Thiel speaker service

Too bad what happened to Thiel. A perfect example of corporate america taking over a small business and turning it to garbage solely relying on the name to sell products and looking at a balance sheet instead of customer satisfaction/quality products.

https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/thiel-the-final-chapter/

It shows that sometimes one man can make a big difference. 

I sold a busted Thiel CS3.7 COAX driver last week. The buyer is sending it to Rob to fix the tweeter.

Rob remotely helped me rebuild my totally messed up CS3.7. Could not have done that without his help.

Rob is fantastic!  He diagnosed a problem for me remotely, sent me the part, then helped me over the phone put it on. He was exceptionally fair with the price. Too bad Thiel went down like they did. 

I also had a great experience with Rob regarding rebuilding the woofer in my CS6. I dearly love these speakers and it was a huge relief to be able to repair them.

Regarding Thiel's demise, there are different ways to look at it. Jim Thiel was a genius and he doggedly pursued his vision for phase and time coherence in spite of technical challenges that most speaker designers feel are insurmountable. He did not have an understudy nor did he have a team of engineers doing most of the work. When he died the company pretty much died with him.  According to his brother, Tom, they tried to find someone to replace him but were unsuccessful. The new owners tried to steer the company in a new direction but couldn't make a go of it.

There's an anecdote that has Jim talking to a major high end speaker manufacturer at a trade show and he's reluctant to discuss an idea because he hasn't patented it yet. The other executive laughed and said something to the effect, "I don't know why you waste money on patents. Nobody is going to try to copy what you do. What you are doing is impossible."

High end audio speakers are an extremely complicated component with difficult tradeoffs. I would dare say that most successful high end speakers are the result of one person's vision. David Wilson was fortunate to have a son who was capable and interested in taking over the design process of their speakers. Jim Thiel was not so lucky.

hoghead1

Good to read that you had a favorable experience with Mr. Rob Gillum at CSS. Feel free to join us over on the Thiel Owners thread. We have a few CS 2.3 fans and owners on the Panel.

Happy Listening!

Can I echo the positive comments on Rob's service.

I have upgraded from 2.4 to 2.4SE using a kit from Rob and he recently rebuilt both my coax drivers for me.  Frightening posting them from the UK but they are safely back and I am sure sounding better than ever.

I am so relieved that Rob is still there flying the Thiel flag.  When I 'lost' my speakers due to a driver failure I had absolutely no idea where to go to get anywhere near the performance of my Thiels.

Am wanting to hear more about Thiel drivers failures. I know the 1st order x-overs allow signal content into the non-linear behavior zone(s) of some drivers.  I don't much about peak excursion limits of various cones Jim Thiel chose to employ.  Don't know much about Thiel co-ax driver designs, or what "totally messed up CS3.7" might entail.

 

My purpose in asking?  I've always wanted to own a pair (e.g., CS3.6, CS2.3...) and want to know more about what may lie ahead if a fatigue failure eventually occurs.

^ As I understand it most Thiel driver failures are the result of underpowered / overdriven use. Being mindful of Thiel's minimum impedance and the amp's ability to truly handle it, and you should be OK. Even with the 1st order cross-over overlaps, most Thiel drivers are quite robust, and can handle quite a bit of power. 

The CS 3.5's mid-range replacements are a difficult find.

  I don't disagree.  Yet in 2+ decades I've never tripped the APOC circuit, smoked a tweeter, or overdisplaced a cone/coil of a cone driver on my B&W 801-II's.  Bi-amped (200+ watts on woofer, 120+ watts on mid/high), sometimes played to thundering levels in my 24 by 12 room (with two openings to similarly sized spaces), the B&W's play on and on and on like the Energizer Bunny.  Nor have I read of owner's having driver failures on 801's or other power hungry B&W's. 

  If I ever find an unmolested pair of CS2.3's or similar, maybe they won't ever replace my 801-II's.  Instead they'll be carefully used for "Sunday drives" like a finicky troubleprone old Fiat 124 Spyder, as they can't be relied upon to take me anywhere at any time?  If one's primary speakers fail, one is metaphorically speaking left on the side of the road. 

  My 801-II's powered as they are behave like an older Toyota Corolla.  Take care of it then drive it anywhere anytime perpetually. 

  I've heard of 801 owners rotating the woofer 180 degrees to offset any accumulated cone sag mitigating its impact on coil alignment.  I've never heard of Thiel owners doing any such maintenance to their cones.

  In summary, I agree any impedence challenged power hungry beast can be misused then damaged.  Parts are a huge issue that must lower resale value of some otherwise highly valued Thiel speakers.   

As I understand it Coherent Source has a lot of spare parts in stock, and repair kits as well. Upgrades are also on the horizon. Though not deficient or delicate, Thiel’s wouldn’t be my first choice if high play back volumes were the top priority. Rotating drivers is not unheard of with other brands, and some Thiel users have done so.