Thiel Owners

Spring Solstice

Jon_5912,

About wire/cable effects, I’m with you - a bit skeptical (and feeling bad about it). That said, I have to think that if there are effects, many would come from length, not to mention physical connections/interfaces (as tomthiel has found), so that eliminating or reducing them would be a good goal.

The end result of what you describe as you shorten the connection chain is the active speaker. And the end result of your other notion of taking it a step further and keeping the signal in the digital domain as far as possible are Meridian’s DSP speakers. It’s why I’ve owned a pair for two decades. My Thiels are a more recent enjoyment.



tomthiel,

I can’t help but think that going active was discussed/explored @ Thiel Audio. Could you comment? I can’t imagine what could have been produced were Meridian to use Thiel drivers....

It ruins all the mix and match tinkering that many audiophiles love, but I think you would get a lot more of the younger generation (not to mention spouses) interested in audiophile sound. And honestly get better sound in the end. KEF and Devialet are interesting current examples.

In my perfect world, there would be standardized module sizes similar in principle to rack mount 1U, 2U, etc. that manufacturers could produce and swap out to update as advances come. 

I have recently tried for long periods 3 speaker cables with a Thiel CS3.7. From my Benchmark AHB2 amps I used the following:

1) Benchmark SpeakON terminated cables. (6 foot)
2) Audience Conductor SE (9 foot)
3) Audience FrontRow with SpeakON termination (1 meter)

Both Audience were better sounding, though the Benchmark was also good. The FrontRow is a great sounding cable.

I am still using all 3 cables with #1 and #2 for different purposes.

I have a Starke Sound AD4.320 amp on trial currently. Had some issues getting it working with my PX-02 crossover and USS sub, but suddenly everything worked. Intermittent connection somewhere. I have Powerpoint 1.2’s on my hardwood over (heavy urban) concrete floor. One might scoff whether this is a true Thiel setup. I know that tomthiel who owns some does not. These are serious two way speakers that happen to be optimized for a planar infinite baffle at 45 degrees setup. This is probably the best sound of my life. Seriously.

I used to be a an “amp denier” having been spoiled by the ‘70’s amp races to “perfection” - which the 70’s were. They became far less of a limiting factor. Speaker tech had to catch up. It did.

As you know from my recent post, I have been a Meridian believer for the past two decades. I abandoned the archaic analogue multi component system as flawed. I now have (for the time being) a hybrid system with a digital streaming front end and “digital” amplification to an analogue conventional crossover passive speaker. 
The result is sublime. And I suddenly understand what modern amplification has brought. Leapfrogged again.