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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
sean
6,229 posts
 
You don't need an equalizer for a sealed box if it is done right. That is, if you don't mind big drivers in big boxes : ) Sean
>
zaikesman OP
3,017 posts
 
Unsound, I might use the downtime to have amps modded anyway, so this could happen. Sean, any thoughts about the question of the amp's part in this? Could it be guiltless on its own, but have passed a signal that damaged the crossover, and still be OK?

Maxgain, is Tom Thiel Jim Thiel's brother? I thought JT's brother only handled the cabinet-finishing aspect of the company.

Unsound already knows that I found my 2.2's superior in all ways to the 3.5's, but I don't really know whether part of that advantage can be laid at the feet of the 3.5's EQ box. I personally doubt that the speaker would have sounded any better to me without the bass boost, since the 2.2 had more articulate bass anyway, but I guess it's possible some additional transparency would have been audible. (It's always interesting to me that no one seems to feel that Merlin's BAM EQ module compromises their speaker in this way, and I believe that is a vented design.) Unsound, is the Thiel offering using digital EQ that you mention the subwoofer or another HT product?
unsound
6,115 posts
 
Sean, I agree with you re: sealed boxes sans equalization and extra size, how ever digital equalization may offer us a chance to "tune to the room" and do it with out the compromises that used to come the old fashioned analog way, what new compromises it adds is yet to be seen.
Zaikesman, yes it was the subwoofer that I was refering to. There has been rumous that Jim Thiel is considering many options for a furture state of the art project (read expensive) some of which include digital EQ, self powered and even omni directional.
maxgain
526 posts
 
Yes Unsound I am suprised. It was just that they were talking about a higher priced speaker than the Three(whatever version it was at the time). I felt that at least the EQ that they used at the time degraded the overall performance.It suprised me that they were so dumbfounded that anyone said that they could hear the performance loss the thing introduced. Yes, the sound was bass shy without it but everything else improved dramaticly. At least they looked into improving the EQ for future use. Was there a CS5 at anytime in their line?
Yes, Tom is Jim's brother, but he did seem to have something to do with the development process. He was asking dealers opinioins of what they would like to see in a more expensive speaker from them in the near future. When I asked for one with no EQ he just stared at me in disbelief for a while, it was sort of uncomfortable. They beleived that it was totaly transparent. I didn't. Don't get me wrong, I like the people at Thiel and I like their products.
unsound
6,115 posts
 
Maxgain, yes there was a 5 (and 5i), it didn't use an equalizer but instead more drivers in a much bigger box as Sean suggested. The 5 was considerably more expensive. My favorite Thiels all seem to be sealed boxes.
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