Thiel Owners

I purchased a pair of Thiel CS2.4 loudspeakers (cherry) in November 2003 from a dealer in Coral Gables FL ($3900). I'm listening to them right now. They are awesome. I've tried to follow this thread regarding an "upgrade" by Tom Thiel ... any details? I was so sad when I learned, years ago, that Thiel Audio was no longer an ongoing concern. I suspect that these 2.4s will outlive me ....

Tom, thank you for the post. I still have my Owner's Certificate, which states my serial numbers are 985 and 986. These speakers are awesome and they impress everyone who comes by to hear them. I would never part with them. I look forward to hearing more details about your project when available!

jafant, thank you. My musical tastes lean heavily to classical piano, with a chunk of jazz and 60s/70s rock thrown in. I've seen (and met) many pianists in person, from Ashkenazy to Igor Levit to Yuja Wang. I used to regularly attend the Lucerne Piano Festival (which is sadly no longer being produced). Next Friday I'll be in Chicago to hear Trifonov.

Do you own the SA-10? I wish that I could audition it, but it would likely involve quite a drive. I'll see if I can locate a dealer in Chicago while I'm there next weekend. Maybe I can also listen to the Bryston, too.

Tom: thank you for the info regarding my CS2.4 pair. They're able to finely resolve anything I throw at them. Please keep all of us in the loop as you proceed ... an upgrade is intriguing.

jafant: I will keep the Meridian but haven't looked into an upgrade. Meridian no longer makes single-box CD players, only an "Ultra DAC" which costs 23k. The 508.24 is a great machine, well worth what I paid for it ($3495) in 1998, but it's almost 24 years old now, and the laser and transport will not last forever. I'll keep you posted on what I end up buying, but the Bryston BCD-3 is the front-runner.

Hello all and Happy Thanksgiving!

Once in a while, I get a "crackling" sound or pop when playing a disc. This happens very infrequently, but over the past few weeks has occurred more often. I shut the power off, cleaned all contacts (XLR and speaker connections) with ECO static inhibitor, changed the CD input to my preamp from BAL1 to BAL2, and inverted the polarity on my preamp (a Bryston BP25). So far ... this has seemed to solve the problem, after trial and error. But has anyone else experienced this, and if so, what did you do to fix it ?

The internet tells me that this is not a disc problem, which appears to be true (a crackle would occur at a certain spot on a track, and then not). And there doesn't appear to be anything amiss with my Thiel CS2.4 speakers; the sound is clear and I've never had them loud enough to clip. My Bryston amp and preamp are around 24 years old, and my Meridian player is about the same age. (Static here in Galveston shouldn't be a problem lol). Thanks for your advices.

jafant, thank you.

Well, the Bryston BCD-3 will soon be here, replacing the Meridian player.

As for my Bryston amp and preamp, Bryston does offer a "refurbishment" service. I spoke to a Bryston rep, who stated that although their amps and preamps have a 20-year warranty, they don't usually "go south" until year 28 or 29, which is unimaginable. Still, the price for refurbishment sounded extremely reasonable, and I'll likely send them in.

I was thinking that, since the "crackling" problem disappeared after I inverted the polarity on my preamp, that the problem lies somewhere in the preamp. Aside from moving about 11 times in the last 23 years, my gear has almost never been turned off.