tomthiel
Responses from tomthiel
| Thiel Owners Lloydviii - consider that 105s are younger than 103s. These things do wear out. And compare the connectivity options. The 105 may be the swiss army knife of players. You won't need the Darbee upgrade for use as a transport and plain non-D 105s are... | |
| Thiel Owners The 9000 is a keeper for myself or a friend. I have compared the internal DACs for CD conversion of the Benchmark DAC3, Sony SCD-1 and Sony 9000. The Benchmark betters the Sonys, but the comparison is not embarrassing. In all cases the better play... | |
| Thiel Owners lloydviii - I have not yet used the OPPO as a transport, but I plan to run a comparison when I collect the components in a worthy playback system, later in the spring. So far, so good in the quality of playback from the Oppo’s analog outputs. Bes... | |
| Thiel Owners JA - the SCD-1 makes good music, especially feeding the Benchmark DAC3. I just received the OPPO 105 from Bill Thalmann. Long-term, iterated design upgrade. Very mature. Interestingly to me, his development references included no digital counterpa... | |
| Thiel Owners Hello folks - here’s a side-trip down memory lane with some destinations in mind. I recently got a pair of original model 01s, with two more pair of later versions coming this summer. What a trip! The only reference I’ve come across here on Audio... | |
| Thiel Owners I don’t think there are any teardrop cone speakers out in the wild. The pair that I saw at Thiel / Lexington in 2012 was #1 & 2 which went to shows, lived in the showroom, etc. It had two identical-looking star-plane diaphragms. | |
| Thiel Owners Yes, that's what I am told by David Cubine who was our long-term in-house publicity and customer service man. Dave says that photo was taken at that press conference. Note the passive radiator has the later 'star plane' diaphragm (names are mine.)... | |
| Thiel Owners I've been informed that the 'teardrop cone' woofer was indeed a development prototype. It seems that a calendar year elapsed between that prototype shown at the January 2006 CES press conference, and the actual shipment of the finished 'star-plane... | |
| Thiel Owners The mechanical issues are real and worth improving upon. However, I believe the far larger issue is the interaction of the crossover components with the fields emanating from the driver(s), especially the woofer. These interactions and their soni... | |
| Thiel Owners Tom - Thiel had gone to non-magnetic (stainless steel) screws by 2007 SCS4. I don't know when / which other products migrated to non-magnetic screws. I had verified (and taken to heart) your observation regarding non-ferrous connectors. Today's b... | |
| Thiel Owners I've been looking at / listening to grille effects on the SCS4. It is somewhat eccentric in that it has no fabric and the full-baffle is covered by a perforated steel mesh that is quite transparent. The electrical / magnetic fields meter shows tha... | |
| Thiel Owners Interesting woofer indeed. I wonder if that might have been a development prototype. Its acoustic center would be farther back than the star-plane unit. Smileypete.com is a local Lexington business rag and that article was published before Kathy s... | |
| Thiel Owners Rob - the magnets are installed into blank-bottom holes drilled from the back of the baffle. I don't know how many are in the CS2.4. In the SCS4 there are 8. Two pairs about an inch from the top and bottom corners plus another 4 flanking the coax ... | |
| Thiel Owners Grilles - The issue is multi-faceted and full of trade-offs. Early 3s had wooden 3-D frames stretched with fabric. Fabric absorbs some high frequencies; Jim voiced assuming fabric. 1983’s CS3 used the baffle-level of the frame to complete the baff... | |
| Thiel Owners Yes, grilles are a perpetual problem. But fragile drivers are a perpetual risk. I'm working on a more sheer grille that is not metal or foam. I haven't gotten re-conformation, but the CCs were scheduled to ship Feb 2, now March 2. |