Why try and make a piece of equipment something it is not? I do not care for Thiels myself, there are others who do. From your description it sounds like you do not like the basic sound of the speaker. Blocking out part of the sound to make it tolerable certainly doesn't seem like the way to go. Why would you want a piece of equipment you can't enjoy no matter what other virtues it seems to have? To me it would make more sense to write off the speakers as a mistake for your listening tastes. Sell them and get something more enjoyable to you. Don't try and use your whole system as a tone control for speakers you probably won't enjoy anyway.
Taming bright Thiels
I have been attempting for months to find a way to tame the brightness on my 2.2's. Ended up with a crudely simple short-term solution after much tube and cable rolling and equipment fussing (System is Theta separates, ARC LS2b preamp, Rowland 1 amp, Harmonic Tech cables).
I experimented with taping thin material suspended in front of the midrange driver to produce roughly a couple decibels acoustical attenuation in the 1Khertz to 3khertz region from each channel. (I experimented with 1- and 2- ply tissue, cotton cloth, etc.)
What a magical difference. My wife immediately asked for a listening evening, something she hadn't done in over a year.
So I wrote to Thiel (many times) and asked if a low-value resistor wired in series with the midrange driver would have the same effect with less likelihood of side effects.
While they responded to every query promptly, they absolutely would not give any information on any possible modification of the speaker to attenuate its overly bright character.
Anyone attempted such a modification? Results? Caveats?
I experimented with taping thin material suspended in front of the midrange driver to produce roughly a couple decibels acoustical attenuation in the 1Khertz to 3khertz region from each channel. (I experimented with 1- and 2- ply tissue, cotton cloth, etc.)
What a magical difference. My wife immediately asked for a listening evening, something she hadn't done in over a year.
So I wrote to Thiel (many times) and asked if a low-value resistor wired in series with the midrange driver would have the same effect with less likelihood of side effects.
While they responded to every query promptly, they absolutely would not give any information on any possible modification of the speaker to attenuate its overly bright character.
Anyone attempted such a modification? Results? Caveats?