Thiel Owners

@thielrules,

What an impressive undertaking and write-up! I must confess that I lack the knowledge required to judge the success of many of your choices in making mods on the original 3.5 design. My negative experience with equalizers in the past makes me hesitant to depend on EQ to fix problems in replacement drivers or make decisions on a "house sound," but I have absolutely no experience with modern digital EQ so I am not in any position to offer an informed critique.

Above all, I will be very interested in what the speakers now sound like. Please let us know your listening impressions as you log some serious listening time with your "renewed" speakers. Thanks for sharing all this great information!

Unsound, the OEM drivers are no longer available, nor can the mid-range be rebuild. Tweeters of dynaudio are still available used. The bass equaliser of the 3.5 is prone to damage from static electricity, and Rob is out of parts to repair them. Fortunately all of this can be managed with dsp and the 3.5 have a new lease on life.

thielrules

Thank You for sharing your Summer 3.5 project. Strong work- this model is beloved by many members of the Panel here. How we wish OEM drivers and parts were available for these Vintage loudspeakers?

Happy Listening!

@thielrules, Yes, as I said; I understand.

While upgrading componets in my McCormack DNA-250 amp ,
I discovered that Conrad Johnson dropped the McCormack from the name but continued to use design .
I've been using images of the MF-2550se for reference as to which componets to upgrade .
I found this artical that fits in with this Thiel speaker forum !

www.theaudiobeat.com › equipment › conrad_johnson_mf2550se

( excerpt from artical )

These are the sorts of details the MF-2550 SE served up best. The 300-hour Teflon Rubicon had at last been crossed.

Among the amplifiers I’ve heard in my system, the Conrad-Johnson MF-2550 SE stands out. Of those amps, its closest competitor in terms of price, specifications, and power is the Classé CA-2300. At $7000, this Canadian anvil delivers 600W into 4 ohms, and was quite capable of handling my Thiel CS3.7s -- and having spent many years with these speakers, I can tell you that, much like their predecessors, the CS7.2s, they will use every watt they can get. The MF-2550 SE produces "just" 400Wpc (confirmed by C-J’s Lew Johnson), but not all watts are created equal. The CA-2300 was a bit sluggish by comparison. The MF-2550 SE gripped the ’3.7s, handling every curve the music threw with agility and speed, and sounding significantly more transparent and musical (in all of the best ways) than the Classé.

Rob