that has more to do with their coherence allowing the ear-brain more scrutiny. But that discussion is beyond the scope of this response. Let’s assume that your signal is fine.

You stated your listening distance as 9’, which is fine. Design distance is 10’, and the closer you get, the more critical your ear height becomes. The propagation triangles have to resolve at your ear. Design ear height is 3’. If you sit high, you will get a treble-heavy and non-time-aligned wavefront. That’s a design constraint of phase coherence with multiple drivers and why Thiel gravitated toward coax treble sources in later models - with their own issues and challenges.

Another critical factor is early reflections, which likewise become more critical in a coherent design. The speakers are designed as point sources with very broad, even dispersion characteristics. As such they require at least 3’ between the tweeter and any reflective surface. Side-wall reflection is most often a culprit; absorption at the reflection point helps - a lot. Similarly, a low ceiling and/or hard floor can be problematic. In a small room, consider a long-wall layout.

Note that Thiel’s tonal balance is tuned for listening off-axis. At design setup the ear is 20° off-axis which is where the power (in-room) response matches the direct response. That straight-ahead position requires at least 3’ to a side wall, more is better, and absorption helps. In my experience most people aim them slightly inward to mitigate side-wall reflections. My experience is that straight-ahead with narrower speaker to speaker placement solves the issues better. Such particulars of setup are far more germane to performance than are particulars of equipment (unless grossly inappropriate.)

Thiels are articulate and precise, and for those who appreciate that, they can be very musically engaging. Many speakers are designed to be forgiving of problems - Thiels are not. Our goal is to faithfully reproduce their input signal - unvarnished. Much like a recording environment must be carefully optimized to capture a proper record of the recorded event, the playback environment must also be optimized. In the hi-fi hobby I believe we could create far more satisfying musical immersion by working on our environment and setup rather than looking to gear changes.

Keep the faith - the results can be wonderful.

I saw the recent references to the 03/03a Thiels, and had a question.  I have a pair of 03a speakers, which came to me without the equalizer.  My understanding is that they only provide a bass boost to lower the -3db point.  Would anyone know what the unequalized vs equalized response curves looked like?  Or at least the -3db points.  Did the equalizer return to flat at still lower frequencies (relying on the natural 12db/octave rolloff), or did it add additional rolloff at 6 or 12db/octave?

Also, I've seen the crossover schematic with the op amps.  Are there any hotrodded versions of the 03a equalizer?

@tomthiel Thank you for your recommendations. My ear level is about 36". My room has a lot of limitations, but has a fair amount of absorption and diffusion. There is an equipment rack between the speakers. 

I really like the 3.6s, but I need to love them to keep them. Rob at Coherent Source Service gave me a couple of things to check out to make sure they are functioning properly.

If they are, they may just not be a good match for my system and room.