Thiel Owners

There are mixing engineers who swear by crossoverless speakers, usually 5” to 6.5” one-way sealed or open baffle . I was on such a project and couldn’t get my ears around the sound. On testing, their harmonic distortion was off the chart outside the target response range. Second harmonic could be more than the fundamental. A consulting designer proposed that I remove the entire woofer station one from the SCS4 XO to make it sound better. Indeed it removed the Sonic artifacts, but it also raised HM about 20dB. 
This exploration caused me to develop a better way to block those out of band frequencies. I’m replacing all electrolytic caps with a radial array of PP film caps around the custom Golden Cascade core. I’m working on bringing sound quality up while lowering distortion even farther and controlling costs with an array of small value custom film caps.

Cheers

Tom

I've been thinking about my 08-28-2025 post where I suggested that:

"I guess that a couple of degrees will be inconsequential."

It occured to me that's actually the amount of toe in I use due to room considerations with my CS 3.5's to compensate for the less than ideal 10' distance from speaker to listening positition. I do find a subtle improvement with this minor degree of toe in as compared to the recommended straight forward speaker set up.

Now as to whether or not other benefits outweight this consideration; I can not say. They very well may.

Happy Friday! All

Unsound - setup is complex. Jim/kathy left installation to dealers with little support. Those who excelled at the nuances of setup sold the lion’s share of product. 
since bass is quite omnidirectional I first position for best bass. Since mid frequenci s are semi-directional, set tow in for best blend of direct and reflected energy. Timing is most critical between mid and tweeter, tilt directly affects that arrival integration. Note that more back tilt is required the more straight ahead the speakers point. Analysis via REW, etc. can help find the best formed step response which identifies proper tilt. 
BYW, most folks tow their speakers in.

@tomthiel  Thanks for the tip re: tilt back and toe in ( or the lack there of ).

I hope you’ll indulge me if I return to the subject of placing identical Thiels back to back; what might be a typical minimum distance from the rear firing speakers towards the front wall as seen from the listening position?