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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

Showing 5 responses by maxgain

maxgain
526 posts
 
Zaikesman, sorry to hear that you have more problems than just crappy outlets!

Seriously, I hope you get it straightened out quickly. Let me know when you are back up and running and when I can start pestering you again.

I love the "plastic-haired-cretin" line!
maxgain
526 posts
 
Zaikesman, you could plug those guitar amps into cryo'd outlets!

Ever plugged into a Mesa Boogie guitar amp? What a sound for electric guitar! Nothing I have ever used like it! But I know you would need too much convincing......forget I brought it up. Good luck with the tweeter, and don't get the damn thing too hot(use some heat sinks) or shoes will start falling from the sky!
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.
maxgain
526 posts
 
Yes Unsound I am suprised. It was just that they were talking about a higher priced speaker than the Three(whatever version it was at the time). I felt that at least the EQ that they used at the time degraded the overall performance.It suprised me that they were so dumbfounded that anyone said that they could hear the performance loss the thing introduced. Yes, the sound was bass shy without it but everything else improved dramaticly. At least they looked into improving the EQ for future use. Was there a CS5 at anytime in their line?
Yes, Tom is Jim's brother, but he did seem to have something to do with the development process. He was asking dealers opinioins of what they would like to see in a more expensive speaker from them in the near future. When I asked for one with no EQ he just stared at me in disbelief for a while, it was sort of uncomfortable. They beleived that it was totaly transparent. I didn't. Don't get me wrong, I like the people at Thiel and I like their products.
maxgain
526 posts
 
Zaikesman, you ever get things working?
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