EngadgetHD gets SCS4s

Steven Kim of Engadget just received a pair of Dark Cherry SCS4s for review. He hasn't reviewed them yet-just took them out of the box, but he's taken some great shots. Check out the initial pics and keep checking back for a review.
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/12/09/thiel-scs4-speakers-unboxed/

Hall of Shame Entry

Today's nominee is a PowerPlane 1.2 - a very robust speaker that has probably fallen victim to an amplifier going DC. It takes a LOT of power to burn these crossovers. Behold:

This breaks our hearts.

Showing some respect for CS1.5 woofers

One of the most heartbreaking phone calls I (thankfully seldom) have to make goes like this:
"Hi, it's Gary from THIEL. Just calling to let you know we received your parts."

Customer says, " Great, that was fast, what did you find wrong?"

"Well, your drivers were more or less wrecked. I can't tell if they played pin ball or demolition derby on the FedEx truck en route here. The combination of sparse styrofoam peanuts and ill-placed bubble wrap provided little in the way of protection. Oh, and the shoe box you packed everything in fell apart in the rain storm we had yesterday. The only reason they got here to begin with is that you strategically placed a strip of packing tape over our address."

"Oh, so could you tell what was causing them to buzz? Is it under warranty?"

*nearly choking* "Are you kidding??"

Unfortunately, this extreme is far more common than the opposite extreme. Allow me to share an example of the opposite extreme with you. Dear customer Arthur warmed my heart this week by packing his CS1.5s in such a way that made freight damage all but impossible. I was so tickled to receive his package that I almost giggled like a school girl. This man KNOWS how to package his drivers. Pictures are worth 1000 words. Behold:

New Speaker + Refurb special pricing details

If you haven't read the post below, read it first.

If you buy:

• pair of SCS4s, or PowerPlane 1.2s - Get $200 off restoration of your old THIELs
• Pair of CS1.6s, an SS1, or an MCS1 - Get $250 off restoration of your old THIELs
• Pair of CS2.4s, pair of CS2.4SEs, 5 PowerPlane1.2s, or 5 PowerPoint1.2s, - Get $500 off restoration of your classic THIELs
• Pair of CS3.7s - Get $1000 (!) off restoration of your classic THIELs.

Fine print:

• No, if your restoration is cheaper than your discount you don't get the balance back in cash. Thanks for asking
• No, it's not retroactive - this is only for new THIEL purchases going forward...thanks for asking.
• No, we won't restore your JBLs, Advents, QUADs, or other speaker - we don't even know how.

Questions? Call or e-mail Gary!

New THIEL and Restoration Special!

I get calls quite often from folks who own THIEL speakers and are interested in trading them in to us for credit towards new ones. THIEL is not going to introduce that program.

However, we've long thought that it would be nice for us to show some thanks to those who own classic THIELs. So, we're offering you all a special. When you buy new THIELs from your dealer, you can send back your classics for restoration and we'll give you a sweet deal on the price of the restoration.

When THIEL restores speakers, they are treated with all the love and care we've got. We get a little sentimental around here when we see a pair of classic Model 03as come in. It's also a real blast to hook up a pair of freshly restored CS3s or CS3.5s to our big system in our listening room. Next time you're coming into town, bring your classic THIELs, let us restore them, then hook them up to our new Jeff Rowland Continnum 500 or Krell Evolution 600s. You've never heard them sing like this before!

So what would you do with a pair of nicely restored THIELs now that you have a new pair? Your options are many:

• Sell them for much more than you would have received if they were just in OK condition (selling your THIELs breaks Jim's heart!)

• Put them upstairs in the bedroom on a 2nd system (That's what I'd do)

• Give them to your son or daughter to blow up play at college

• Use them as rear or side channels in your newly started surround sound system. (Be selfish!)

• Donate them to your favorite music school (Don't be so selfish!)

Just because you're shelling out for a new pair of THIELs doesn't mean the old ones get kicked to the curb. Do something nice for the classic speakers that made you a THIEL lover! Stay tuned for price break details on the program effective immediately.

Old THIEL SS2 Hits Rock Bottom

We've got an old SS2 here from the "early days" that we keep strapped face down to a cart so that we can have a convenient test cabinet for amplifiers that come back for service. We've rigged it up with clamps to make exchanging amps a breeze, so the whole cart + subwoofer assembly is a convenient test rig for amps.

Jim instructed Rob to run a particular amp HARD - an instruction Rob was too happy to comply with. So he pressed play, let the sub's massive output rattle everything in this bay of the plant and went to lunch. Pleased that he heard the sub still playing when he came back from lunch, Rob walked over to measure the temperature of the amp. Before he got there, "CRASH!....thud thud thud thud"

The SS2 was playing so hard, it shook the very heavy duty straps off the cabinet, the sub hit the floor back first driving the clamps to break the back of the sub. An adjacent edge broke open, and the grille mesh ripped out of the front. After years of service, our SS2 test cab is toast.

Cat Scratch Fever!

I'm a big time animal lover, and I've got a cat who likes to keep warm on my Krell KRC-HR power supply. He doesn't cause any damage to my gear, and I generally get along with him except when he whines in the middle of the night and interrupts my already fragmented sleep. He's a troublemaker, but doesn't destroy stuff.

This guy must have done something really rotten to his cat to deserve this kind of punishment. We got these parts in after shutdown, and man they look rough. We see lots of cat scratch fever around here - I think audiophiles must be cat lovers. But man, this is bad. The customer said the woofers don't look bad at all which leads me to believe that his cat took running leaps at the speakers, landed on the low-mids, and clawed it's way to the top of the cabient shredding the grilles and everything beneath them on the way up. Despite our best efforts at protecting the delicate Scan-Speak tweeters with a tough screen, you can see that it was crushed by penetrating claws of destruction.

We've seen grilles that look worse than these before. Some have come in with actual tears in them. No such thing was found on these grilles probably because the cat got a great grip on the drivers. This poor guy is out more than $1100 bucks getting his speakers fixed. Bad kitty!

To all you cat owners wondering if you should upgrade to CS3.7s: A number of innovations have been developed to deter cat-scratch fever. 1) when the grille is in place, a screen covers the entire coax making it difficult for all but the most aggressive cats to shred the driver. 2) The tweeter is fortified by a rigid guard which provides a 2nd level of protection beyond the aforementioned screen. 3) The cast aluminum top is formed into a shape that makes it very unlikely that your cat will choose it as a perch.