Thiel Customer Service - New ownership is terrible!!! - WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS COMPANY ?

I was curious how something as ridiculous as the current Thiel ownership could have come about.  I did a few Google searches and found a few things including the below link.  I'm betting the David B. Griffin in this article is the same David B. Griffin mentioned in the Strata-Gee article.  He appears to be a combination of spoiled rich boy and farm welfare super-queen.  


https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/01/24/more-subsidy-money-going-to-fewer-farms/7...

The 3.7 is not bright.  If somebody finds it bright it's because they have bright electronics, a bright room and/or prefer a rolled off sound.  They are actually very similar in balance to the 2 2s. 

Thiel has been going through CEO's quickly, just named a new one last month.  Real, non-lifestyle speakers are now a made to order product and I don't think they have any dealers, just internet.  Maybe they'll take them to shows or something. 

As a Thiel owner and fan I've watched this unfold over the past several years.  The new CEO is some marketing broad with zero interest in audio.  I have no idea why anyone would buy any of their new products.  They are so clearly answers to questions nobody asked.  There are already lots of lifestyle speakers.  The other speakers are basically overpriced PSBs which of course nobody needs since we already have reasonably priced PSBs. 

I think companies should charge what they need to for service to turn a profit on it.  I suspect Thiel could charge a lot since they have such devoted owners and there's very little new being sold that would be a legitimate replacement. 

Since Thiel has discontinued all of the traditional Thiel designs and concepts I wonder if they could sell/give away the service part of the business to a former competitor.  There must be a company that could carry on the servicing of older Thiel products that would like to get a foot in the door with Thiel owners.  Say Vandersteen bought it so when the 30 year old Thiel speaker can't be repaired anymore they can offer a replacement that has at least some of the qualities that Thiel owners value. 

The idea that anybody is going to buy a pair of Thiels once a year is silly.  There probably are a few people who will do it for a few years while they're moving up the line but nobody will do it for long. 

How does buying from a discounter deprive a manufacturer of revenue?  Haven't you already been paid at that point?  For almost 100% of people price is a factor.  Once you've been in the hobby for a while you really don't need the dealer as much.  I'm comfortable buying with little or no audition in a store.  I would be willing in some cases to rent a product for a while to see if I want to buy it.  I don't know if anyone has that service.  Some dealers let you try something out for free.  I tend to think the dealer should get something for this as it is a very valuable service.  If I don't buy then the dealer gets nothing.  If I do then maybe take what I paid in rent off of the price.

If discounters won't pay what the manufacturer needs to get for a product then don't sell to them for a discounted price.  Of course there will always be people resellers negotiating for a lower price, bulk discount, whatever. 

Price is almost always a factor.  How many of us can afford to go buy the very best of everything without regard to price?  You can drop hundreds of thousands of dollars on a stereo. Pretty much everybody is looking for the best value for what they have to spend.  This will never change.  I'm sure manufacturers look to buy parts as cheaply as possible as well.  Nobody intentionally overpays

I've bought both new and used and the idea that there's something wrong with used is absurd.  If a person upgrades a few times of course they're going to have extra stuff that someone else might as well enjoy.  A lot of people trade in or sell their used stuff to help afford the new stuff.  It's a fundamental part of the hobby.

I thought that value being what the price conscious person is looking for was obvious enough to not need to be explicitly stated.  There are a few people who have so much money that they can just buy what they think is best regardless of price and then the 99.x% that factor in price when buying. 

I definitely agree that getting into the hobby has become extremely difficult.  The lack of brick and mortar dealers is a problem for a lot of things these days.  I hope some other model emerges that allows people to learn and get into the hobby but that doesn't also include dealers having to scrape by at best and get abused by bunghole consumers.