I blew the midrange on my 3.7s the first few months I had them. I was listening to Beethoven The Revolutionary loud. I took the driver out myself and it didn't look scorched or anything to me. That was back in 2012 and they've been fine since then. They were an early pair I believe. The serial numbers on the boxes are 41 and 42 I think. I bought them used from Audio Consultants so it's possible they weren't the original boxes that came with the speakers.
Thiel Owners
Guys-
I just scored a sweet pair of CS 2.4SE loudspeakers. Anyone else currently or previously owned this model?
Owners of the CS 2.4 or CS 2.7 are free to chime in as well. Thiel are excellent w/ both tubed or solid-state gear!
Keep me posted & Happy Listening!
I just scored a sweet pair of CS 2.4SE loudspeakers. Anyone else currently or previously owned this model?
Owners of the CS 2.4 or CS 2.7 are free to chime in as well. Thiel are excellent w/ both tubed or solid-state gear!
Keep me posted & Happy Listening!
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Ok, jafant....I just can not read your last line up of posts and not think of a previous quip someone had made. Along those lines, if your current source of employment dries up I think you can slip easily into another similar gig: https://www.job-applications.com/walmart-greeter/ I kid...I kid....;-) |
FWIW: I had a very long run for my speaker cables (my source equipment is in a different room) so I went with Belden 5T00UP 10 awg cable (bought from Blue Jeans cable). The specs were excellent and just what I needed for long speaker cables without loss of sound quality (see review with test results): https://www.audioholics.com/gadget-reviews/blue-jeans-10awg-speaker-cable-5t00up I regularly listen to my pal's system wired up with more than $20,000 in Nordost cabling (he used to have my cast off speakers, too, in that system) but my system sounds darned good to me! And I think it's fair to say I'm a picky listener :-) |
Ron, shorter cables are always better than long. But parallel (not twisted) conductors like Goertz are inherently capacitive. If there is a problem depends on the amp. But Thiel's low-impedance results in more current being drawn through the cable, so any capacitance problem is likely to be exacerbated. I suggest using the Zobel filter. |
another comment from my friend using the Goertz cables with the 3.7's. One more thing to add to the list. Not sure exactly how this works but the background with the Goertz is blacker. The music just emerges from a very quiet place. Not sure why this would be so? Didn't think of speaker cables as adding noise? Maybe the Zobels are getting rid of some high frequency hash? |
jon I crank my 3.6's and CS6's. The 6's play louder, the 3.6 play plenty loud and are ever so slightly more transparent! I hear you with your ATCs I have the old Polk 2.3tl's that I bought in the 80's that I refurbished. Fun to put them in sometimes because they play "listening to live music in bar" loud! Not nearly as good as the Thiels but fun. |
I'm a fan of having a couple of sets of speakers or a couple of systems. I think there is some difficulty in getting a single system to do everything well. Thiels excel at lower to moderate volume, acoustic music. I don't use them to really crank, though. I've got some active ATCs for that. They don't sound as nice at low volume or image as well but they will play very loud without distortion or fear of breaking anything. That's what they're made for. I can get on my 17 year old noisy treadmill and crank up something loud enough that I forget the treadmill even makes sound. It's fun. |
Well, I used to swap more often than I do currently. Maybe once a month or so. And previous to that I used to do it almost every night. That's because I used to use my home theater (Hales) speakers for two channel as well. So I had speaker wire leads from my tube amps sitting near my HT L/R speakers, and when I wanted to use them for two channel I'd just unplug the speakers from my home theater cables, and plug in the cables to my 2 channel tube amps/sources. So banana plugs were very easy to deal with. Still...I own at the moment 5 pairs of speakers that I swap in and out, so any connection that makes that easier is the one I prefer. |
Yeah I know 70 db should be no problem for any decent speaker. As I mentioned I do like to crank it more when I'm listening from a distance, so that's when I have to watch it. Though the Thiels are so clean, and have such punch, it's hard not to keep turning them up for Van Halen, dance music etc. ;) |
Thanks for the input. (Scary stuff for us 2.7 owners, ronkent!) The record played that caused the crackling was probably the most dynamic recording I've ever played on the Thiels. I didn't really know how loud it would get and usually I have a volume control right near me ifI think things are getting too loud. But I didn't want to ruin this gentleman's listening experience by suddenly dropping the volume. Anyway, the speaker seems fine. I generally don't listen really loud - about 70 db seems to be my comfort zone, unless I crank it more when I"m listening down the hall. The 2.7s seem to be able to take quite a bit of volume, but I believe I normally play well within their limits. |
my experience with blown Thiel drivers is as follows and i have owned a set of thiel speakers since 1985 starting with the 2.0. never have blown a woofer in all these years which is good. Blew a midrange on a 2.2 but it was about 12 years old and i think it just failed due to nothing i did. nothing ever with the 2.4's. not so lucky with the 2.7's. have replaced 3 of the coax mid/tweeter. the first time i think it was a bad driver as it failed after 2 months. i have been using the PS BHK 250 after the first failure and it is a very robust amp and not prone to clipping so not really sure what happened on 2 and 3. however i keep spare mid/tweeter coaxes here just in case. |
The most common oddity from a woofer is the bottoming of the suspension: the spider hits the basket plate. Thiel's short coil is out of harm's way from bottoming on the back plate. The voice coil adhesive is high-temperature. So, unless you overheat to the point of burning out the voice coil, most noises are transient and do no harm. However, one can hope that your experience might help you set future limits. Drivers do burn out. |
Yikes, Had someone over auditioning a turntable I was selling. Playing through my Thiel 2.7s. He put on Wagner and then Also Sprach Zarathustra with a crazy amount of bass from an LP. I was sure at one moment when the low organ peaked I heard a crackle, which I presumed came from my speakers. Worried about damage (thank goodness I now have spare drivers!). Though playing some dance music with really low bass afterwards, everything seems fine. tomthiel, since you are here....do you have any hunch/insight as to whether the speakers likely survived ok given the above description? Thanks! |
Great info and perfect timing! Been racking myself hard on what wire to go with, I start installing next week. Price seems to vary severely from site to site, this site sells bulk :) http://fatwyre.com/mi-3-divinity-bulk/ I need 230ft Do you think I can get away with using the Mi 2 Varity model for the 4 PP1.2 for Atmos? bonus is its white and will have a bit show on walls/ceiling http://fatwyre.com/mi-2-veracity-bulk/ And less money! What ends are recommended on Thiel side? Love it, im getting closer!! |
he is using these though not sure of termination https://www.thecableco.com/mi-3-divinity-speaker-cable-pair.html |
Jafant, I have used 2 models, MI 2 and MI 3. I prefer the MI 2 model to the larger AWG 3 although the comparison might not have been fair. The MI 2 has silver spades and I ordered the MI 3 with Rhodium spades and I believe that termination is inferior and resulted in highs a bit on the harsh side. The MI series is copper, I have never tried the AG models. |
I don't know models, but I know that Jim used Goertz flat cables in the development lab as his reference. Jim's perspective was that cable performance is cable business. He felt that Goertz performs cable business the best he found. That may seem obvious, but it is not commonly practiced. Many designers choose to ameliorate or mitigate various upstream problems . . . pull punches, soften, generalize, etc. to keep things polite, avoid offense. Jim, however, was committed to high resolution translation of the signal at the input terminals. Some folks appreciate that. Thiel assessed that to be the purest statement of the art. http://www.bridgeportmagnetics.com/contents/en-us/d62_MI_AG_Speaker_Cables.html |
a friend of mine who has 3.7's just sent me this. Hooked up the Goertz speaker cable tonight. First impressions- more detail in the bass, more natural mids, images more separated. They are nowhere close to being broken in and I already prefer them to the Acoustic Zen Sartori. Using Zoeble networks with them. I will let you know how they progress. |