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Ever Have One Of Those Evenings?

Tonight, I went downstairs, turned on the system, and it sounded like crap. Within an hour I had:

>Discovered that one of my Thiel 2.2's has either a dead woofer (most likely), or a crossover or internal wiring problem. Testing to diagnose will commence tomorrow, tonight I'm too P.O.'ed.

>Additionally discovered that the tweeter on the other side is distorting badly, and will need the dome/voice-coil assembly replaced (again).

>Confirmed that my most costly set of interconnects has a bad jack connection (these are Harmonic Technology Magic Link Ones, which naturally feature a plug design that cannot easily be opened up for inspection or repairs without destroying the heat-shrink sleeve).

>Faced the distinct possibility that my futzing around behind the preamp trying to ascertain the culprit in the latter problem - without first turning down the volume - may well have been the cause of least one of the first two problems.

>Realized that now, not only can't I listen to my system the regular way, but since the OEM (non-standard) headphone amp output jack I got from Musical Fidelity's distributor to replace the faulty original in my X-Cans quickly developed the same exact problem as the old one (no right channel with either set of 'phones), I cannot even listen with my headphones for the time being, except through my CD-R recorder's wimpy monitoring jack.

Looks like I'm on a steady diet of cable movies and NPR for a while. (Way to go, Trent Lott: at least you'll be out-of-sight, out-of-mind by this time next week, you plastic-haired cretin - your plight is the one redeeming feature of my evening!)
zaikesman
unsound
7,311 posts
 
BTW, I'm not suggesting that you mislead the good people at Thiel, especially saint Shari. I just wouldn't offer them anything unecessary.
maxgain
526 posts
 
You Thiel owners can thank me in part that your speakers don't have those stupid electronic bass EQ boxes(ala Bose 901) that the old Threes had. I had sort of an argument with Tom Thiel back in the late eighties and Las Vegas CES about the fact that the EQ box screwed up the sound. He claimed you could not detect the "sound" of the EQ in the system. I claimed that a child could detect it! They were talking to dealers about producing a larger model than the Three, and I insisted that they do away with the "box"! It took some convincing but at least I got them to consider that the box "might" degrade the sound. I think no one had ever brought it up to them before as Tom seemed very suprised by this sugestion. The short part is, no more Thiels with electronic bass EQ. You are welcome.
unsound
7,311 posts
 
Maxgain, you may be surprised to know that Thiel's latest offering includes electronic equalization though this time it's in the digital domain. As for me, I think Thiel's 3.5 was one of their best efforts, and that one came with an equalizer. Yes, the equalizer was discernable, yes it was the weakest part of the design, but, in the end the design was better for it. While it did add a burden to the amplification stage, it made for a better system over all. I for one hope that Thiel reconsiders the use of equalizers in future designs. IMHO, a sealed box with an equalizer is preferable to ports and passive radiators.
sean
6,231 posts
 
You don't need an equalizer for a sealed box if it is done right. That is, if you don't mind big drivers in big boxes : ) Sean
>
zaikesman OP
3,017 posts
 
Unsound, I might use the downtime to have amps modded anyway, so this could happen. Sean, any thoughts about the question of the amp's part in this? Could it be guiltless on its own, but have passed a signal that damaged the crossover, and still be OK?

Maxgain, is Tom Thiel Jim Thiel's brother? I thought JT's brother only handled the cabinet-finishing aspect of the company.

Unsound already knows that I found my 2.2's superior in all ways to the 3.5's, but I don't really know whether part of that advantage can be laid at the feet of the 3.5's EQ box. I personally doubt that the speaker would have sounded any better to me without the bass boost, since the 2.2 had more articulate bass anyway, but I guess it's possible some additional transparency would have been audible. (It's always interesting to me that no one seems to feel that Merlin's BAM EQ module compromises their speaker in this way, and I believe that is a vented design.) Unsound, is the Thiel offering using digital EQ that you mention the subwoofer or another HT product?
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