Thiel Owners

unsound,

Allow us to get her make-up on before we reveal to the public.

I'll leave describing the room concept to Tom as he was the designer of the room. He asked what perimeters he had to work within, as far as footprint,  and he went at it from there. 

I will say when first introduced I was confused in its non conventional approach. But if you want to get to the fruit you need to go out on a limb where the branches are their thinnest. 

I proceeded to demo the old space which had 8 ft. sheet rock ceilings. It had tile floors on a concrete slab so not an easy demo. I came into work earlier @ 3;00 am and performed my moonlighting gig before I had to leave to conduct my day job duties.

I will go more into construction details when I post images of the room and after I perform my "To DO" list of modifications.

I will say the focus for the room was not to hear/or the ill effects of 2-3rd reflections at the listening chair. No side wall dampening was ever designed. Tom and I both agreed on a very dynamic space for the Thiel to clear her throat and show us her range.

Our first round of testing we concluded we did not need any side wall acoustical treatment.  In fact within the first hour of our listening Tom and I both agreed the .500" thick natural wool rug between listener and speakers should be removed. It was and it oped up even more. I will reveal more later but will say the floors are a significant part of the room. I had just socks on while listening so I could feel the floor. It was not moving the slightest. 

I wanted to push the room, especially with the CS 5i, and load the room. We were playing a very unique track with kettle drums and other various percussion instruments. Bass was in the mid 20hz with some of the track and Tom thought we were in the 98-102 db range. As I stated if room was going to fail I wanted Tom to be there and hear it under serious load. Even under this extreme circumstance the  floor was rock solid stable. 

Another item checked off the list that did not need any revision. 

The rear wall is where we really deviate from a conventional room. With our back to that wall there was absolutely no reflection that smeared the sound coming from the wall. 

Another really cool feature is the built in Bass/diffuser traps in front wall corners which measured incredibly well. 

They were not constructed on a bench then installed. Instead we constructed them in the room and built them into the building's framework. 
I'm glad I had the foresight to take that 15 minute Home Depot workshop seminar. The measure twice cut once part was particular insightful. 

The pair took a considerable amount of time to construct and assemble that I did not anticipate. 

When Tom arrived I had to ask him how long it took others to build these devices into the framework of a house/building as I felt like they had gotten the better of me with the man hours devoted to their construction. I was looking to be validated dam-it.

Tom looked at me straight in the eye and said - No one dared to move forward with such an undertaking before until you. (Paraphrased). I felt like this was a pull my finger moment that an older brother would pull on you. I bit.

When I was making the bass/diffuser traps I thought to myself I am going to pay tribute to the man who establish the standard as to what a book matched veneer speaker should look like. 

When I was making the panels I decided to do the same and match each panel in Bass/diffuser with it's sister. When completed the panels are 18ft apart center-to-center and they look like they were sawn in half to mirror one another. 

I felt a certain satisfaction so I did not reveal to Tom. I was going to surprise him on his visit. When I thought the appropriate time presented itself I mentioned to Tom what I did. Again he looked at me and said " I noticed that when we first sat down and started listening to music". 

@duramax747, I look forward to more, especially images. That you were using CS 5i’s is of special interest, as I’ve been a long time admirer of that particular model.

unsound,

The CS 5i delivers thunderous bass with impact and authority. Not that it is a one trick pony and deficient in the the other frequencies but the bottom end ir very rare to hear in a speaker like this. 

The CS 7.2 has a 12" woofer whereas the CS 5i utilizes three 8" as I'm sure your're aware. The CS 5i bass is faster. The bass notes are more dynamic and hit you quickly reaching its peak, then dissipating in reverse fashion to utter silence.

I equate this to a head jolting acceleration in a Koenigsegg to 100 mph then to a dead stop. Exhilarating.

I apologize in advance for many of you who have heard this before . . . I am a big fan of the sealed bass in the CS3 and 5 series. In fact, Thiel was philosophically committed to sealed bass in its upper models, while allowing reflex bass in its lesser models with the cost savings reflected in the lower sell prices. The main advantage I see in sealed bass (whether equalized or not) is the phase / time coherence all the way down to the low limit, and then 12dB/octave to  subsonics. That is radically different from reflex bass which attenuates the woofer at 24dB at its bottom and the port at 24dB at its bottom and top rolloffs. That puts the foundational deep bass a full wavelength behind the upper frequencies. That's 20+ feet, depending on actual tuned frequency. Philosophically that runs contrary to Thiel's committment to wavefront integrity.

When that direction was coming to be in the 3.6, the mood was more relating to what others' products (even with 6-figure prices) were getting away with. Some of us are more sensitive to the philosophical integrity, and others notice the sonic discontinuity of reflex bass. Note that Thiel reflex bass is executed as well as I've heard it. Look at the clean graphs and the tight tuning. But . . . it's still not the real thing.

duramax747

2nd- that is quite a sweet collection of Thiel loudspeakers. Nice score! on model CS 1.6

I look forward in learning more about your Musical tastes and gear in the Test Room.

Happy Listening!