More Bad News AT Thiel


According to Ted at Strat-Ta-Gee.com Thiel is on the verge of closing. According to the Chief Engineer who was let go Dennis Crosson Thiel is done. Upper management has denied this and stated they are planning to move into the next phase. Very confusing. Looks like Classe all over again. Very interesting article on what's going on.
linnlingo

Showing 7 responses by prof

For Thiel lovers, a visit to the current "Thiel" website is just sad. 
It's like returning to one of the great High End restaurants only to find they are now only serving "convenient" frozen dinners.

What an awful move.



Yep,

The brand "Thiel" grew in prominence due to a specific, and generally rare, approach to loudspeaker design. The whole cache of that name was from the fans who appreciated that particular design. The idea of taking over the Thiel name to abandon the design and produce just another "me-too" speaker, expecting to benefit from the Thiel name is sheer insanity.   (Actually, the word for this case is "ignorance" as anyone could see from who bought the company and interviews with those folk).

It’s like buying MBL and abandoning the Omani-directional technology to produce cookie-cutter life-style box speakers.

I'd had dealings with Kathy Gornick way back when I had the Thiel CS6s in house and she was just such a pro.  Later on I had communication with Dawn, various questions about Thiel speakers and she too was very helpful.  The company was just such a class act.

Agree.

It’s not only that they are not selling anything like the actual Thiel speakers: what they even are selling just leaves you scratching your head. Like "who needs yet another bland me-too wireless speaker?"
There’s just nothing compelling about the site or brand on any level at this point, even to differentiate it from competitors selling the same products. I get a palpable sense of folks who are confused about what to do with the brand. Can’t see it lasting much longer.
And they don't even sell what might have been their best "new" product, the last version of the Thiel Smartsub:

http://www.audioholics.com/subwoofer-reviews/thiel-smartsub-1.12

It got an excellent review and I have to admit it's about the only good-looking sub I've ever seen (I generally don't like the looks of subwoofers).