Thiel Owners

Prof - I know very little about this topic, only what was 'leaked' by an insider and not denied by another.

But, as I said, the approach harkens back to the very beginning, before we settled on dynamic drivers in an enclosure; and it attends to our shared first-principles of point-source, freely radiating energy without close range diffractive interference. And as I recall (from about 1974) our reasons for rejection were based less on technical appeal than on costs to market such a radical approach . . .

Sidebar: At our first 1977 CES, we twenty-somethings showed our model 01 and 02 and a static 03 prototype, and offered an unheard-of 10 year warranty - all to much interest. I remember being teased by an industry somebody that being from Kentucky, weren't we supposed to be barefoot and pregnant and sipping moonshine . . . ? Cognitive dissonance.  Imagine if we had showed up with seriously radical products beyond our active equalizer.

Since this is all water long under the bridge, I invite anyone to comment that might know more than I about this mythical omnidirectional project.

Tom,

I think I’ve mentioned it before, especially since you were originally doing the cabinets for Thiel speakers:  the CS6 Speakers that I had in my home for a little while back around 2001 or 2002, Where in I think the Amberwood finish.

They remain one of the most beautiful and refined looking speaker finishes I’ve seen.  The craftsmanship and fit and finish really put a shame Most other loud speakers of the time. IMO. 

@tomthiel , I do this with some apprehension, but as you say "Since this is all water long under the bridge,..." When Thiel Audio was still in business, but suspicions of Jim’s health concerns were begining to be rumoured, a reliable source (who out of respect will remain anonymous) at Thiel swore me to secrecy to share that Jim was indeed considering an all-out Thiel with a price point much beyond Thiel’s previous offerings that would feature an omni-directional design.

unsound - thanks for this input. It makes sense, including the context of return to a foundational idea before the company's launch - but with a life time of experience. Jim built every design on all the accumulated knowledge gained along the way. That product might have been truly awesome.

I routinely hear that the CS5 was Thiel's only cost-no-object offering. It was a niche-stretch at the time, but not cost-no-object. In fact Jim and Kathy chopped thousands of dollars at retail off the sell price due primarily to insufficient confidence of a price jump from under $2500 for the top of our line CS3.5 to what wanted to be a $15K CS5. They kept it under $10K by the loss of some product content plus damagingly thin margins, especially for a factory stretching its technical capacity. Jim emphatically stated that he would never design a speaker better than the CS5.

Anyhow, I'm pleased that he broke through that ceiling. And wish the world had it.

Thanks again.

Tom

Has anyone ever seen a pair of CS1.5 that have white cones in the mid-woofers?