Thiel Owners

Cables are indeed fascinating, and their interactions with sources and load are beyond my understanding. And a lot of them don't work well with Thiel speakers. For the record - much of my approach to this playback thing holds cost and cost effectiveness as central values. I have auditioned some wonderful-sounding cables (including Cardas) that could simply not stay on my radar for reasons of cost alone. Independent of my own constraints, I live in the world of Thiel's classic orientation: creating musical tools and solutions that give access to sophisticated, satisfying musical playback experiences within the budgets of ordinary people. 

@tomthiel   I agree! I don't understand enough about how cables interact with speakers and specific electronics to be able to predict which ones will sound best in my system. To find cables that work well and don't have crazy-high prices requires a lot of patience and extensive trials to compare cables. As far as I know, @jafant is still on his extended cable quest, and I can't promise that I won't keep listening to new cables myself.

I have some samples of Iconoclast to get into my works. They use similar principles to those Kimber from the 80s (don't remember the name) that were woven, flat, and cost $1K/pair-foot. They were mind blowing. I'm looking forward to the Iconoclast because of their particular pedigree and geometry. They may serve as a reference of reference-level internal hookup wire. But . . .

Were you thinking of Kimber Black Pearl Tom?

roxy - I actually don’t know the name. It was his prototype he brought to CES, possibly around 1980. We used it in our show system and took some flack because the cable cost more than our speakers and power amp combined. Seems like it was a woven mesh, perhaps 3/4"- 1" wide x very thin. I remember Ray saying the insulation (perhaps Silicone) was applied with a mouse during layup. It may not have yet been finalized or had a name. Whatever it was, his cable lifted the veils, tightened the image and the bass and pulled out the stops in a jaw-dropping way. There were industry folks in the room (this was Thursday, setup day, Chicago, June) who were all impressed. Remember this is when ’the industry’ had not yet admitted that wire could matter, therefore it was snake oil. I do remember that Ray wanted us to use his wire for internal hookup wire, which seemed to cost more than the drivers. Out of the picture for us. Sorry I don’t remember or ever knew any more about a model or name.

Oh yes, I told Ray about Guarana, the Amazonian stimulant, and he eventually imported it and made a product called ’buzz gum’. Guarana is a left-handed caffein-like molecule that makes work in the Brazilian jungle possible (and pleasant.) To this day I keep some buzz-gum as a conversation piece to spread around our woods’ work crew when I was producing tonewood. . . . But still no cable name.