Thiel Owners

thoft - I’ll pick up this SCS4t query. It is a regular SCS4 on a built-in stand which is acoustically non-functional. The stand provides no bass boost or any other function than to elevate the speaker. I have an SCS4 here - the final iteration of the 02-SCS series. It uses the coax PowerDriver that inhabits all the 6.5" HT models. It is a well developed driver with all the Thiel special sauces. The twin ports seem to be some sort of tractrix or similar advanced room coupling form, but they present a rather convoluted baffle plane for the waveform launch. Perhaps the unbraced cabinet might have some resonances. All that said, I don’t warm up to the SCS4; it presents a somewhat hollow and edgy sound compared to many other Thiel speakers.  In my experience (far from all Thiel speakers) I would place it as the weakest entry for dedicated music listening; but it's probably a pretty good Home Theater contender.

As an aside, I use one (or two) SCS4s on stands for live sound reinforcement in a small venue where it shreds the regular contenders. Try to get an audition against some known speaker of your choice.

unsound - thank you as always for your comments on multi-amping the CS5. You are correct that this cure might be worse than the disease. I'll note that your "simple" solution of using a suitable amplifier is also Jim's solution. And it works well and beautifully. I wish that John Atkinson and Larry Archibald had applied your solution. They got best results with the Krells of the day, but left the (deserved) impression that most amps couldn't successfully drive the load.To my multi-AHB-2 solution: I suppose that's a personal proposition. I agree with you noting all those associated expenses and complications. And I admit that my intrigue may be closer to a lab experiment than a market solution. I have 2: AHB-2s and want 2 more for live site work . . . (creeping justification strikes insidiously.)I don't know how the amp might drive that low end, since it is so nicely resistive. The clipping LEDs are sensitive enough to use as lab tools.

To your comment about re-sculpting the baffles: What if? The MB upper midrange dome presents the problem of being 3/4" too far forward. A driver built on the radial wave / star-plane diaphragm constructs might outperform the MB, plus place its acoustic center closer to proper placement.

Gotta go now.

jayant,

I appreciate that. at this point I really don't have a system but gear laying around.

Life has been very busy with multiple businesses and different houses in multiple states so setting up a system took a back seat. 

Staying on point with this thread I currently have Thiel CS 7.2 in cherry, CS 6 in Zebrawood, CS 2.4SE original in Bloodwood, CS 2.7 in piano white, and bringing up the rear CS 2.4 in maple with upgrade kit to convert if I choose. 

Pass XA 200.5, Pass X 600.5, and Krell FPB 450 Mcx round out the amps.

To show how far behind on the source,  I have disc spinning Wadia and Esoteric. 

Unsound, before you dismiss the multiamp option for the cs5i, I would be surprised if the impedance of each woofer would be lower then 3 ohm. In parallel the impedance of 3 woofers of course drops to the low level but if each woofer is powered separately, the need for high current amps disappear. The specs on the hypex ncore 252mp are easily available and have been confirmed by independent measurements. These opinions about multi amp vs Krell could be empirically tested if the goal is to improve the sound quality of the cs5i.

The ScanSpeak spec on those woofers and subwoofer is 4 ohms.