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Taming bright Thiels

I have been attempting for months to find a way to tame the brightness on my 2.2's. Ended up with a crudely simple short-term solution after much tube and cable rolling and equipment fussing (System is Theta separates, ARC LS2b preamp, Rowland 1 amp, Harmonic Tech cables).
I experimented with taping thin material suspended in front of the midrange driver to produce roughly a couple decibels acoustical attenuation in the 1Khertz to 3khertz region from each channel. (I experimented with 1- and 2- ply tissue, cotton cloth, etc.)
What a magical difference. My wife immediately asked for a listening evening, something she hadn't done in over a year.
So I wrote to Thiel (many times) and asked if a low-value resistor wired in series with the midrange driver would have the same effect with less likelihood of side effects.
While they responded to every query promptly, they absolutely would not give any information on any possible modification of the speaker to attenuate its overly bright character.

Anyone attempted such a modification? Results? Caveats?
hug
islandflyfisher
94 posts
 
Hug:

I've owned 22's for almost five years and did find them on the bright side until I changed my front end. Currently using the CAL Alpha/Delta with Mullard tubes. My preamp is a Jeff Rowland, with old Parasound Amps. I'm using Straightwire Maestro's interconnects and speaker cables. I've used MIT in the past and both kept my highs smooth and warm with no hint of brightness unless the recording was terrible. Also, have you isolated your DAC? If not, by doing so can make a world of difference.
phil123
54 posts
 
Why try and make a piece of equipment something it is not? I do not care for Thiels myself, there are others who do. From your description it sounds like you do not like the basic sound of the speaker. Blocking out part of the sound to make it tolerable certainly doesn't seem like the way to go. Why would you want a piece of equipment you can't enjoy no matter what other virtues it seems to have? To me it would make more sense to write off the speakers as a mistake for your listening tastes. Sell them and get something more enjoyable to you. Don't try and use your whole system as a tone control for speakers you probably won't enjoy anyway.
jameswei
795 posts
 
I have a pair of 3.6's and they sound fine. I have auditioned the 2.2's and agree that they sound much brighter. At the risk of tarnishing the signal path, I would suggest getting an equalizer. Purists would eschew this, but a good quality equalizer can keep the tone components out of the circuit when the controls are set to flat. Only the bands you need to modify will be in the circuit. Unfortunately, you can't avoid having an extra set of interconnections. Audio Control is an established name with a range of equalizer products. I have a Rane ME60 in one of my systems -- it's got good build quality and more, narrower frequency adjustment bands.
ozfly
887 posts
 
MIT speaker cables did the trick for my CS-6's. Take a look at some of the classifieds (Joe Abrams helped me out).
If you are looking to attack a specific frequency range, using cross-over adjustments might be better than decreasing the overall response of the midrange. It's tricky working with Thiel cross-overs because they are so unusual and use very gradual db reductions. If the tissues work, why not stick with them? Maybe in conjuction with different speaker cables. Happy listening. Great idea with the tissue!
garfish
1,840 posts
 
It sounds like you've found a short term practical solution. It may seem a bit harsh, but I have to agree with Phill23, ie I would not want a speaker that has a sound character that is unsuited to my personal preferences in listening.

The rest of your gear/wires does not appear to be prone to brightness. I specifically avoided the Thiel 22/23 when speaker shopping because of their reputation for brightness, and ended up with Vandersteen 2Ce/3As at the time(s). Good Luck. Craig
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