Thiel Owners

anzen - lots of interacting variables and solution visions. Among those is de-coupling which Thiel rejected. Thiel’s vision landed on maximizing the connection between the driver and cabinet to reduce recoil, increase effective mass and stiffness to tighten the onset transient wave-form. Early-on we used a thin gasket-paper interface. As we developed precision CNC machining we eliminated that gasket by using an O-ring at the ID of the mounting rabbet as an air seal. The mechanical joint was driver to baffle with no interface. It seems that later (after TT) products migrated to a very thin foam interface that essentially collapses under mechanical load while forming an air seal. In all cases Thiel attempted to unify the driver with the baffle for maximum rigidity.

The opposite approach of ’floating’ the driver with its claims of resonance isolation may have merit, but I never found it in total system analysis. The decoupled driver vibrates more and longer than the coupled one and its recoil is far greater - producing transient slur. I should note that such slur is without much consequence when a speaker’s onset transient is already compromised via non-coherence. But a coherent waveform begs the brain to figure out what’s wrong with the slurred leading edge, and that 'work' decreases musical intimacy.

Another problem with de-coupled drivers is keeping them tight. A vibration-absorbing gasket permits relative motion between the basket and baffle. That motion induces loosening of the fasteners - a very bad deal.

So, Thiel unitized (as much as we could) the vibro-mechanical system of drivers and cabinet. The cabinet-floor interface is another very complex equation to solve. Stand by for future reports on that front.

Tom

"It seems that later (after TT) products migrated to a very thin foam interface that essentially collapses under mechanical load while forming an air seal."

I did not notice any kind of seal when removing the speakers from the cabinet , (maybe because New Thiel had removed them first ?)  although they did tend to stick a little the first time I removed them , I thought that they were sticking to the paint .  

Should I be contacting Rob about the availability of these foam seals for the 2.7 speakers ?

Thanks Rob 

Rob - no. My observation was general across the few speakers I have seen. NO gasket on the 2.7 fits Thiel’s strategy perfectly. It’s likely the paint is enough to seal the air. BTW are your driver screws magnetic?

Thanks Tom

Yes they were , I replaced the woofer and radiator with brass and the coaxial with reinforced nylon , as well as the crossover boards with brass because they too were magnetic . Only the screws holding the speaker terminals were non-magnetic.

I didn't think about it until unsound wrote about it .

vair68robert

Thank You -for your hard work on XO designs and solutions as well.

Happy Listening!