Value = $ / (Sound Quality Units)

I get an e-mail about 2 or 3 times a month that goes like this:

Dear THIEL,
When I was a young chap, I bought a pair of [choose your classic THIEL], but on my wedding night, my lovely new bride helped put it and my Mark Levinson stuff in the closet she chose just for my stuff. She's so thoughtful! A closet just for me.

Anyway, now that my kids are in college, my wife felt it was an appropriate time to send me packing. She did give me everything that was in my special closet (now I know why it was there to begin with) which includes my THIELs!

Since only my cash earnings hidden from divorce court are resisting my ex-wife's call for alimony, I'm a bit strapped. My [THIEL model above] doesn't sound quite right after being drop kicked out the door, and I fear the worst. Do you think it's worth me trying to fix these old dogs or should I just buy new speakers?

Sincerely,
Singh Glatlast

The answer is almost ALWAYS that the speakers should be repaired. In terms of dollars spent per units of sound quality, it is practically impossible to expect that the same several hundred dollars spent on restoring CS2s for example could get even nearly equivalent sound when spent on new speakers. Seriously, it's really hard to make audiophile speakers for $600 per pair. Even if a few hundred bucks doesn't buy you glossy new cabinets for your old THIELs, it will probably get them sounding like new.

So, if the above sounds like you (sans satire), I strongly encourage you to get your old THIELs back up and running. with few exceptions, your system will sound far better because of it.

SCS4s can do that

A while back I wrote a brief history of the SCS lineage. I'm particularly smitten with this lineup due in large part to it's excellent use of coaxial / coincident drivers. The time and phase coherent nature of our speaker brand, and the fact that these are 2-way systems using said coax drivers makes them special, maybe unique. Place them anywhere (high to low, left to right, whatever) and they remain time and phase coherent to you, dear listener.

There is a company wide love affair with the SCS4 though, that I dare say has no precedent among previous SCSs. We think about it all the time. It's an affliction. I caught Denise blushing walking out of the music room the other day. Kathy called them cute. I digress.

We think about them all the time because we use them for everything.
Examples:
◆ When zöet was a mere opportunity (long before even THIELnet), we decided we needed to launch with only 1 speaker, but it had to be something that could play many parts - SCS4

◆ Ken and I wanted to do EHX with zöet since it's kind of a big deal, but it wasn't ready. So, we did 7 SCS4s (with 7 SS1s, no less). Worked well I'd say - We won 3 awards for the performance.

◆ Since I am really into music recording, I've been begging Jim for a powered monitor. Modded SCS4s ought to do well enough for that. Though it's a back-burner project, it's working under the title CSP-1.

◆ There's a new mystery project in the works that's tapping the ubiquitous SCS4. Shhh...

In addition to the SCS4 being very very flexible for us, dear listeners and fans such as yourself are putting them to good use in the abode.

◆ I, for one, gave up floorstanders for so that my darling daughter could have a bit more square footage about which she could run ragged. SCS4s are filling in nicely until she learns to drive.

◆ Countless single SCS4s are living comfortably between floorstanders as center channels.

◆ Countless SCS4s shack up 3, 5, or even 7 at a time in surround - even dedicated music surround systems.

◆ More than any other SCS, except perhaps the original, SCS4s are mated in pairs for dedicated 2 channel listening.

◆ Though most installations I know of find them on shelves, we've had many requests for stands, and we use them on stands at THIEL.


I am most pleased by how well SCS4s remain flexible but still sound SO good. Most audiophile bookshelf speakers are only ever used like floorstanders. I know of no other that has inspired the creativity of use that the SCS4 has. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine.

-Gary

You missed a helluva party

If you weren't here that is. We had a blast!

Having a great dealer here in town is great for lots of reasons, but having Barney Miller's is just perfect. Between Barney Miller's and THIEL last night, we threw one great party. For more than 3 hours last night, we imbibed, listed to lots of music, talked about lots of gear, toured the plant, learned a thing or 2 from Jim, sold some speakers, caught up with folks we haven't seen in a while. Then Lana, Jeremy, Jeff, Ms. Chris, and I rocked the CS2.4SEs to 11 with some good grungy 90's before we closed down just before 10. If you weren't here, I'm really sorry we missed you.

A BIG BIG thank you to all of you who came and especially those of you who bought speakers! Barney, Tony, Tim, Doug, Aaron, Donny, Becky, I had a blast hanging out with you all. We should do it again sometime. Lana, Tammi, Denise, Ken, Jim, Dawn, Ron, Rob Dave, Teresa, You people are amazing. Thanks not only for spending 2 days with us setting up but for making it so much fun last night.

We rocked the PowerPoints on the ceiling, CS3.7s and CS2.4SEs on the floor. After the demo program, we took requests from the audience - Ray Charles and Take 6, Jacintha, Local band Bo Allen, and at some point after that the listening room descended into chaos, but in a good way.

Hope y'all had as much fun as we did! Thanks again to all!

-Gary
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70574&id=18538673578

Open Letter To Amplifier Manufacturers

Dear aforementioned,

I really only have one topic I would like to cover today and one thing to say about the topic. The topic is heatsinks, and OUCH!

Last night amongst a room full of eager guests I reached behind an amp to power it on. After fumbling for the switch for a moment - it's not an amp I have a complete tactile memory of yet - my hand felt wet. For a brief moment I thought someone had spilled their libations on our audio rack and it was dripping down onto my hand. Pulling back expecting to see the lovely Amber tone of and ale, I find instead the deep crimson of my own blood and plenty of it. Take a moment to note that absent from my remarks are mentions of feeling my hand getting cut bone deep.

Though your amplifiers are marvels of modern engineering and on the bleeding edge (ha ha) of industrial artistry, there are better places to showcase your remarkably precise machining capabilities than the sharp edges of a heat sink. Upon inspection of my wound this morning, I can safely say that it was not a rough edge that inspired me to write, but a sharp and true edge.

To those amplifier designers who have already heard cries and yelps from earlier victims and responded in kind, please know that I know who you are. The unwritten inverse of this blog is gleeful thanks for your compassion. To the rest of you, I say

OUCH!!

Sincerely,

Gary "nine-fingers" Dayton

Grounds for Divorce

I've had quite a variety of top shelf gear at home courtesy of listening room loan, and most recently, I've had zöet at home so I can do some real-world testing and debugging. Dear Wife has enjoyed zöet very much due in large part to it's first-in-class ease of use.

But zöet went to THIEL last week so we could wrap up the multi-zone testing. So it's been quiet at home. And who wants a quiet home? How lame.

Dear Wife expressed some interest in having a stereo set back up in the living room, but I'm off to yet another trade show (EHX in FL if you wanna meet me for a beer), so I didn't have time to set the CS3.7s et. al. back up.

So, she got the scour-the-house-for-parts version of a stereo, and man, it sounds like shit. Well, it's not really that bad, it's just dreadfully boring. It's the Franzia of audio systems - won't make you wretch, but you won't want to pour another glass.

To add insult to injury, when I tried to hook up the Krell CD player, the amp went nuts. Must be some kind of funny grounding problem. The 12 watt op-amp based 1 input integrated amp gets its power from a switch-mode DC power supply that looks suspiciously like the one that came with my external hard drive. So, the only input possible is something with no earth ground reference (I have no idea why).

Imagine going from a zöet system fed by a multitude of high-end sources one day to the following: MP3 player as source into said integrated amp into $200 per pair name-withheld-to-protect-the-innocent bookshelf speakers.

Geez, she's gonna be pissed. I hope I'm on the plane before she actually gets to hear what it sounds like. Woof!

-Gary

Lori Lieberman Rocks THIEL

Talk about a rare treat. How would you like it if one of your favorite songwriters just walked into your office one day and played a song? That's pretty much what happened here Tuesday. Tuesday was a good day.

Kathy and Joe Cali (Lori's husband and producer) go way back, and Joe has been a THIEL dealer for quite some time, so there's the connection. Lori is a pretty well known and universally praised musician that has tons of records out. All are very well recorded. Gun Metal Sky is the new one, and it's very very good. Even though it's a collection of songs, it's best listened to as an album from start to finish. You should buy it.


Joe and Lori were in town Monday so Lori could play NPR's Woodsongs in support of her new album. Tuesday, they dropped in because Dawn tempted her with our "good coffee". We chit-chatted for an hour or so about a variety of things. Having never met Lori, and only Joe on a few occasions, they were really fun to converse with and the whole visit felt like we were all a bunch of old friends.

So then Kathy gets this wild idea that she wants Lori to play a song for us in the listening room. She sends Dawn on a wild goose chase to Jim's house to find his Taylor acoustic (since, after all, even the finest song writers don't carry their axes with them all the time.) which she promptly returned with. In parallel, I scurried around trying to find a suitable mic and pre to record with. The best thing I could come up with was an AKG shotgun mic and an M-Audio FW Solo - the former we use for training video shoots, and the latter for our driver QA rig.

Lori said she'd play, and boy are we happy she did. She played her hit "Killing Me Softly" and we all just sat there with our jaws on the floor. Lori sounded absolutely lovely and is entirely delightful. We don't get to hear good live music around here often much less in our own room. Lori, thanks SO much from all of us, you made our day!

SCS: A small coherent history

When the SCS was conceived back in the early 90s, it was a perfect platform for Jim to give the Coherent Source philosophy a coaxial/coincident driver. The idea for the speaker was one that would be reasonably inexpensive, very flexible in terms of placement and orientation, attractively finished, suitable for just about any type of home audio application - 2 channel stereo, any position in a home theatre. Key to the project though, was adherance to THIEL core values. The original SCS must have been a success (way before my time). I can only guess that most are still in use today judging by the number of grille orders I get.

The SCS2 supplanted it in 1997 after a 6 year run and saw the introduction of metal driver diaphragms that THIEL had fallen in love with in the few years prior. Also, dual symmetrical ports on either side of the woofer and styrene reinforced cones debuted. That model didn't last long, and I really have no idea why, but I suspect it has a lot to do with Jim's excitement over the development of the super-excellent tweeter that had just been put into the then-flagship CS7.2 and little brother CS6.

THIEL greeted 1998 with the brand spankin' new SCS3. Sho'nuff, the CS7.2 tweeter sat right in the middle of a newly designed mid/woofer. Years of plain-box SCS yore were cast aside by the SCS3 and it's gorgeously sculpted baffle. The curvaceous grille frame stretched nice and snug over the baffle and left little to the imagination but nothing hanging out. This was a big hit for THIEL and the longest living Small Coherent Source to date at barely a decade. It sounded VERY good, was decidedly very high resolution and right at home in very high end small stereo systems, but was most often sold one at a time for center channel use. SCS3s were easily the best sounding of the bunch. Their long production life showed it too.

I don't know what inspired Jim to go back to the drawing board a few years ago, and do an SCS4, but I sure am glad he did. We had absolutely no idea that the SCS series could sound so damn good. I mean wow. Have you heard them? Read the reviews, or just don't even bother, just buy some. I swear, they are incredible. The SCS3 coax gave way to a modified PowerPoint coax that uses a neodymium woofer magnet system and a modified CS3.7(!) tweeter sitting in the sweet spot. The cast aluminum baffle works wonders too. The nice rigid baffle lets the new coax really shine. Not only is the SCS4 by far the best sounding SCS ever, it's also the best value. Probably because it's good at so many things. It's rather inspirational really...