Thiel Owners


Guys-

I just scored a sweet pair of CS 2.4SE loudspeakers. Anyone else currently or previously owned this model?
Owners of the CS 2.4 or CS 2.7 are free to chime in as well. Thiel are excellent w/ both tubed or solid-state gear!

Keep me posted & Happy Listening!
128x128jafant
dmac67 - regarding those 3.6s

As you probably know, Thiel products were engineered down to the gnat hair scale. The drivers were massaged by their crossover circuitry for physical roll-in and roll-out of 6dB/octave with the midrange controlled over 7 octaves. The drivers by the time we passed 1980 were custom designed with many innovations to reduce distortion and generally perform better than we could buy on the open market. The 3.6 midrange incorporated our patented double cone with a deep straight back cone and a shallow flared front cone for internal damping, higher stiffness to mass ratio, a top end approaching 20kHz, etc. etc. Any off the shelf driver will be at best a thin approximation. Any differences from the Thiele/Small parameters of the stock driver will miss the XO targets to some unknown degree.

Regarding his ’redesigned crossover’, we don’t know the level of change and/or skill involved matching the new driver to the woofer and tweeter.

Regarding the tweeter as ’better than aluminum’ Some folks prefer each; Jim chose the aluminum due to its greater consistency and higher frequency breakup mode which he could choose not to notch-filter (the high-Q filter can be heard.) Jim and Birger Jorgensen at Vifa together co-engineered that fiber dome in parallel with the aluminum one. It is a drop-in replacement (its low end rolls out same as the aluminum one.) The ’sound’ is somewhat mellower - some prefer it; but its ’sound’ is not as crisp and articulate as Jim’s products.

If I were looking at that Morado pair, I would gather some power-handling information on the new midrange. Our Vifa P11-MH01-04 midrange handled around 50 watts RMS (from memory), which is a high bar. First order x 7 octaves is a tall order.

Let us know how you navigate the waters.

Tom Thiel, thanks for the reply. I wish I could locally find a stock pair the way they were intended to be… My gut was telling me to pass on these as they could be less than a shadow of what they were intended to be but I’ve been watching this particular pair for several months. Thanks again for the reply. Andrew

jazzman7,

The review you referenced with the CS2.4SE I own that very pair used for that review.

There were to few reviews pertaining to Thiel speakers. 

Getting a very good condition pair and performing some of the upgrades mentioned by Tom would allow them to compete with modern spekers costing you five times or more your purchase price for the Thiels. 

duramax747 - good score!

My forensic observation reveals that crossover production for various models was taken to China/FST and that early FST crossovers had weaknesses and improved over time. However, it seems that FST XOs used MPT/polyester caps where Thiel had always used (superior) MPP/polypropylene.

Additionally, we know that Jim personally checked, measured and approved review samples. So, your pair is what a hot-rodder would call 'blue printed' - exactly as intended.