THIEL Company Background Information

December 2007

THIEL Audio Products Company of Lexington, Kentucky is a privately-held, engineering driven organization that performs research, design, and manufacturing of loudspeakers for the highest quality music and video sound reproduction in the home.

The beauty of THIEL loudspeakers can be traced back to design concepts born from powerfully innovative thinking. For over 30 years, THIEL has woven a nearly magical synergy between engineering brilliance and an unfailing passion to create the most lifelike reproduction of recorded music. Along this quest for sonic perfection, THIEL’s customers, music aficionados, and audio press from around the world have lauded THIEL’s loudspeaker designs as some of the best ever conceived.

THIEL’s design philosophy is based upon a company-wide belief that music and movie soundtracks carry the most emotional weight and best engage the listener when accurately reproduced. In 1978, THIEL debuted the Model 03, which pioneered time and phase accuracy in multi-element dynamic loudspeakers. Jim Thiel’s Model 03 also gave rise to the Coherent Source concept and established a platform upon which all subsequent THIEL speakers would be designed and built.

In the modern era, THIEL has embraced trends toward home theater and multi-room audio with the introduction of subwoofers and architectural speakers (in-wall, in-ceiling, and on-wall designs) like none other on the market. These unique products provide previously unrealized levels of performance for challenging applications without sacrificing any of THIEL’s revered engineering principals.

Over the last three decades, THIEL loudspeakers have come to be known for outstanding performance yet unmistakable value. THIEL has amassed a staggering 55 accolades from international press, including the high performance audio industry’s most prestigious publications. These include 22 Innovations Design & Engineering awards, 6 Absolute Sound / The Perfect Vision Editor’s Choice awards, and combined 11 Product of the Year awards from Stereophile, Electronic House, and Stereosound Magazines. The venerable THIEL CS3.6 loudspeaker was also named by Stereophile as one of the Hot 100 – a group of the most important and influential audiophile components of all time.

THIEL loudspeakers are available throughout the USA and in over 30 countries worldwide. We are quite proud that our company has become almost as well known for unthinkably high levels of customer care as it has for our 14 available speaker models. It is our mission here at THIEL to develop and build the world’s finest loudspeakers, delivering the ultimate music and movie playback experience to our discriminating customers.

We invite you to browse our website at www.thielaudio.com, or contact us by phone or e-mail if you would like to learn more about our exceptional products.

Jim Thiel is a co-founder, co-owner, and product design engineer for THIEL. His interest in music began on the piano in early childhood and remains an important part of his life today. His involvement in audio can be traced to age 12 when he began to build and repair radios and other electronic gear. His academic background is in physics and mathematics. Jim pioneered the principle of time and phase accuracy in loudspeakers with the use of sloped baffles, coaxial driver mounting, and phase coherent crossover network design.

Kathy Gornik, co-owner and President, is responsible for company vision, direction, policies, and marketing strategy. She oversees the appointment of all domestic dealers and international distributors, and is responsible for relations with the media and audio industry. She is also involved in promoting THIEL and high-end audio in general through leadership in several industry organizations. Within the high-end audio community, Kathy was on the Steering Committee during the development of the Academy for the Advancement of High End Audio, a group formed to promote high-end audio, and served on its Executive Committee. Gornik’s leadership role in the electronics industry includes serving as the immediate past chairman of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) board of industry leaders and executive board, as a former board member of the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA)-board of governors, and as a member of the National Science and Technology Education Partnership (NSTEP) board of trustees. Kathy is chairman of the Small Business Council, which she helped to create, and is current vice chair of CEA’s Audio Division, of which she is also a former chairman. Kathy is a board member of the Specialty Audio Subdivision, which she helped to form. The CEA provides member support and education, consumer promotion, sets product standards, and represents the electronics industry’s interests with government. Gornik has also been honored as a Kentucky/Southern Indiana Entrepreneur of the Year; an award sponsored by Ernst and Young Inc. Magazine, and Merrill Lynch, and was selected as one of the Top 40 Women in Business by the Central Kentucky magazine, The Lane Report, who also named THIEL Audio as the Small Business of the Year in 1994.