Thiel Owners

Christmas Eve - All

oblgny -  I share your appreciation. I consider the CS3.5, along with the CS5, to be the truest expression of Jim's and Thiel Audio's art. In the early years we made the bold choice to include phase and time fidelity into our products. That is extremely difficult to implement. We made steady progress overcoming driver limitations, along with the hyper-scrutiny our perception applies to 'real sound' rather than 'manufactured sound'. Progress accelerated with our adoption of Finite Element Analysis for 1989's CS5. But the 3.5, even with conventional overhung drivers, did the job. It presents a unified propagation field from 20Hz to 20kHz. The bass is in-sync with the upper signal. Those who appreciate bass coherence consider any reflex alignment as second rate.

Reflex bass, whether port or passive radiator, delays the deep bass a full cycle. The only justification for reflex bass is cost savings. In Thiel's lineup, we had relegated reflex bass to models 1 and 2 while committing to 'true bass' in more expensive models. But in the mid 1990s, with the CS3.6, we capitulated to reflex bass across the board in response to 'everyone else doing it' at any / all product prices. I considered that decision contrary to our commitment to full coherence, and a dilution of the reality factor enabled by our prior model 3s. Yes, the 3.6 and further models made advances beyond the earlier models; that is the nature of iterative progress. Yes, Thiel's reflex bass was very well done; but that didn't make it authentic bass supporting our purist musical goals.

As I work toward bringing my recent advancements into reality, I consider the CS3.5 with iterations a, b and beyond to be very fertile ground for recreating new expressions of fully coherent music.

I know it's been a long, long time. But do stay tuned.

Merry Christmas! All

Merry Christmas all!

@tomthiel  Your continued commitment to advancing the 3.5’s is a gift to us.Thsnk you.

Last Friday in 2025 -  All