Thiel Owners

I am glad somebody said something about the serial numbers. I was giving them serious thought. If they are good 'se's' and nobody here wants them I will take a stab at them. I have wanted to get some Thiels again some time. Thanks

So Jafant should they be fine, no worries about the serial number? Thanks

Hello Thiel listeners
I am excited I should receive a pair of 2.4's in about 1-2wks. There was some 3.7's listed that I thought about, but then felt it might be to much of a speaker for me, and that I couldn't go as wrong with the 2.4's in my basement. 
I had some 1.2's new when they came out and moved on from them but never replace them in my mind. 
I am probably going to ask a few questions at times, and from reading this thread since it was started it looks like I will get some fine suggestions, so thank you for this thread Jafant.
Would you say off the top of your head my present amp 125 watts into 8ohms and 250 into 4ohms would be capable for a good while power wise? And outside of power for the 2.4's what is one or two things you could say you would want to make sure of.  
I have 30-36 inches out from the wall I can place them. No side walls to worry about, they are about eight feet away. And my listening position will be about nine feet away. Any suggestions appreciated.
Now for fun did I get close to the 3.7's or should I get them if they are still available.
Can I do an upgrade to bring it close to the SE model or would I want to?
Thank you friends. 

Thanks for you response's. 
That's funny on your magnepans corvette01.
I will post when I get the 2.4's in the basement and start dialing them in. 

I got my 2.4’s about three weeks ago. One lower frequency driver is being sent off to Rob for rebuild.
While those speakers are getting a vacation I thought I could do some upgrades if any are available. Could you tell me about any. I think it has been mentioned that you can change some capacitors to something like the SE model has. And DGarretson has been mentioned about that if I remember right. Could you please give any particulars on how I could go about that route. Also is there any other mods that are completely worthy of doing for that speaker. Is any other components on the crossovers, or wool fiber fill, internal wiring a notable upgrade. If it is not a notable upgrade I am not interested, I don’t want to just make a side ward move just changing the sound. It makes sense I got Thiel speakers for the Thiel sound, so not to smart of me to change that. If there is not a considerable improvement on a mod I will just concern myself with ancillary items. Thank you for any suggestions freinds.

Thanks Jafant
Yes damaged in freight. The previous owner had no problem that I encountered with the driver. When I got them the next day I hooked them up and that driver was cutting in and out. When it was on it had a static sound. I called Rob and the lady answered took my message. The next day I got an email from Rob suggesting what was wrong and what he could do. Very professional treatment be those two.
Thanks for the name to contact.

I got my 2.4's running. I sent one low freq driver in to Rob at Thiel and he run it through a scan and he found it was okay. So I looked at the connections inside the cabinet a lot better than I did before I sent it in. I looked it really good over then so I thought I wouldn't find a loose connection. Well I found a loose connection on the board for that driver. I put everything back together, it works fine. 
Now I am ecstatic at how they sound. Much better than my recollection of the 1.2's that I had 20yrs ago, and those sounded very good and balanced. 

I just got some 2.4's knowing the state that Thiel is in. There is not another speaker quite like the Thiels. I checked with Rob and asked if I needed some service 10-15 yrs down the road should I worry and he said no.  Enjoy your Thiels as Jafant says. 

I don't know if this helps or not. I talked with Rob about a 2.4 I have that the lower driver did not have good sound coming from it. It was very noticeable. He lead me through the process. He showed me with detailed instructions how I could safely and carefully open up the speaker.  I did that and removed the driver, sent it in to him. He checked it sent it back and it went together well. I was very careful to put it all together correctly. One by tightening the screws the same amount they were tightened before. Another by lining everything up exactly as it was before including where the driver was aligned in the speaker box,  the correct angle the crossover leads were connected to the ears on the driver to keep down any stress on leads and wire. It worked great. I liked doing that better than worrying about damage to a whole speaker being shipped.  Rob was really helpful. I asked him if I should need some drivers in 10-15 yrs should I worry. He said not to, he didn't have any but could rebuild the ones I have as new. Now I am thinking about replacing some caps to the SE model ones.

bou·tiquebo͞oˈtēk/noun

1. a business that serves a sophisticated or specialized clientele.

If I got this correct I think what I appreciated most from Tom Thiel was the speakers Jim made needed to make music sound real and not at the expense of accuracy. Accuracy certainly is in the mix because these speakers sound about as real as a speaker can reasonably get. Because of that I think they walk a fine line and when people get an unfavorable impression of them i think they have not be set up well.  I have never found them to be bright, lean, fat, tubby, warm, cold. They are about as spot on in the middle for me as a speaker can get. Makes them easy for me to season to taste. Better than most speakers I have had or heard. I think about it their tall order of mimicking a point source, phase and time coherence, a real live music presentation, well balanced tonally they kind of combine the best aspects of different types of speakers to a point it is not hard to get excited listening to music on them. Actually it is harder to control your excitement about these speakers. 
Thanks Tom for the suggestion for upgrading the tweeter/mid range caps. I am going to do that.

To get to my crossovers in 2.4's I unscrewed the passive radiator. Then carefully I let the top nose sit down in the cross brace behind it and that allowed the bottom nose to be free to come up out of the speaker cabinet. Because everything fits so precise you want to be careful. And it is a little counter intuitive when you look at it and then do it. Be real careful not to pull or wiggle anything very strongly it all looks kind of delicate in there. It does come apart relatively easily. Anyway when you remove the passive radiator the crossover is easily seen and reachable. 

I am thinking those big professional looking solder mounds where I think six connections are on the trace board a little to intimidating for me. I can solder an individual connection extremely well. I would probably be better off in sending my crossovers in to Rob to care for that. The main reason I would use him is his quality of work is easily up there with the standard of Thiel speakers.  We are in good hands with him. So I figure for a little shipping get it done as the quality would be from the factory.

unsound
nutty02-11-2018 5:34pm  speakers without a powered woofer section, such as your Thiels. 

N

I find my 2.4’s very easy to tune in to my room and equipment. Maybe because their design causes them to be close to a truly neutral piece that you can go many ways and get great sound. I had some 1.2’s. They both are/were easy to make warm and round, or razor edge outlines and very transparent, or anything in between. One thing among other things I like about the Thiel’s I have had and others that I have listened to for some time is they communicate well. I don’t know how to describe it well, but I consider music to be communication of a sort from the musician, the instrumentalist mainly but also the vocalist, and that is what I want from my music, and I get that more over a wider range of music from these speakers than I have from others I have enjoyed listening to over the years.
Anyway like Tom thanks for letting me vent. Just kidding. Hope everyone is enjoying their systems. And thanks to Tom we are enjoying our systems a little more with some insights behind the speakers.

Thanks Beetle for doing all the legwork on those caps. That is almost exactly what I will do. I want to support Rob Gillum so I will try to see how I can do that with these caps. Probably be mid march or later though. Anyway it is nice to have this thread with that type of investigation and Mr Thiel's input. Thanks

Since I have had my 2.4's I have been playing with cables. I have a dozen different ones I have gathered over the years. Nothing high priced. But I thought I would mention that my system seemed to click in to another level when I put in the van den hul 'the first' ic's.  They seem to open up the sound stage for me and keep things natural sounding which is my highest priority. Have any of you moved on from these to anything else that contributes to a 'more' natural sound? Thanks

Thanks tomthiel for the update. I am anxiously waiting to hear what you come up with.

Thanks prof.  Cool to hear. For me tonal balance and realistic timbre with in a realistic soundstage makes the music mesmerizing to listen to and seems to communicate the musical message really well.

I also opt for external cross overs for my 2.4's. I could put them in my own box if that helps. Thanks for the update.

On my 2.4's there is no serial numbers. Could have been wiped off? Or maybe someone put a new plate on there, but not from what I understand with the previous owner.

It was just one owner of brand new 2.4's. And he had not nor had anyone replace anything on them.
Mike

I am looking forward to the new xo's when ready. Thanks Beetlemania and Tom for you efforts.

As far as amps go I ran a sumo polaris amp (100 watts into 8ohms and I think it doubled or close into 4ohms) and audio research ls1 pre that sounded fantastic with my 1.2's.
Now for my 2.4's I run a Belles 150 Reference V2 (125 watts into 8ohms and 250 watts into 4ohms) with a lightspeed passive and burson buffer and it sounds really good, a good step up from my other system. Both amps sounded solid as far as I could tell and I would recommend them in the same application.
I did work for a couple of high end shops. Nothing to do with audio equipment but I got to listen to a lot of stuff. And my system's however modest the midrange sounded as good or better on the average with anything that they could put together. That was my priority, the midrange and have the extremes blend in nicely.

I have heard the Revel F208’s in a Listen Up show room. Not a bad showroom, actually a good one. I have the 2.4’s at home. The Revels seemed kind of dull or uninspiring. Now when I have listened to speakers at a dealers showroom, the ones I liked best in the long run are the ones that didn’t stand out to me, but were balanced and slightly dull compared to so many others.

Bellesfan
I have a Belles Ref 150a V2 on my Thiel 2.4's. I have a wireworld silver electra 5.2 power cord on it. It was a nice noticeable improvement. I paid about 250.00 for a used one. It might be worth trying a cord or two. Two others that were on my radar when I got this one was JPS Labs Power+, Triode Wire Labs 7 +. 

Thanks beetle. I am trying to get pics posted, just haven't yet. I sent the pics from my phone to my email account and they haven't arrived yet. It can take a day or 3. Thank you for your help. When they do I will get them on my system page. Yes, and they do say MPT on all the black caps. Thanks again.

Hi Thiel mates
I was wondering if beetlemania or any others could tell me which xo boards I have and what would be the best to updated on them. They are green circuit boards. They have black MPT capacitors, white ceramic about 3" long, I guess resistors, and bare white plastic wire tied coils. On the board on the floor in addition to the black caps and ceramic things and coils there are 2 green caps in parallel with 100mfd 100v + - 5% on them. I will try to get it on my system page. Might take me a day to do that. Thanks for any help.

Friends
I put up a picture on my systems page. I hope it shows the crossover good enough. If I need to get a better picture let me know. Thanks for helping with what you think would be the best items to upgrade on it. My speakers are 2.4's and the serial numbers are not there anymore. I don't know why though. Thanks again. 

Thank you Tom and beetle. I will do a update with that information in mind, and keep this thread up to date on it. Thanks again very much.