Thiel Owners

beetle , Tom 
I have my wires taped to the sides of Cardas speaker wire blocks ,
which are 2" wide and then crossing in-between each spacing with them being seperated about  1/2" apart at the crossing .
I did this so they aren't parallel possiblity reducing the possibilty of becoming a radio antenna .

unsound
I read the posts from your link , very interesting ,
but then again the whole issue of 
cable designs are very complex with no rights or wrongs ,
just differences with the end result and our own listening preferences and of course how deep are our pockets .

The issue of frequency range and hearing is hard to explain in the audio world of listening , how much do the frequency ranges that we can't hear ( for me it's over 9,000hz and under 50hz ) affect the 
qualities of space, dimension , width , height , 3D imagery that we listen for but tecnically can not measure ? 


My reason to make my own cables was to try a theory about the Cardas design ( and because I couldn't afford to move up ) ,  
which sounds better ?  2 wires of 11.5awg together equaling 8.5awg
( Neutral Reference ) or 1 wire of 9.5awg with the outer layer of wires being 1.6 times thicker ( Cardas golden Ration )  than the layer beneath it. 
I feel ( hear )  the home made cables sounded better !
Raising  new questions , was it the increased size of the outer wire in the design ( since it is one awg smaller than before ) or was it because of seperating the positive/negative current flow ? or a combination of both? 

Congratulations Prof

Ever since I read your first post about your impressions of both the 
2.7s and 3.7s I was impressed by your detailed insight,
I felt like I was reading The Absolute Sound magazine.
Which after reading I knew I wanted a Thiel design speaker ,
but also knew it would be years before a used 3.7 would enter my price range , then TAS came out with the 2.7 article which convinced me that the 2.7 was not settling for less other than 2 hz of bass and 60Lbs of weight.
I know you switched back and forth many times before you made your finial decision ( which hurts my back thinking about it ) , so now you can just sit back and enjoy .
And by selling your 3.7s make an upgrade  Thiel owner happy or maybe even make a new convert to Thiel speakers .

I just listened to a new ( used ) Japanese copy of Traffic's Mr. Fantasy and the 2.7s really show their stuff .
I believe that some ( especially me )  2.7 owners hope the Rob Gillum comes up with a crossover board upgrade , since he was involved in the design and building of the 2.7s

Rob

Good Morning Tom Thiel and All Thiel owners

Update on the wiring of my 2.7 ,
I replaced the 15.5 with 17.5 awg wiring on the mid range of the coaxial
speaker to equalize the resistance , it sounded like the mid / treble
was louder or more pronounced .
It seems like without modifying the crossovers that whatever wiring 
one upgrades to the resistance should be the same for both ,
at the same time it can't be to low .
Measurement on the 15.5 was .2 ohms for 3 feet ,
on the 17.5 it was .3 ohms for 3 feet ,
the JSC 16 that was removed was .5 ohms for the 3 feet to the coaxial speaker .
I've contacted Cardas about their measurements for the
15.5 , 17.7 and 18.5 sizes , I'm sure they have more accurate readings 
than my SnapOn multi-meter .
I might consider trying the 18.5 but as of now I couldn't be happier 
with everything I'm hearing .

Tom what is the resistance measurement of the 18 guage Straight wire ? 

Rob

offnon57
I have a CJ made McCormack DNA-250 powering Thiel CS2.7's
and I couldn't be happier , unless I had DNA-750 mono blocks .
While I'm not as amplifier experienced as many of the Thiel speaker 
owners I will say the the 400 watts per channel at 4 ohms 
lets the speakers show how good they are .
Supposedly the DNA-250s have all the upgrades the Steve offers for his manufactured models  .
I have ( so far ) only replaced the IEC connector with a Furutech one,
the 20 amp fuse holder with a military grade 30 amp holder , the 6 fuse holders on the board with solid copper silver plated ones and all the fuses with ceramic fuses ( the main being a Furutech and the rest are Bussman ).
You might want to send it SMC for upgrades or buy another and have mono blocks but the McCormack amplifier to me is fantastic .
Rob

Tom

I agree with you on the " B " , I believe that is why  different wire 
manufactures and configurations create sonic differences .
The only measurement that I can go by is resistance ,
stating my opinion about wiring or what I am hearing has little 
quantitative value .

Rob

I would like to say to all Thiel owners on this thread
these are the most intelligent conversations I've seen on Audiogon .

For all of you that subscribe to The Absolute Sound
the magazine that gave me the dream to own a pair Thiel speakers.
In the May/June issue page 18  TAS Legacy  Thiel CS5 Loudspeaker,
they tell the world about Rob Gillum and Coherent Source Service and on the opposite page an ad for Cardas Audio the cabling that I use ,
also in this issue page 16 Future TAS my future turntable
 ( when I win the lottery )  by Merrill-Williams R.E.A.L. 101.3 ,
that would replace my Merrill Heirloom .

When I retire this summer I will be looking for the upgrade kit for 
the CS2.7 , I will also be contacting Steve McCormack 
to see if he has any suggestions for upgrading the DNA-250 amp 
and maybe I will upgrade the DAC and a lot of capacitors on my Carver 
SD/A 490 CD player .

Life is good and getting better
Rob

Great timing jafant

I installed Cardas ccgr speaker posts on my 2.7s last Friday and
It's taken over 3 days to burn-in or break-in ,  bidding posts 3 days !
I now have Cardas 9.5awg chassis wire from the amp board 
to the speakers with  ccgr posts on the amp and speakers
and loving the smooth ,  deep and full sound .
Synergy !   
 

@beetlemania 
@unsound 
I started a thread questioning the improvement in sound with bi-wiring ,
you would have thought that I started a political conversation !
Like many things in the audiophile world,  from hard to imposible
to measure with anything but your own ears .

tomthiel

It was JSC 16awg speaker wire that is 3n purity ,  

I used Cardas 17.5awg for the tweeter and mid and 15.5awg for the woofer .

 

 

I have a 2003 Subaru that has a  Macintosh  Audio system in it,
I believe that it was  one year only offering ,
sounds great but I wonder if they ran into problems or maybe it was just a promotional deal for both of them .
Subaru was not near as big as Toyota , so maybe the volume allowed for the Macintosh system ?
To bad , maybe Thiel might have been able to survive as the original Thiel company .

@beetlemania

If you decide to keep the pos/neg separate cable configuration 
then you might want to re-solder you speaker post so one is on the top and the other on the bottom , that way your cables can lay like you had them originally .  

You might want to consider increasing the gauge wire in your amp that goes to the speaker posts , my amp had 12 gauge and going up to the 9.5 was a definite improvement .

@beetlemania
I should amend my recommendation about rewiring in your amp ,
I looked at images of Aryre AX-5 twenty and saw a beautiful image of electronics with no way to change speaker wires internally .
Between the Arye and the Spectral I don't know which has a more beautiful well layed out board .

Thanks Tom
Rob hasn't gotten back to me , I'll try calling him tomorrow and see if I can send him pictures .
As for someone's hot rod ? I purchased them thru Rob but they were sent from Tennessee ! Something is fishy . 

Thaks Tom

I didn't want to speculate until I was able to talk with R.G. ,
I was thinking that somehow the last speakers being assembled 
were shipped to " ThielAudio " in Tennessee unassembled and they were using this wire for thier new line of speakers .
There were 9 2.7s and 9 1.7s sold by them on E-bay .

I live in Eugene Oregon so comparing them would be great if there are any 2.7 owners around .
I would love to exchange pictures of the crossovers or at least see what they look like having come from Kentucky .
Mine have Erse , Topmay and Clarity caps including one made for Thiel , 
with Erse and Xicon resistors ,
I can't see who makes the inductors .

While I have been second guessing myself on re-wiring the speakers ,
this uniqueness or oddity might give me the incentive to go ahead with the project .

jafant

When I was looking to replace my Carver M1.0t 
Arye and Pass labs were considered but still way over my budget 
even in the used market , maybe someday.

Tom , jafant and all Thiel owners .

I just created a virtual system for all to see and comment on .

Tom how can I get pictures to you ?

Tom

I posted my e-mail address on page 155 ,
I'm not an insider so if e-mailed I can send pictures .

The Absolute Sound basically asked the question when having reviewed
both the 3.7 and the 2.7 , is 2hz worth almost twice the price ?
So Tom's point about the difference is academic but
The auditory value of extended bass might not be heard ,
but the feeling  can be quite rewarding  .
 

Question , why are the 2.4 spec'd at 33 hz manuf ( 36hz stereophile )
and the 2.7s are 35hz manuf, when they both have the same woofer and approximately the same size cabinet ?
Crossovers ? why would the newer speakers have less ?

I'm not complaining about the 2.7s lower end
(  especially after moving from 2 way speakers )  
and 'am looking forward to the upgrade possibilities
but I thought I'd ask Why the difference .

Rob

Happy almost Friday

Mr. Thiel
Thank You for the great detail and for giving up so much of your time .

"A factor that contributes to "great bass" is that of articulation which, in a first-order design, includes the low end of the mid-range driver. Jim's 3.7 XO treatment is much more sophisticated and uses better parts than the 2.7 due to budget constraints and designer choices. The 2.7 midrange is fed through a 400uF electrolytic cap, albeit with a PP and styrene bypass in parallel. The 3.7 uses a bank of 75uF polypropylene caps with a styrene bypass. Multiple smaller PP caps provide faster reactions and less distortion than a large electrolytic. "
This explains a lot .

Hopefully when you and Rob  develop an upgrade for the 2.7s
they will based on the 3.7s design with new and higher grade components .
Rob  

@tomthiel
Thank you for contacting R.G., I've called a couple of times without an answer and no I haven't received your e-mail ( darn it ) .
Please tell us more about your wire experiments .

@beetlemania 
Thanks for the idea about replacing the 25 watt resistors .
I will be using Mills resistors , replacing the ERSE caps
 with Clarity CSAs and one CMR and am concidering the 68uf Topmay caps with Clarity CSAs .
I have decided to use Cardas 17.5 awg chassis wire for speaker connections while increasing to 15.5 awg to the crossover boards .
I have been inventoring and pricing the parts ( that I can see the values ).
I took out the Mid/tweeters ( and seperated the wires ) and one woofer 
to see how easy or difficult it would be .
And have you made your finial determination about speaker cable connecting ?

@jafant 
I understand the idea of keeping it stock because of it's uniqueness ,
but since I started looking into the quality of the componets I want to improve what I have , besides I think there are 8 other pairs out there . 

@beetlemania 
I have thought of a way to connect the wiring with faston connectors ,
I'll attach the female end to a 14 gauge solid wire that is soldered 
in/on the soldering rings and the male on the wire .
This will allow me to install the wires first and be able to remove the boards as I replace componets .
I'm also thinking ( again ) of using the 15.5awg , partconnexion has 
Cardas wire on sale $1.95/ft
( I buy it from Michael Percy with price matching ) .
you can contact me by e-mail ( from page 155 ) .
So far it looks like the total cost would/should be $600 max to be spread out over 3 or 4 months ,
not bad considering that over 8 months I spent $1300 on the amp .

Rob

jomamdfamily

since the one tweeter is not working and Rob thinking that it could be a lead wire 

you could try to re-solder the wire connection where the speaker cable attaches .

 

 

 

jonandfamily

sorry about spelling your screen name wrong ,

2 things , are you sure it's the speaker ? have you switched them ?

when re-soldering have your iron just hot enough to melt the solder ,

also check the speaker wire soldering .

you don't want to heat up the wire going to the voice coil .

jafant

I beleive Tom was stearing me to you about setting up the virtual system page .  
Thank you for the positive praise .
Can you advise or help us to contact each other outside of Audiogon ,
I am not an insider .

Rob

@beetlemania
Thank you for the compliment ,.
It was the wiring and my attempt to advise other 2.7 owners about a tweek ( seperating the wires ) that Tom informed me that I own 
FrankenThiel speakers !  

My next project will be to replace the wires , first I would like to
replace/ upgrade and increase awg to the crossover boards .
But it looks like I would have to disassemble the speaker ,
so I would also replace/upgrade the wires to the speakers ,
that is where I am at a crossroad ( with plenty of time to think about it ) ,
to use Cardas 18.5 awg to all the speakers , to increase that to 15.5
or to have 3 different gauges like you've done  .

Resistors might be next , depending on how difficult the wiring project turns out to be .
Mills does not manufacture 25 watt resistors , so only the 10 watt
ones can be replaced by Mills .

I am really suprised to here that you see that the parts quality 
is higher that your OEM  2.4SE !
But very happy about it .
It would be great to be able to see Kentucky crossovers and compare them to my Tennessee crossovers , maybe the only difference are the wires .

Rob


 

Silvanik 
I've been meaning to write and welcome 
a fellow McCormack amp owner and a passive pre-amp user .
You had me daydreaming about the DNA-2 , great specs ,
there was a Deluxe edition for sale on E-bay starting at $2,000 ,
buy then I saw the weight of the unit !
Ironically the Thiel thread was discussing the weight of equipment 
and the aging of the owners , daydream over .

I had just purchased a new phono pre-amp that has taken my system to a new height in listening pleasure .
( luckily because if I hadn't just spent $1,800 I might have still been daydreaming about the DNA-2 amp ) 
I went from an entry level SimAudio Moon 110LP s.s. with a regulated power supply ( big improvement over the stock wall wort ) to
and Tavish Design Asiago tube unit .
New height , width , depth , definition and BASS !
My 2.7s let me hear every improvement every detail with bass that
is so clear and low WOW , no tube roll off here or at the high end either . 

It took me over 2 years to make the decision on which one to move up to 
with  the Manley Chinook , the Decware ZP3 ,
also the Parasound JC jr  and the Sutherland Insight as the contenders .,
but the Tavish Designs with it's separate power supply and all tube MM amplification won out .

Are there any other McCormack amp Thiel speaker guys out there ?
Do any of you use a passive pre-amp ? 
I have seen many of the Thiel owners praise the power of tubes ,
do any of you have a tube phono pre-amp ?

Happy Listening All
Today is Classical Sunday 
Rob

AudioJan 

"Basically, what would you recommend that is similar to the Thiel, but has more dynamics and a bit less sterile."

First I would read the 76 pages of this post ,
since it is was started by a post about the CS2.4SE ,
you might find what others think is the  perfect amp or you might want to upgrade the crossovers to the SE version .

I would suggest trying either a Tube pre-amp or a Tube buffer ,


Rob

Tom & Beetle

I am Happy to hear that you hear positive affects from the parallel 
configuration , I will try seperating them more than the 2"s I have them now .

Thank you Tom for your advise on placing resistors parallel  ,
there will be 18 resistors per speaker ! 
I'll have to do some similar parallel configurations with the electrolytic 
caps .
Ons step at a time , espeacailly with all the glue they used on the componets .

@beetlemania

You have seen one of my obstacles ,
one possible option is 2 Solen 200uf 400v large
but the 400 is at the bottom of the board ,
Another is a Clarity TC 400uf 400v  very large .

I'm going to have to do a lot of measuring 
this project is going to take a lot longer than anticipated
as well as way over estimated budget ,
but after rehabbing 2 100 year old buildings with 5 apartments 
I'm used to being over on time and money .

tom
the 400 topmay is in parallel with a 15uf Erse and a 1uf Clarity ,
erik
Thanks but the Mundorf does not have the value needed ,

I have also thought of 4 Erse 100uf pulse-X caps .
Finding Replacement  Topmay caps is not easy .

But first things first , I'll be replacing the wiring within 2 weeks . 

Thank You theaudiotweak

I've already ordered some Mills resistors for the tweeter to test to see how difficult it will be to remove the old ones from all that glue .
I'm doing the wire first so I can install fastons for the wiring 
so the boards can be taken out to work on easily ,
I'll remove the fastons and solder the wiring last .
Plus it will give me more time to gather information and advise .

Good Morning Dspr

As I see it from reading all the posts
you are the 3rd McCormack amp owner writing on the Thiel owner post ,
welcome from a DNA-250 owner .

Since you are trying to decide which preamp you are going to stay with can I ask what tubes you are using ?
Have you done a lot of tube rolling ?

I just received my Tavish Designs Asiago phono pre-amp going thru a Goldpoint passive preamp and am in listening heaven .  
I have been lucky enough to be able to try
a few different tubes so far and just like any change you make in your system it is amazing how different each tube can sound .
I have found that the Genalex Gold Lion to be my favorite 
and would use them for all my gain stages if they were available ,
so I have to mix in my second favorite Tung-Sol gold pin .
I have tried some older tubes but the problem with them 
are either the prices or the matching/balancing .

I know this tread is about Thiel speakers BUT
with all the input from owners the information about the rest of our systems we can hopefully get the most out of enjoying listening to our Thiel speakers .

Rob

Thank You Tom Thiel
Dis-satisfaction with any component can be the result of
incompatible synergy , your knowledge and insight of the Theil speakers
has at least given owners or future owners some information on what to look for in a power amp .

dsper
I got back into a home audio system about 10 years ago by purchasing 
my dream system from when I first read about it in the 1980's , the  30 year old pre-amp was noisy even after re-capping , so after I purchased a separate phono pre-amp and I started to think about a passive preamp 
with the thought that less is more .  So I now have a 2 input 24 step volume control passive preamp and couldn't be happier with the sonic result , my all tube phono preamp and my CD player with built in buffer tubes are basically plugged into the power amp with just a couple of resistors on the volume control in-between .

You have experimented with a lot with tubes ,  fun but expensive and getting more so everyday , but as you said it's easier and less expensive than changing out components .
I had just replaced the stock 12AU7 with a new Gold Lion the is balanced and cryro treated and am loving it .
I tried an older 1960 RCA gray plate , and a few other tubes that I borrowed to listen to , a Telefunken and a Baldwin. 
I think that I will stick to new tubes 
with the hope that like vinyl more will be available as time goes on.

Happy Friday 
Rob

dsper 

I'd like to thank you for your response about your experience with tubes .
You got me thinking about trying older tubes , 
so after finding and reading about different EF86s 
I decided to try a pair of 1972 NOS Tesla EF806s , the  performance version of the EF68 . 
I still will not take another chance with used tubes and can not begin 
to afford the $300 per tube for NOS Genalex Gold Lions  .
They sound FANTASTIC ,
I am now looking into finding 3 x 5751tubes since new production
is very limited .

You asked how the sound is from a passive pre-amp compares to
powered ones .  Pure , Clean , un-Colored 
Silvanik another McCormack owner with 
a pair of CS3.6s made his own passive pre-amp and loves it .
oblgny ( page 80 ) was disappointed with a passive pre-amp .

I believe ( totally a personal opinion ) that using a passive pre-amp
allows the input to your amp to be the purest sound ,
if you don't like the sound then your input equipment  
should be looked at or thought about ,
not your amps like oblgny was thinking .

Like the Thiel speakers that play the music put into them 
without any coloring , that is how I feel about a passive pre-amp.

Happy Friday 
Rob

oblgny

In my attempt to advise or help another music lover Thiel owner
who is thinking about using a passive pre-amp I have offended you ,
I truly apologize , that was defiantly not my intention .
Please forgive me.

Mr. Thiel

Thank you for the additional information about interconnects ,
I have always tried to keep my interconnects as short as possible,
maybe that is one reason why a passive pre-amp works in my system,
and/or maybe it's because Cardas cables have a low capacitive and inductive resistances . 

Rob

Buggy for me today ever since it was brought up this morning ,
different each time .
It opens and when I try to go to last page " sorry ", then refresh ,
next time it won't open at all - then refresh , next time no problem !
next time it opens but no last page until refresh !!
This time no problem .
Question  is is happening on other forum threads ?



 

I just refreshed the page and  wa la  it appears .

Rob

Tom & Beetlemania
Thank you for experimenting with the parallel speaker cable configuration ,  using Tom's finding I moved my cables
from 1 1/2" to 4"s ( as far apart as possible ) and heard or perceived a difference in front to back sound staging .
I repositioned my speakers to take advantage of the change .

pwhinson

I had purchased only the spikes and not the outrigger support stands
from Coherent Source ,
I used the new spikes with the original locking nuts .
Now the spikes penetrate the carpet
The outrigger stands look great but cost to much for me .

Rob

Prof

It is good to read that your hearing has improved .

Rob

When I purchased my 2.7s I was able to pick from the last 3 sets 
available thru Thiel  serial #s 229 & 230 , in Cherry wood veneer .
That same day the last new 3.7s were listed for $7,000 a birds eye maple,  if they were only $6,000  .
The story was that the 3.7s were being kept incase there was a Thiel museum .
The 2.7s were seconds or blems for $3,000 , so I don't think that these were the last produced .
Anyway they had been moved to Tennessee but I had to purchase them thru Rob in Kentucky  .

2 questions 

Has anybody had experience with Tantalum electrolytic capacitors ?

And would moving the bass crossover on the 3.6 ( or other models )
up to the chamber of the passive radiator have any effect ?

Thanks
Rob

Thanks Tom
I am have a hard time finding " replacements " for the Topmay caps ,
I found AVS makes tantalums in the values needed and the are low 
ERS , so I was just wondering .
We talked about using 4 100uf 
Rob

Wow , I must have missed something censorship ! trolls !
One of the best things about this tread is the intelligence of the conversations and advise ( not like power cords or outlet treads ).

I remembered  a post about 40 pages ago where 
the conversation was about sitting / ear height , at the same time there has been some talk about the importance of  convergence .
Being newly retired and having a boring day I thought I'd try a little experiment , my 2.7 speakers have the 2.4SE spikes so they can penetrate the carpet .
I stared with putting floor disc/savers under the rear spikes raising the rear about 1/2 inch , the sound was like a line from speaker to speaker,
no height or depth and thin on bass.
Removing the discs and raising the rear spikes 
about 1/4 inch the sound was now like an oval and still thin on bass ,
Next at 1/8 inch still an oval with a little more height and depth but like an oval the outside was thin , bass was still on the light side .
With the spikes screwed into the speakers as tight as they could go 
the soundstage now was fully extending to the outside of the speakers ,
the height and depth from floor to ceiling and from front wall to the middle of the speakers .
Point being even an 1/8th of an inch can make a large difference in the listening experience , plus I could do all of this for free ,
not like the tube rolling I've been doing with my phono pre-amp .

Happy Holidays to All and to All a Good Saturday 

Rob

Thank You T.T.

But I was doing this for shits and giggles ,
before the conversations turned to upgrading / rebuilding crossovers there was a lot of talk about sitting height and the value of time coherence as well as a lot of conversation about speaker toe-in , spikes or no spikes and placement .

I would like to thank you for stating that the 2.7s would benefit from
upgrading components on the crossovers , my project for 2020 
since my 2019 project will be upgrading components in my amplifier ,
capacitors can be expensive .

H.H to All
Rob

Is the Straight Wire used by Thiel of Kentucky 18 guage solid wire  
or is it straned  ?

dhoff01

I try to measure everything from or to the tweeter on my 2.7s ,
speakers are 8ft apart and 8ft 6 inches from my ears
31 inches from front wall and 32 inches from side wall 
with 1/2 inch toe in .
Listening height is 36 inches .

I just recently moved the speakers 6 inches further away and reduced the toe in by 1 inch after changing speaker cables  to take advantage 
of the improved depth and sound staging .



 

@duramax747 

PM me at rsr no space 921 at  live dot com about CS2.7

Wow the level of expertise of Thiel DIY'ers is amazing .

Thank you @stspur for your impression of Mills resistors with them being your first upgrade .  
They are next on my list .

A correction about the wire used in the Tennessee CS2.7 ,
after replacing the wiring with Cardas 15.5 AWG 
I looked at the original wire using a 30X magnifying glass
and can now see the missing dot making a 16 and not an 18 AWG .

A lot of work replacing all the wiring , 
BUT I'd have to say it's worth it given the improvement I'm hearing .
Jimi Hendrix  "And the Gods Made Love"
never swirled with such detail before .
One more thing ,
I replaced the fiberglass batting with wool quilting batting . 

Rob

The wool quilting batting is very light ,
so I learned that it is to light and I ended up filling the back half
of the coaxial with the origninal fiber glass and the front with the wool I originally was using .
I changed because after installing the new wiring the sound was bright ,
and compressing the insulation and wool eliminated the brightness .
Using all wool the cost would become a factor ,
Maybe I'll try some bulk wool that is or can be more compressed ,
like the fiberglass .
I haven't used the wool in the bass or passive radiator chamber yet ,
but queen size quilting batting is on it's way .
I'm really enjoying the sound with the Cardas wiring ,
but I'm thinking about trying to reduce the gauge to the tweeters 
to see if that alone can or will affect the brightness .
I can't say about the sonics of wool ,
it's less itchy and healthier to handle .

 

Tom

Thank you for the in depth lesson , for me this has turned into learning 
 and experimental experience .
I am considering taking Cardas 18 gauge solid wire that is enamel coated to prevent oxidation and using a cotton sleeve and twisting them with 3 turns per inch .
Since these speakers came with 16 gauge stranded wire no turns
( 28 strands 30 gauge ), I've not experienced original Thiel wiring ,
but then again all 2.7s didn't follow Jims limit on capacitor size .

Have you tried using the same solid 18 guage wire in your star configuration for speaker wires ? or using them in the parallel ? 

Rob