Thiel Owners

Prof - the little critter has become a different animal. I began experimenting with the CS2.2 and 3.6 but migrated toward smaller models for practical reasons. I collected a few pairs of 02s to further simplify my learning experiments. I soon learned that I didn't want to live with the 2nd order XO due to higher reactivity and difficulty time-aligning the wavefronts. Jim had always (in every product from the start) kept onset transients arriving in same polarity. (Whereas most 2-ways flip polarity for one or the other driver.) Your stock tweeter signal arrives a full cycle before the woofer (which sounds 'normal' due to its ubiquity.) That's very non-Thiel to my ear and sensibilities, so I ended up using CS.5 drivers and a first order crossover, moving the woofer forward on a standoff and the tweeter backwards behind a waveguide for . . . Phase Coherence. 

Now, of course, diffraction and so forth become much more audible (you know my hypothesis) - not just to me, but to collaborators as well. So the cabinet edges are eased in an elliptical cross-section to meet the new (forward) super-baffle plane. Rear edge easing is also in the mix. Internal bracing (not visible) beefs up the panels. The diffraction-causing grille is gone, replaced by (most probably) a CS2.4 / 1.6 type arrangement, except I have no magnetic metals in my enclosure systems.

The crossover of the stock 02 is built on the rear input panel, right behind the woofer magnet, with audible and measurable distortion. In a portable speaker an outboard XO cabinet is a bit much, so I've mounted the XO on the exterior bottom of the cabinet in a plinth with ventilation holes. A chimney is under consideration to take heat through the cabinet and out a flared outlet in the top.

A big area of experimentation has been laminar wave-launch technology. It's not particularly visible, but no front or edge surfaces will be smooth or hard. Similarly the port looks like a 2" port, but it now contains patented and proprietary technologies that impart an uncanny realism. The increase in clarity, dimensionality and musicality are hard to describe and harder to explain, so let's not for now.

So, what's left of the 02 is the cabinet, the driver sizes and port, but everything is subtly to radically upgraded. I won't have a 'fix kit' for a normal 02. I know you love yours, but it is an ordinary if well-done second order 6.5" ported two way. My mission is to develop ways and means to improve performance beyond stock Thiel levels. The 02 emerged as my baseline platform due to its simplicity, flexibility and accessibility. My vision is for the Renaissance 02 to be a uniquely high-performance stand mount speaker with discrete drivers. It is fiction-ware in that no such product actually existed. I envision a limited edition inaugural run and that all this learning and solutions will be applied next to the CS3/3.5 which has gotten the bulk of my attention of late. Stay tuned, sorry to be so slow . . . 

Pictures aren't appropriate. They change constantly and aren't yet very pretty.

Thanks for the update Tom.

I'm sure looking forward to the finished product!

Now that it's easier to post photos here...

Here are some photos of my Thiel 2.7 speakers set up in my listening/AV room.

The room used to be a single use 2 channel listening room.  However in 2009 I got bit by the Home Theater bug and renovated the room in to dual duty: my 2 channel speakers now share the room with a projection based home theater, a large screen that has automated 4-way masking so it can change shape and size for the movie as required.  The home theater surround speaker system is separate: Hales Transcendence speakers for L/C/R flanking the screen,Monitor Audio speakers for surrounds and rears. 

The room was re-done with the input of an acoustician and my architect friend.

The ceiling is a drop down build that is actually stretched fabric (but looks solid) of brown felt.  This is useful both for absorbing ceiling reflections from the screen so the image doesn't wash out.  But also because all sorts of acoustic treatment/traps are hidden in there, and hidden elsewhere.  It's a gorgeous sounding room and it's funny, even guests often remark when we are just sitting in the room talking "it sounds so good in here!"

I built out a bit of black velvet-covered "stage" area below the screen, and covered all the HT speakers in very dark black velvet.  The result is that, unless the room is very bright as in the photo, you often can't even see those speakers against the velvet backdrop behind them, so you just see the Thiels, making for a less cluttered look.  Best I could do given how much I was trying to fit in to the room!  But it worked quite well.

All source and amps are down the hall in a separate room.  I prefer a neat, tidy look that way.  (In fact, the shag rug actually helps hide even the speaker cables to the Thiels.  Horrors for those who use cable risers!)

If anyone remembers my long-ago posts on looking to replace the bigger Thiel 3.7s in this photo you can see my problem.  The 2 channel speakers have to be pulled well out from the back wall.  That's good for sonics, but also puts the right speaker out in to the entranceway path in to the room.  The 3.7s were just a bit too deep making it a bit awkward walking in and out of the room.  The 2.7s were just smaller enough so that they can go in the same spot, but they don't impede walking in and out of the room at all. 

My Joseph Audio Perspectives are even smaller and less deep, so they work great too.

Pictures:

From the hallway just outside the listening/HT room :

Just inside the room.  You can see some of the drop down brown velvet ceiling.

(It also helps stop sound getting up to our bedroom right above, helpful when I want to listen to music when my wife has gone to bed earlier):

Oh, I should mention you don't see the projector because it's actually hidden down behind the listening sofa.  It's on a telescoping automated lift, so when you turn the home theater "on" the projector lifts up to over 6' high to project the image.