Thiel is officially closed!!

beetlemania,

Given the way Thiel has been run since the new ownership, I’d presume the worst case scenario in terms of finances.

Jafant mentioned Rob Gillium was working on become a proprietor for Theil legacy parts/work...but I don’t know that was completed, or what the closure of Thiel means for that venture.

Though, I’m guessing that it was clear Thiel wasn’t going to be in the business of servicing legacy speakers and with writing on the wall, I’m hoping Rob was actually preparing with this day in mind, so he could still service legacy Thiels, not linked to the fortunes of the current Thiel company.

I hope.

I'm also concerned regarding Ayre with the recent passing of Charles Hansen.

Ayre has a leg up relative to what happened at Thiel. Jim Thiel pretty much failed to train another engineer that could carry the legacy and vision in his absence. When Kathy Gornik sold Thiel, the new owners brought on an engineer that *completely* threw out all of Thiel's design principles (first-order crossovers, pistonic drivers, sloped cabinets, etc)! Why even keep the Thiel name other than brand recognition?

In the case of Ayre, Ariel Brown has worked with Hansen for something on the order of 20 years. No doubt things will be different at Ayre but I suspect we'll continue to see more designs with Hansen's philosophy (no negative feedback, fully balanced, etc.). We should know very soon - supposed to be a new integrated with onboard DAC released directly.

Jafant mentioned Rob Gillium was working on become a proprietor for Theil legacy parts/work...but I don’t know that was completed, or what the closure of Thiel means for that venture.

If Mr. Gillium has the capital to buy the parts inventory then it seems certain that the bank and/or owners will gladly sell to him. How else can they cut their losses? Sell individually to each Thiel owner hedging against driver failure? I promise you they're not interested in that course especially if there is a buyer for the lot.

I could be wrong - I have no inner knowledge - but don't see how else this might turn out. The inventory is worth real money. Whoever owns it will want to sell it.

Thanks for the insight beetlemania.  Seems reasonable.

As for post-Jim speakers:  Jim must have passed on some engineering as the 2.7s were completed (and I believe designed, or partially designed) after his death.   I can't remember the name of the guy(s) who worked on the 2.7s but I seem to remember reading of them at one point.

We blame the buyer of Thiel but surely they were in trouble before. The enemy of the good is better and the competition in great quality speakers has increased.

For example, I was impressed to see the amount of engineering in Paradigm Persona line! I would equate Paradigm philosophy to Thiel in that it is an engineering driven pursuit.

On the flip side, the move away from performance and measurements towards “trusting ears” has allowed fancy marketing with “good enough” speakers with cheap parts to carve out a large part of the market too. This must have hurt Thiel who focused heavily on quality parts.