Thiel Owners

ronkent,

"I'm your huckleberry and listening to the Thiel's is just my game". I PM you sir and I'd be honored to be invited. 

I knew ig316b would stir up meaningful discussion regarding subs. 

What Tom and Unsound mentioned about that no subs, regardless of how good, can match the big Thiel's time coherence.You sure can have fun getting close though. The big Thiel's are harder to integrate into a room, most rooms they are placed in are undersized, and the amplification is $$$. Subs are much cheaper than amps to drive the CS5i.

However, that sealed bottom end is something special. It's in real time (like live music) whereas listening to a ported/passive radiator Thiel seems like your waiting at the bass stop for it to arrive in comparison. You would only become aware of this extreme if you listened to both. 

Tom and I are going to conduct separate listening test with the CS 7.2 notch filter. 

This critical test passes onto other models so excited to implement this filter Tom designed. 

When Tom advises I go outboard with the CS 7.2 crossover to expedite testing you know change is a coming. 

At the risk of appearing pedantic, If one were to mate sealed boxed subwoofers to sealed boxed monitors, and with perhaps some DSP one might achieve equal time coherence to that of a full range time coherent speaker. 

One caveat is that the subwoofers might have to work further up the frequency range (an area in which they become progessively more clumsy) to augemnt the the lessened upper bass output of the sealed box monitors (compared to typical ported monitors).

On the other hand there could be advantages in room placement and specific power requirements to such a pairing, Though not without added complexitiy. 

Getting such a system to work cohesively is not trivial endeavor

Addendum: The above presumes that the sealed box monitors are themselves time coherent and the use of the appropriate crossover to sealed boxes subwoofers are used

Ultimately it is the ports that are the obstacle towards true time coherence.

There goes Duramax747 dangling that carrot in front of us to entice us along.

Yes the thought is enticing and I can't wait for the results.

With Unsounds addendum I envision a pair of Thiel PCS or SCS 4's with Tometiel improvements positioned above a  pair of SS 2 subwoofers using the Thiel Integrator driven by a nice pair of Class A monoblocks.

Can I borrow somebodies credit card mine just started screaming and passed out.

Have a good weekend everyone.  

I wonder if it would make sense to locate the subwoofers closer to the listener to achieve better time coherence, similar to the sloped baffle of the speakers?