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Ever Have One Of Those Evenings?

Tonight, I went downstairs, turned on the system, and it sounded like crap. Within an hour I had:

>Discovered that one of my Thiel 2.2's has either a dead woofer (most likely), or a crossover or internal wiring problem. Testing to diagnose will commence tomorrow, tonight I'm too P.O.'ed.

>Additionally discovered that the tweeter on the other side is distorting badly, and will need the dome/voice-coil assembly replaced (again).

>Confirmed that my most costly set of interconnects has a bad jack connection (these are Harmonic Technology Magic Link Ones, which naturally feature a plug design that cannot easily be opened up for inspection or repairs without destroying the heat-shrink sleeve).

>Faced the distinct possibility that my futzing around behind the preamp trying to ascertain the culprit in the latter problem - without first turning down the volume - may well have been the cause of least one of the first two problems.

>Realized that now, not only can't I listen to my system the regular way, but since the OEM (non-standard) headphone amp output jack I got from Musical Fidelity's distributor to replace the faulty original in my X-Cans quickly developed the same exact problem as the old one (no right channel with either set of 'phones), I cannot even listen with my headphones for the time being, except through my CD-R recorder's wimpy monitoring jack.

Looks like I'm on a steady diet of cable movies and NPR for a while. (Way to go, Trent Lott: at least you'll be out-of-sight, out-of-mind by this time next week, you plastic-haired cretin - your plight is the one redeeming feature of my evening!)
zaikesman
unsound
6,115 posts
 
Zaikesman, perhaps saying nothing might be prudent untill Thiel gives you their opinion .
zaikesman OP
3,017 posts
 
Well, I was mum about the circumstances when I spoke to Sherry, but I don't want to hook up a fixed speaker to bad amplifier either, and neither do I want to seem to come out with a bunch of additional late information based on what they tell me from diagnoses. I feel I trust them enough to make their decision based solely off of what their tech sees inside the speaker, but I can wait and see if there is some additional comment here first.
unsound
6,115 posts
 
Perhaps an independent evaluation of your amp might be in order?
unsound
6,115 posts
 
BTW, I'm not suggesting that you mislead the good people at Thiel, especially saint Shari. I just wouldn't offer them anything unecessary.
maxgain
526 posts
 
You Thiel owners can thank me in part that your speakers don't have those stupid electronic bass EQ boxes(ala Bose 901) that the old Threes had. I had sort of an argument with Tom Thiel back in the late eighties and Las Vegas CES about the fact that the EQ box screwed up the sound. He claimed you could not detect the "sound" of the EQ in the system. I claimed that a child could detect it! They were talking to dealers about producing a larger model than the Three, and I insisted that they do away with the "box"! It took some convincing but at least I got them to consider that the box "might" degrade the sound. I think no one had ever brought it up to them before as Tom seemed very suprised by this sugestion. The short part is, no more Thiels with electronic bass EQ. You are welcome.
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