Thiel Owners

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.

@improvedsound Wow, that outboard cabinet is really impressive! The attention to detail off the charts.

 I see you put aluminum cooling fins on the bigger resistors. Tom had me try a similar cooling mechanism in my build. But it seemed to produce an echoey anomaly. Subtle on many tracks but I heard the best sound without the aluminum heat sinks. One of the advantages of an outboard XO is you can just vent the cabinet, no need for heat sinks. Simply add holes to the bottom and, maybe, top of the rear panel. When I was considering outboard, I imagined the top of the cabinet would just be stainless steel mesh.
 

I see coils on left side of coax and woofer have the same orientation, almost stacked. I suspect those are close enough to cause interference. Here are a couple of resources for your consideration:
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/coils.htm

https://techtalk.parts-express.com/forum/tech-talk-forum/1439851-inductor-placement

Finally, the binding posts look like Thiel gold over brass (or equivalent). There are better choices out there, and it appears you have the budget. I used Cardas rhodium over silver.

Please hear those as friendly suggestions, not criticisms. You have done a lot of hard work!

@tomthiel I am leaning more towards replacing the tonearm cable and / or experimenting with damping fluid since for the most part the speakers only sound bright when I play vinyl.  It's a jelco 750d with a jelco cable.

@sdl4 , I’m not completely sure of the following, but I seem to recall reading a discussion where Bruno Putzeys said something to the effect that GaNFETS were indeed superior devices but a their current costs one could just as easily build Class A amps and that would defeat one of the main reasons of going with Class D in the first place; efficiency/cost. If I recall a correctly he was waiting for the price of the devices to come down. On the other hand, he’s also indicated that he's become a bit bored with amp design and would like to give more of his attention to speaker design. Honestly, I would take everything I just posted with a grain of salt, my recollections could be failing me.

I will say that the specs I previously posted on the link for the upcoming new amps look way better than anything I’ve seen for any(!) GaNFET amps I’ve seen so far, especially with regard to those specs that would be of particular interest to many Thiel users. And at more affordable prices too!