Looking for Thiel CS7.2 Midranges

T

Ted1

Audiophyte
Hello all,
I was researching replacements for my midranges and came across this site.
Someone in a post form about 100 years ago suggested posting here to see if anyone has them. I have my originals, but the spiders have disentegrated.
Getting a little tired of listing to the middle range buzzing in my otherwise georgous speakers.
I's also be open to non-OEM replacements, if anyone knows of a retrofit, at least for the moment.
Seems a tall order though, due to the proprietary (to my limited knowledge) shape of these drivers.
Glad to be here, looking forward to catching up on current tech fro you guys!
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Hello all,
I was researching replacements for my midranges and came across this site.
Someone in a post form about 100 years ago suggested posting here to see if anyone has them. I have my originals, but the spiders have disentegrated.
Getting a little tired of listing to the middle range buzzing in my otherwise georgous speakers.
I's also be open to non-OEM replacements, if anyone knows of a retrofit, at least for the moment.
Seems a tall order though, due to the proprietary (to my limited knowledge) shape of these drivers.
Glad to be here, looking forward to catching up on current tech fro you guys!
That is unfortunate. Thiel built ALL his drivers in house. His crossovers were very complex linear phase first order, with a huge number of components.
Unfortunately as the spiders have rotted out, I doubt the drivers are repairable. Even if you could, unless you had the original spiders, then the drivers would not sound the same, due to different compliance.

I think you will have a much better chance of finding a used set of speakers, rather than individual drivers. Unfortunately it is the end of the road for those speakers.

Since the T/S parameters of those drivers are not known, and now you can not measure them, you would have zero chance of finding a replacement, even in the unlikely event of a close match being out there.

I can't imagine it is pleasant listening to those speakers, as they will have serious gap rub.

Lastly if yours have rotted, then the ones in other speakers will have to. Your best bet is to go speaker shopping.
 
T

Ted1

Audiophyte
I actually did speak with him, I think I found him somewhere like an old "Audiophile Magazine" article.

You guys are awesome, not to mention knowledgeable!

He said he might be able to rebuild my mids, not sure if he can do the spiders though.
And it was prohibitively expensive, though I guess that goes along with being a music and tech maniac (AKA Audiophile) and maintaining pretty nice speakers.
I hadn't seen his website before, but he seemed very legit and capable over the phone.

I'm thinking that if I do replace my speakers, I should look for something with less proprietary drivers!
 
T

Ted1

Audiophyte
That was a good find. That would be his only hope, as I suspect the guy has all the factory jigs for rebuilding the drivers. Website is rudimentary which is not a good sign. He should give the guy a call.
Thanks so much for your thoughts

I noticed you're incorporating an RME 800, is that in your main listening system?
I have the same piece in my music studio setup, and I've noticed on the rare occasions I listened to pre recorded stuff, it sounded ridiculously clear and transparent.
Is this something the audiophile community may be overlooking?
I run it through my music computer DAW as it needs to be configured, did you just save the settings, or do you have it connected to a computer?
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Thanks so much for your thoughts

I noticed you're incorporating an RME 800, is that in your main listening system?
I have the same piece in my music studio setup, and I've noticed on the rare occasions I listened to pre recorded stuff, it sounded ridiculously clear and transparent.
Is this something the audiophile community may be overlooking?
I run it through my music computer DAW as it needs to be configured, did you just save the settings, or do you have it connected to a computer?
It is connected to a DAW I built.

I agree it does sound very good, but the main issue is that it is very versatile. The main issue is that I think they are the best interface around for marrying a DAW with your AV system. You are correct, they are first class units.

As far as your speakers are concerned, unless that guy has original spiders in good condition, I would not spend a fortune on those speakers. Also if he does have originals, they may not be in good shape, as I suspect those spiders rot whether used or not.

Speaker drivers bing NLA is a big issue. As you probably gather I design and build my own speakers. In general the European manufacturers, especially SEAS and Typmphany are a good bet, as are Volt. In addition Morel of Israel take a long view. Their owners split from Dynaudio and also hold those patents. Eaton also have some good drivers.

Far Eastern units can be a problem.

Good luck with your speaker hunt. I think you can actually upgrade form what you had. Over the years I heard a lot of Thiel speakers. To me the bass was always mistuned, producing tubby over resonant reproduction. Personally I could not have lived with them, but I tend to find that with most commercial offerings. Few get everything right, and you must, or a single defect will stick out as an even larger sore thumb the better the rest of the speaker. That is an absolute truism of speakers I find.
 
T

Ted1

Audiophyte
I just looked at your system, TLS Guy, very impressive! And I do see the Fireface prominently featured in the middle of it all.
Still a loss for the Theils, but I pulled a set of Mirage M1si out of storage and put them back in service.
They're hard to place in the room though, need to be several feet out from the rear wall as they have a full array of drivers on the rear as well as front. You're now greeted by an pretty imposing monolith as soon as you open my front door!
But the sound is great and that's what matters to us fanatics.
I added an SVS sub and was surprised that the soundstage noticeably widened. Major difference which is very obvious when switched in and out. Never realized this was a benefit of subs, but I did a little research and it turns out there is a logical explanation.
Wasn't aware how good these speakers could sound, Maybe I wan't pairing with the right amp before.
Proabably gonna sell the Theils for cheap as I'm satisfied with the current setup and I don't have time to fix them.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I just looked at your system, TLS Guy, very impressive! And I do see the Fireface prominently featured in the middle of it all.
Still a loss for the Theils, but I pulled a set of Mirage M1si out of storage and put them back in service.
They're hard to place in the room though, need to be several feet out from the rear wall as they have a full array of drivers on the rear as well as front. You're now greeted by an pretty imposing monolith as soon as you open my front door!
But the sound is great and that's what matters to us fanatics.
I added an SVS sub and was surprised that the soundstage noticeably widened. Major difference which is very obvious when switched in and out. Never realized this was a benefit of subs, but I did a little research and it turns out there is a logical explanation.
Wasn't aware how good these speakers could sound, Maybe I wan't pairing with the right amp before.
Proabably gonna sell the Theils for cheap as I'm satisfied with the current setup and I don't have time to fix them.
I'm not surprised you can not repair or replace those midrange units. Rather than sell the whole speakers, I would just remove the drivers and crossovers and sell them. I think that will be an easier sell, and save a lot of shipping costs.

Honestly I have heard those Thiels a number of times. I was not really impressed. The worst feature was the tubby bass, that shows up in measurements.
Also I did not like the high end either. With the first order filter, the mid is clearly driven into break up range, and the tweeter is peaking still within the audio band.
All this can be seen in published measurements and confirmed my listening impressions.

I have not heard those Mirage Di-poles. They measure better then the Thiels. I have experimented with Di-poles in the past. I was not enamored with the results.
There is no easy answer to this. Di-poles are still not omnidirectional radiators. Whilst string instruments are omnidirectional radiators, the brass and woodwind are not. To me this idea helps the strings not significantly, or at all, but really mucks up the brass.

So I have strong preference for wide dispersion monopoles. In any event the new Dolby Digital up mixer does an incredible job of recreating the acoustic space in a fashion that continues to astonish me on my 7.2.4 layout to Dolby specs. Certainly I think for multi channel systems monopoles are best, and I would doubt there is a place for them in multichannel systems.
 
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