Thiel Owners
Members that want to get themselves a Christmas gift I would encourage you to look at the Pair of Krell FPB 250MC on US Audiomart that have been recapped so good for many years to come. If you have not heard the Thiel/Krell combo you need to try this pairing as they will do them justice. Not affiliated with the seller or ever discussed the Krell for sale with seller. |
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for those interested in Straight Wire cables/cords, there is a nice write up over on Positive Feedback.com In the article/review, there is a "click Here" that will link the reader to Straight Wire website. At the website there is a section to enter your Stereo/ H/T gear for a system evaluation. Very cool feature. I know that we have a few fans/owners of this brand on The Panel.
Happy Listening! |
@thieliste good to see you, too!! I am sure that CS 3.7 is also one of the best Thiel speaker ever!!
@jafant my musical tastes is gearing more toward ‘Music Lover’ than ‘Audiophile’ My only sources are Roon and Tidal. I don’t have time to do Vinyl playing, even I know that it will sound great.
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@bas79 Congrats on your 7.2s they must sound spectacular with Strumento no.4 amp! I might get a pair of 7.2s in the future when i will be able to build my dedicated listening room. |
Those 2.4s look to be in great shape, that’s a great price. But they also very likely have the FST-sourced crossovers. Would be good candidates for @tomthiel mods (Clarity caps, Mills MRA resistors, etc.). |
btw - Trappe, MD is towards the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Might be good to check if anyone is going to the Florida Audio Expo in February (start a thread) and if they intend to drive. Perhaps they could meet you somewhere on the way down. Not looking for myself right now but I might follow the ad and I did move for FL from the Northern VA area outside of Washington, DC and if for some unknow reason the speakers are still available in just a over a month (I doubt it), I might re-think it and make some calls. I suspect, however, that most people going to the Florida Audio Expo from that area will fly. You may wish to go to the Florida Audio Expo site and look at a list of exhibitors and see if any are coming from that area. |
There is a set of walnut 2.4s for sale in Trappe, MD. If someone is willing to help get them to me (metro Atlanta area) that would be wonderful, but if you want a pair, this seems to be a nice deal. Boxes, manuals, even outriggers. |
duramax747 - I wonder if Rob would be interested in partnering with you. Perhaps he could be one of the customers and individuals could group-buy from you, and he could get additional inventory to sell to others. I would be interested to investigate non-metallic solutions that you have mentioned. We might also experiment with isolation inserts to decouple the spikes, etc. from the outrigger. There is experience on this forum to guide potential solutions. Those experiments could be engineered to be reversible for further learning. |
Halifax, I will need to digitize the Thiel outriggers and create a CAD model. From there the file will need to be programmed and posted to router. Set up and tooling also. This is all before the part is manufactured. That time and cost needs to be absorbed in as many units as possible to drive the price down. The CS 2.4 has different screw mounts so that would need to be another CAD.
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I'm about to try the Isoacoustics Gaia 2 for my Thiel 2.7s. I picked them up this week. My 2.7s sit on a thick shag rug, covering a sprung wood floor. I have tried all sorts of footers and isolation - Thiel spikes, Herbies gliders, cheap spring footers from amazon, expensive Townshend Isolation bars and more recently Primacoustic Recoil Stabilizer platforms. In every case I've preferred the sound of the Thiels sitting directly on the floor. There is more connection to the sound and I like the timbre of the sound that way. However, I do have a bit of bass warmth I'm trying to work out. So I'll see how it goes with the Gaia. I actually have had a set of 4 isoacoustic pucks which I'd bought to try under my turntable for isolation (I went with Townshend isopods instead). At one point I put them under one of my speakers just to try out. Didn't think much of what i heard (softer, darker sound). But then, they weren't made specifically as speaker footers. I'll report back how it goes with the Gaia. (I don't have the outriggers for the 2.7s. As I remember, I actually gave those outriggers to the person who bought my 3.7s, because I didn't have the outriggers for that speaker). Hopefully the Thiels won't be too tippy with the Gaia.
I've experimented with a bunch of |
If members who have Thiel speakers that want another option for an outrigger/base I can offer a group buy for any model as long as the data for each speaker modle is provided. We do CAD/Modeling to provide illustrion of each model that will be offered. Large routers and machine centers to manufacture/process. Aluminum, brass, Panzerholz, etc... material wanted we can do. Not trying to hijack this thread or Take business from Rob at Coherent if he has out riggers for the other models. I never seen outriggers for CS 6 or CS 7.2. I'm merely trying to provide a soluion at a real world cost as we are wholesale as we make the parts. |
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How thick are the outriggers ? The locking nut on the spikes are 7/16" , I would think that the outriggers would be the same are at most 1/2' thick as to not change the speakers height . I have the outrigger spike sets using the spikes with the original locking nut , but at $500 for the aluminum outrigger bars the cost is not in my budget . |
In my experience, there was a difference which I could not ignore when my 2.7 had outriggers installed. The soundstage was more expansive, taller, and deeper with layers to it. Imaging size and "shape" is more articulate. Overall, it is a tremendous wholesome improvement I hear and it gives a music reproduction... a lack of a better fitting description, "an anchor" or a strong sense of foundation to the music.
Regarding footers, I owned the GAIA 3 (or 2, I could not remember) footers previously, and it was installed with a bookshelf stand. Earlier in this forum thread, I came across a short report that GAIA took away some bass. This is true in my experience as well. However, it was a good trade-off. GAIA footers took away some "fat" in the bass, and in return, I hear more meat and bone. Bass was "cleaner", authoritative, deeper, and had plenty of rumbling articulation that fills the room it enveloped me. GAIA also gave a more thumpy mid-bass punch and a richer vocal reproduction. If you think your speakers are giving out some unwanted high-frequency sharpness or "shrillness", you may also consider GAIA footers to counter that effect. You'll end up with an almost silky smooth gentle roll-off top end, which adds to the musical "expression" for some instruments.
I have ever thought about getting the matching GAIAs with the 2.7, but I figured that the installation is not easy for a one-man operation. Hence, I tinkered with the idea of having spike plates/coasters/bases/pucks. Am looking forward to hearing more aftermarket spike plates/coasters/bases/pucks recommendations from fellow owners here. |
@ydjames I have the 2.7 with the Thiel outriggers. Currently I am using the stock spikes and coasters. There are a few folks on the thread that are going to try the GAIA products and I'm waiting to hear what they think. |
I've gotten the outriggers for the 2.7 from Rob previously. Just to avoid misunderstanding/confusion and to clarify further, do you mean there is also an original Thiel set of spike base/plate (some call it pucks, Sound Anchors call it conecoaster, Herbie's audio lab calls it cone/spike puckies) for the outriggers?! |
About the wire thing - I’m living in that rabbit maze and it’s fascinating, complex and difficult. ll post more as I find time. A brief response to the ’solid or litz’ remark is YES. There are so many interacting variables of geometry, conductor purity, and insulation dielectrics that can go wrong in so many ways. George Cardas famously said (something to the effect of) ’solid conductors stay out of trouble easier’. Fifty years ago (Thiel beginnings!), little credence was given to wire as a performance element. We gained access to (at that time) obscure and esoteric considerations about wire via our cousin Ted Lyon who was a senior physicist on the Jupiter Space Probe project. Ted introduced us to wire considerations and solutions which resulted (among other things) in our adoption of ultra pure, long crystal, polished solid conductors in teflon. That solution persisted through Jim’s career. It can be improved upon, but with peril and expense. I’ve presently been massaging those considerations and variables for a long time. As time has passed, the term ’litz’ has faded from use due to foggy definitions. Originally it meant each individual conductor separately varnished (insulated), but came to apply to sub-bundles being varnished, which doesn’t address the inter-strand conduction problems. (That phenomenon is itself controversial.) That sense of no strands or conductors touching any others is the sense that Jim meant by 'solid or litz' being best. In today’s jargon, those individually litzed conductors would be called ’solid wire’, even if their gauge were smaller than a human hair. Besides Thiel’s 18 gauge solid, and many others’ fine-gauge (individually insulated) solids, the foil category fits the isolation requirements. Jim used Goertz foil speaker wire in his later years. The thinness of foil conductors solves the skin effect problems of round wire as well as meets the individually insulated requirements for non-signal migration. But its inherently high capacitance makes it inappropriate for use with some amplifiers, and likely to perform differently among many amplifier choices. So I am avoiding that avenue. I’ll come back with more comments and reports about my work over these last months. It’s quite a trip. |
