Thiel Owners

Arvin - floor coupling is, in my experience, a worthwhile endeavor. During development of the 03 In the late 70s, we discovered a new problem attributable to phase/time coherence, of a bothersome upper midrange jitteriness. A cure was to couple the speakers to the wood floor via 3 pins. That solution became part of the product and rubbed off into the general 3rd party stabilizer feet solution. Piercing carpet via spikes also firmed up the bass. However, coupling directly to concrete sometimes produced an undesirable edginess. In my time at Thiel, we supplied invertible pins where the domed end could be used to concentrate the load, significantly smush the carpet, but not penetrate to the underlying floor. A similar effect could be gotten by placing the spikes into small diameter cups of some kind. In the day I had some cups machined from brass (for shows). The top had a pointed-bottom hole to match the pin, and the bottom was a hemisphere about 1/4" diameter.  You can buy online brass hemispheres and drill a dimple to capture the point of the pin.

A personal piece of history: Bose made Thiel cease and desist from using the number 2.2 for our second generation model 2, which we renamed the CS2 2, without the decimal point, garnering more publicity and support than any emerging company could ask for.

TBH I never forgave Bose for that (being the owner of some 2 2’s). Glad it actually worked in your favor, but I could never see how they could claim infringement on a number system. I doubt seriously they could slide today, what with the advent of the internet and software, everything is 2.x and 3.x.

C-Vega “ Strong Like Bull, Smart Like Tractor “

A friend had some C-V’s back in the day. We affectionately called them the Gruntpigs.

Arvin - floor coupling is, in my experience, a worthwhile endeavor. During development of the 03 In the late 70s, we discovered a new problem attributable to phase/time coherence, of a bothersome upper midrange jitteriness. A cure was to couple the speakers to the wood floor via 3 pins.

I’m hoping to get my 2.2’s back to daddy soon, in my new place which I’m frantically readying. In my other setups, I used the cones on pucks when I had suspended hardwood floors, and then the cones directly on carpet so they connected to the sub-floor in an upstairs room. Now, I’ll have them on hardwood over concrete slab, so I figured dig out the pucks again. However I was wondering if anybody has tried anything like the IsoAcoustics Gaia? It seems to me to be the opposite of what you’d want, but an awful lot of people are singing their praises. Thoughts?

uncle_monkey
Good to see you again. Hope your 2.2 speakers are up and running soon.




Happy Listening!

Bose has always been active on the litigation front -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation  I'm not even sure that they were the first with direct reflecting technology in speakers.  Many moons ago I worked in Center City Philadelphia.  There was an older gentleman who had a small but nice audio shop.  He had speakers that had good drivers in them (not cheap ones) and had them near the wall with a piece of plexi-glass reflecting them into the wall.  For that type of sound, it was outstanding.  There were music celebrities who would visit the store.  I believe (to the best of my memory) Bose threatened legal action (and he probably was selling them years before they came out with it) and he just didn't have resources to fight it.  Bose is not alone.  Many companies with lots of resources flex their muscle.  I remember having some brick work done on an old house and the company name was 'Bricks R Us' withe the 'R' backwards and he got a nasty letter from Toys R Us (with the threat of legal action) and on the invoice he went over the backwards R by hand and changed it to a B.  Smaller companies, whether it's Thiel or others, are not going to be able to match resources.  It's just the way the system works (it's not perfect is necessarily right).  I don't like it either and all I can do is not personally buy products from such companies (that's all anyone can do).

Cascade - I can't remember his or his shop's name, but I remember playing the first-tier Thiel speakers for him in his shop in 1977. He was complimentary and said he wished he were younger because a new world was unfolding for the young. He showed me his reflective speakers, which pre-dated Bose by many years. Bose had threatened him (cease and desist) and he responded that he would not sue to invalidate Bose's patent if Bose left him alone. And so it was.