Thiel Owners

tomthiel

Thank You another Thiel Audio history lesson. I am looking forward in reading more about your visit with Bill next month. Make a few notes about his room/system if possible. Very few of Us enjoy a dedicated space for our Stereo systems. Me included.  Bill should have a pretty impressive Test-Bench. Our hobby needs more "modders" or "mods".

Happy Listening!

jafant - the shortage of high-functioning practitioners is a real problem in our field. Over the years, and particularly in Jim's waning years, Thiel actively sought someone to carry Jim's work forward. The search involved professional assistance and engaged the myriad relationships Thiel had developed over the decades. Most candidates merely relied on conventional practice and 'wisdom'. Some had fantastical financial requirements; some proved to be pretenders - All lacked critical requirements. No fit was found.

In my own less intensive but similar search, I have engaged very knowledgeable consultants. About as close as I've come to understanding the situation is that the world has changed. (duh) In our youth, bright young people could imagine niches to apply their interests and passions toward building an enterprise to support the development of those undertakings into right livelihoods. Such was Thiel Audio. We created a company so that Jim could exercise his (albeit seminal) design talents and we could all apply our own abilities to making it succeed. We're approaching a half century ago, when there were more holes in a more amorphous market, more stones left unturned, more expendable income spread across a broader swath of society - in short, what I read as more confidence in creating one's life and future. Part of our own calculus for jumping into Thiel Audio was the vision that there must be plenty of other people who shared our desire to play back recorded music with better tools and equipment than was presently available. This equation requires enough confidence in the upside potential of the vision to justify the risks of buy-in. Among those risks were that our parents (Thiel and Gornik) re-mortgaged their homes for our start-up capital. Failure was never an option. I don't know whether that world still exists. It's a huge picture; I hope this cameo captures the gist of it.

Today I see plenty of bright young people. But if they're smart enough to try to make their impossible dream a reality, they seem to be opting for options in the 'new order' of the twenty-first century with astronomical upside potential. I don't see high-resolution audio playback anywhere in today's world-view. Thiel Audio didn't find an heir to what we built. As Bill Thalmann approaches retirement, he hasn't found an heir to what he's built. Will there ever be another Nelson (the one and only) Pass? I don't see it. And on and on. Vandersteen and Wilson have engaged their next generation in the pursuit. Bravo. But they had created a niche nearly guaranteeing continuing success. Home-grown doesn't match the new milieu very well. If we sit back and regret the changing tide, I'm afraid innovative niche audio may be drifting out to sea. If a hundred or a thousand of us encourage and sponsor young talent to carry on the work of breakthrough audio, perhaps we could keep it happening. Cheers.

tomthiel,

I agree with you that the audio world has changed. Most consumers today seek out convenient access to music through playback systems that don't come very close to the traditional concept of high-end audio. Some audio startups still pop up these days, usually to push a specific product, but today's business climate is rough for companies that resemble the original version of Thiel Audio. 

One model that may help some form of high-end audio stay alive could be described as "strategic infiltration." Some of the more passionate and dedicated audiophiles who become hooked on this obsession as teens may be able to find work and income from jobs that have some link to the music creation business or the music reproduction business. They don't necessarily have to start their own company to still enjoy a creative life in music and/or electronics. 

I don't know if you've ever listened to "The HiFi Podcast with Darren and Duncan," but it's a great example of two young guys who are passionate audiophiles and get together frequently (usually weekly) to discuss audio gear and music for an hour or so. The podcast is currently on hiatus, but the typical podcast includes introducing themselves, describing their own audio activities, answering listener questions, discussing a selected topic in depth, and then finishing with an album recommendation. The podcasts can get a little long at times, but listeners can skim through to find topics that interest them.

Darren Myers is the senior analog engineer for PS Audio and has been the main designer of award-winning products such as the PSA Stellar Phono Preamp and the Stellar M1200 hybrid mono amp. He worked for B&W and Classe before moving to Colorado and joining PS Audio. 

Darren's buddy Duncan Taylor is a musician, recording engineer, cable designer, audio writer, and DIYer. He currently works for The Music Room as a testing technician, which gives him access to thousands of pre-owned products that come to TMR for re-sale. (Other than owning some PS audio gear, I have no direct relationship with either Darren or Duncan.)

I think that a podcast from June (Episode 89: Duncan's Next Half-Day Speaker Project) may be of interest to some of the Thiel fans on this website. Starting at about the 1-hour mark in the podcast, there's a detailed discussion of Duncan's creation of a small desktop speaker that uses only simple first-order crossovers - and sounds great. Darren has challenged Duncan to create an even better sounding speaker using tweeters he has pulled out of some large Dunlavy speakers. There's no follow-up info on whether Duncan has actually built the new speakers yet, but the discussion is still fascinating.

I'm hoping that other young audiophiles, like Darren and Duncan, can find "day jobs" in the audio business that allow them to develop and apply their knowledge and creativity to help build new generations of audio gear that can draw in more high-end audio converts in the future.  

tomthiel

Right On! "Practioner" is the Key word. No doubt, that there is a real art in being a Hobbiest. Add the D.I.Y. aspect to it all and Audiophiles are handsomely rewarded.

I say again, the 2000's was a magical decade. Several top-tier practioners were at play. I mean, at work to make OEM cd and SACD players so much better on playback. Competition is a strong motivator. I was not financially secure back then, so I missed out on much of this Gear. Thankfully, with the help of the demo/used marketplace, I am making up for lost time. Physical media is not going away anytime soon. Millions of shiny, silver, discs are plentiful. And I am a player all of the way. as my Collection grows every year.

Agreed, companies were created for designers to practice their passion. Bill Thalmann and Dan Wright are key examples. Amazing that these guys and a few others are/were out to build a better "mouse trap"  And they did!

The next wave or a Revival is hopefully on the way in 2022.

Happy Listening!

sdl4

Thank You for the follow up on Tom's theme. Good to read that Darren and Duncan are getting it done in 2022. P.S. Audio and TMR are very strong Operations.

Happy Listening!