Memories of Jim Thiel

Most of my fondest memories of Jim Thiel come from a factory tour in 2001. During the first night at dinner Jim, Kathy, and the higher ranking people were in a discussion about finish options, price points, shipping time, and other business matters while Ken Dawkins and myself were making non-audio small talk. Finally Ken asked me, "So what kind of receiver are you using with your speakers?" My response was, "Well, I'm actually using a Parasound P/HP850 preamp and an Adcom GFA5802 amp with Audioquest cables." Jim, who happened to be sitting next to me was obviously bored by the business talk and turned to me and said, "That's a pretty nice system." Jim spent the next 45 minutes or so having an in depth conversation with the least important person at the table, a kid in his early 20's that few people in the industry took seriously. It wasn't a one sided conversation either, he was interested in my thoughts and opinions as well.

The next day in the Thiel listening room Ken asked us to listen to the PowerPoints which our company had repeatedly declined to put on display. In fact myself and my co-workers were under strict and explicit orders to not listen to the PowerPoint speakers under ANY circumstances. The higher ups in our company had never heard the speakers but had decided based on size that they couldn't possibly be worth the money. At the time the first Thiel sub was still in prototype form, but nearly finished. I shocked my co-workers by saying, "I'll be glad to hear the PowerPoints, but only if we can hear them with the Thiel Sub." Well, one of the Thiel sales guys quickly said that it was Thiel policy to not demo prototypes. No sooner had he said that then Jim said, "deal." Needless to say on my return to the store myself and my co-work told everyone that would listen that we NEEDED the PowerPoints on display. We kept on the decision makers until they listened to them and in a couple of months we had them.

On the same trip I was struck by a sign near the door to the workshop that said something to the effect of, "Perfection is our goal, excellence will be tolerated." I told Walter that it was a great sign. His response was, "That sign isn't accurate, when it comes to Jim is should read "excellence will be grudgingly tolerated.""

A couple of years later while demoing a pair of Thiel CS2.4's for a customer I accidentally hooked them up to the 8 ohm taps of a McIntosh MC402 instead of the 4 ohm taps. The sound was remarkably better and I called down to Lexington to find out why, Sherry said she didn't know but would ask Jim about it and get back to me. A couple of hours later I received a 3 page email from Jim explaining that while he did not have direct experience with the amp in question that my findings did not shock him. He then went on to lay out an extremely involved scientific theory on why I heard what I heard.

Goodbye Jim

Today the sad news about the passing of Jim Thiel was announced. On the few occasions that I met Jim he was always very gracious. I can't think of anyone in the audio business that I respect more. He will certainly be missed. Like many others I'm sure, I only wish that I could have known him better.

The Thiel philosophy holds, among other things that a speaker should be time and phase coherent. Phase coherence is when two drivers in a speaker are working to create the same frequency and they are doing so by moving in unison. Time coherent means that the sound from each driver arrive at the listening position at the same time, which is made possible by the sloped baffle of his designs. The third major component to all of the recent Thiel designs was short voice coils held within a long magnetic gap. This arrangement has the advantage of keeping the voice coil of a driver within the magnetic field of the gap and dramatically reducing distortion.

To learn a lot more about the innovations and views of this founding father of high-end audio check out the following interviews. Also of interest is the March 1998 Stereophile interview conducted by John Atkinson.

Breaking down Thiel

As anyone who's been following the blog for a while knows I am a big proponent of Thiel Loudspeakers. They contain quite a few original design ideas and unique parts that set them apart from the competition. Gary from Thiel worked with on-line retailer Audio Advisor to create the videos below to discuss a couple of the things that set Thiel apart from it's competition.

The first video briefly describes some of the technical aspects of Thiel speakers that make them something special



The Thiel CS2.4 has been the apple of my eye since it was a 2.3.



Next up is the CS2.4SE, the new apple of my eye. What a beautiful finish!



The PowerPoint speaker is one of the most surprising and technically unique speakers ever developed. While being mounted on a ceiling it still manages to image where a normal floor standing or stand mounted speaker would.



The SCS4 might be Thiels most versatile speaker. It can be used as a standard left/right speaker, a center speaker, or for rears in a home theater application.

Last, but certainly not least is the Thiel CS3.7. The 3.7 is one of the most advanced speakers available today.

Revolution!

Jim Thiel is one of the most innovative speaker designers of all time. He bases all of his designs on common sense and hard science, not marketing. Instead of coming out with a new line of speakers every three years or so, Thiel chooses to wait longer and release speakers that are revolutionary as apposed to evolutionary. The dizzying number of finish options are all well done and allow those who worry about aesthetics to have a large number of choices. They even go as far as to offer custom matching of existing wood work. Does the wife have an 18th centaury armoire that she insists be matched? No problem. Send the nice folks in Lexington Kentucky a sample and in about a week or two they will send back three samples with pricing for each.

Thiel’s newest speakers, the CS3.7 is a masterstroke. For a company whose speakers have always been very seamless owing to their time and phase coherent design the 3.7 takes it to the next level. The vanishing act that these speakers pull off is quite startling. Like all Thiel speakers they do take quite some time to break in. Many believe that the extended break in time required is related to the metal drivers and the solid core wiring used through out the line.

The new 3.7 is significantly more efficient than it’s predecessor, providing twice the output from a given amount of input power. The most technologically innovative aspect of the 3.7 is it’s midrange driver which has response all the way up to 20kHz. The traditional tweeter that lies at the center of the midrange driver is there mostly to improve dispersion. The new midrange driver’s ripples also are unique and add a great amount of structural strength, which reduces distortion. Below is an interview with Jim Thiel conducted by Ken Dawkins. He discusses many of the facets that make his new speaker a technological tour de force. Click on the picture to view the video.

Raising our profile?

All too often the high-end hobby spend lots of time and resources preaching to the choir. In some respects it’s understandable. High end manufacturers have limited resources (most employ less than 50 people) and by targeting their message towards hobbyist they guarantee some return on their investment. However, this does nothing to bring new blood into the hobby. A greater number of people involved in high quality audio reproduction is a good thing not only for audio companies, but also for consumers. As production increases the prices that companies have charge per unit to remain profitable and innovate will drop.

Recently, there have been a number of steps in the right direction. According to Steve Guttenberg’s March 11 blog Thiel audio and Bryston have teamed up to set up a system at the headquarters of Rolling Stone magazine. The system will be in place for three months and consists of Thiel 3.7 loudspeakers and SS2 Subwoofer. As well as Bryston’s BCD-1 CD player, BP26 preamp, and 28BSST mono block amps. Hopefully the writers at Rolling Stone will be so impressed that one of them will write an article about perfectionist audio, thus helping raise it’s exposure.

Another category that is helping to raise the profile of high-quality sound reproduction is the partnerships between auto manufacturers and high-end audio stalwarts. This trend began in earnest when Mark Levinson teamed with Lexus and seems to only be gaining momentum. Other partnerships include Aston Martin/Linn, Jaguar/B&W, and Bentley/Naim, Volvo/Dynaudio, BMW/Lexicon, and Bugatti/Burmester. According to Wes Philips’ excellent blog Naim has taken things a step further by setting up a listening room at the 2008 International Auto Show.

Last, but certainly not least American Express has given the industry some unbelievable free publicity with their Plum card advertisement that features music direct, a highly regarded mail order audio retailer on their TV commercials. Jason Victor Serinus wrote a great post on Stereophile's webpage about how this commercial came about.