Thiel Owners

@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!

Tom Thiel I am really fascinated by the Iconoclast wire please post your findings as soon as you have time.

I use Bruno Putzeys Purifi  6.5 in driver in my most recent speaker rebuild and just love its performance. Cross over is 1st order to a Via Wave SRT 7 ribbon tweeter at 3k what a wonderful blend . TomD

I have learned that the speaker cable in Thiel’s listening room was Kimber Type 88.

Let’s grant that Jim, et al, judged that to be his best choice along with his Krell FPB600 and as I remember a Sonic Frontiers preamp. Whatever the gear was, it certainly out-priced the relatively modest speakers. Jim’s logic was that the better the speaker, the better it translated its input signal. (Period). His job was to make that transducer and the job of others’ was to make their parts of the chain to do their jobs. Clean logic, dirty implications, especially when espousing a speaker (and the implied system) for everyman.

The problem gets hard for real reasons. Phase coherence allows the ear-brain to scrutinize everything - I have itemized some details in these pages, but basically everything goes under a sonic microscope. Getting it right becomes a far more complex puzzle, but so nice when pieces fall into place.

I won’t be buying any Type 88, but I will be testing some Iconoclast along with my poor man’s double helix contender.

@beetlemania thank you very much for the tips.

I moved the low frequency inductance by turning the board. I can't do better. 😃

As for the two resistors and their cooling, maybe, your problem is caused by the contact between the resistor and the aluminum heatsink. As you can see in the picture, I used a high efficience  thermal pad, which also  damping from vibrations and isolates from direct contact with the aluminum heat sinks.I listened for several hours and didn't notice anything.  Anyway, I'll do, more critical listening. 

The binding posts are the genuine Thiel, recovered from the plastic plate. I'd like to replace them with your Cardas rhodium over silver, but I have to wait. I spent too much money with this upgrade. 😆

@tomthiel  I'll look forward to your take on the Iconoclast cables. I haven't tried any of their speaker cables, but I have tried the Gen 2 XLR interconnects in the TPC and OFE copper versions. Even though those two cables measured virtually identically in terms of inductance, capacitance, and resistance, they each sounded different in my system. The TPC sounded more lively and a bit more forward and "in your face," while the OFE sounded more closed in, less forward, and kind of uninvolving. I wish I had tried the OCC copper instead, but I resisted due to the higher cost. Most listeners seem to rave about the OCC, although I think Galen (the designer) considers the TPC to be the best value.