Thiel Owners

Well - the Virginia trip grew some legs. Beyond my niece's wedding and the Bill Thalmann / Music Technology visit, we added two pairs of vintage Thiel speakers to our stable from Long Island. Oblgny's 2.4s augment a pair borrowed from audiojan to allow mix and match upgrade comparisons. Oblgny's complaint about the 2.4s revolves around the power (listening volume) required for them to come to life. My only observation is that the listening space is essentially a whole house due to large openings at the listening room side and rear, plus an open stairway to the second floor. The design brief for the model 2 is geared toward smaller, more intimate spaces. One of these years, I see oblgny being happy with Renaissance CS3.5s, which assume a larger listening volume. 

A couple of towns down the road, I picked up the 7.2s from a retiring and downsizing electrical engineer. His substantial system was already dismantled, but looked to have been quite upscale. We called his pair CS7.1s, as they were upgraded CS7s, retaining their concrete baffles and steel grille frames. These baffles are not cracked, as many have become from shrinkage. The drivers are all fully Thiel, made in-house. I look forward to documenting them and eventually coaxing them into even higher performance. 

A late exit (4:30) from Locust Valley turned into 3.5 hours to circumnavigate 45 miles around NYC and arrive Berryville, Virginia around 1:AM. No problems.

My trip to Bill Thalmann's Music Technology in Springfield (south DC) resulted in 3 productive hours comparing listening notes and agreeing on a strategy for the EQ. To allow for a larger power transformer and generous circuit layout, we are moving the powersupply to its own chassis, with enough power for two EQs in case of fully balanced configuration. Jim Williams' upgrade is already a substantial improvement over Jim Thiel''s original design due to quieter transistors and regulating the power supply. Bill T. and Jim W both judged Jim T's design as 'elegant' with plenty of room for improvement. I'm excited. Within a week or two, I'll be ordering caps and resistors for Bill's new treatment. For the record, we're seeking a top-drawer PC board designer for this project.

We listened through Bill's upgrade of my original Classé DR6 which is now absolutely glorious. The DR9s have been reworked but still await new parts.

I also left my second Adcom GFA555 for Bill's full treatment. I'm also seeking to buy an OPPO 105 (not necessarily D) player for Bill's full-fledged upgrade. He completely replaces the analog audio section making the 'D' treatment redundant. Please feel free to guide me to a low-hours player for me to send to Bill.

I also report an opportunity for the right person. Bill seeks an apprentice to learn his considerable craft. Any leads can be sent to me for further briefing. There is more work than his shop can handle, and it's not easy to find the right candidate for an additional Music Technologist.

Monday evening's drive landed me home in New Hampshire around 2:AM

tomthiel

Outstanding! What a trip!?  Good to read that you are back on NH home soil.

An incredible collection of Audio toys for your Hot Rod testing. Another incredible factor is Bill awaiting parts for the Classe’ amps. Very impressive.

Watch eBay or U.S. Audiomart for an Oppo player. They are plentiful!

Thank you for confirming that Bill still offers those upgrades.  I hope to see his Operation someday before retirement.  No doubt that he enjoys a thriving Audio shop.  Can you comment on his Listening room or test bench gear ?

Happy Listening!

My next house will have a more suitable listening space!

oblgny - on the bright side, you have virtually no standing wave problems. Also, you can pressurize the propagation space with a subwoofer (or two) to reduce main driver excursions for cleaner sound. Or sliding doors to wall off that large (dining) alcove would create a better defined sonic launch end. The room is generally highly under appreciated re its sonic contribution. I suggest focusing your efforts there rather than seeking solutions from audio equipment.

The record-making process assumes 'normalcy' for playback. Normal dimensions, symmetry, etc. Room EQ Wizzard, FuzzMeasure, etc. can give you some clues re problems and solutions efficacy. See where that takes you.  

jafant - I’m sorry I couldn’t really ’tour’ his capabilities. I took a few hours of his time for our focused business. His bench seemed to have a pretty big bank of gear: oscilloscope, signal generator, etc. I don’t know whether he has an audio analyzer, etc. but he seems to use tech along with his ears, instincts and accumulated experience. .

The entire space is concrete floor / concrete block / steel ceiling at about 16’ high at 2500 square foot rectangle (40x60?) with about 1/3 having an 8’-9’ mezzanine ceiling covering the playback and customer interface areas. The playback area’s front wall behind the speakers is an overhead garage door. The left wall is solid (drywall on studs) with display shelves of equipment for sale, including various clasic speakers. Ditto the back wall. The right side is open to the sales area which adds about 10-12’. No treatment beyond a carpet.(?) Ceiling is plywood above 16" 2x12 joists parallel to the front wall. Area size is 16’ wide by about 18’ long (plus the openings to adjacent areas.) For all its industrial simplicity and eccentricity, it sounds quite neutral and without problems. We could readily and easily distinguish between EQ iterations in mono or stereo. Sounds like Bill has a well-developed home hi fi system, but this set-up is pretty minimal.

We used the hot-rotted Classe DR6 preamp which sounded clean and pristine. His power amp is a pro piece I didn’t recognize and therefore don’t remember. He had thoroughly hot-rodded it. Tight, clean, broadband. wow. Disc player was an OPPO 105 for which he offers a thorough ($2400) audiophile upgrade. I want one. Turntable is an Oracle Delphi VI - which I covet. We listened exclusively to / through Thiel CS3.5 to handle the EQd bass. I had moved the crossovers into the cabinet bottoms, but otherwise they are stock. UPS had shattered the grille frames which are part of the anti-diffraction scheme, but we survived anyhow. Next visit I’ll take upgraded frames with me. I didn’t notice what cabling was used, but it looked audiophile.

The only real new ground we covered was to cross-check our interpretations of the different iterations of the 3.5 EQ, which I would describe as identical between us. We’re on the same page. We’re farther down the path toward various levels of much cleaner, firmer, clearer sound from the EQ. Granted that higher performance costs more. But for those who love the sealed bass and true to 20Hz extension, this EQ is a fine way to get it while keeping the enclosure quite compact, stiff and inexpensive. I think you know that I am more enamored with this sealed / EQd bass solution than the baked in compromises of reflex bass.