Thiel Out of “Funding”

[dallasjustice]

I guess you are out of business these days when your “funding” dries up.
https://www.strata-gee.com/thiel-toast/

 

[Cosmik]

Thiel developed the theory, based on Jim’s research, that phase coherence and time coherence were the most critical elements in sound reproduction

Some interesting comments after the article:

a shame that Thiel wasn’t allowed to follow the course set by Jim after his passing…
today’s tech (DSP, etc.) would’ve allowed Jim’s designs to achieve the design goals he championed, to a far greater degree than he’d been able to do when alive…

• 
  Joe on January 18, 2018 at 11:04 pm said:
  This is how I feel about it. I think he was really on to something with his overall design philosophy but it was really hard to do what he wanted to do with passive speakers.

But then Joe says:

I wish they’d keep the coax and put it in smaller, dsp, active speakers similar to what kef has done with the wireless LS50. Keep them first order, phase correct but do that via dsp rather than with big, complex, passive crossovers.

I think the bit in bold may be missing one of the main points of DSP: as along as you can tolerate the latency of FIR, DSP allows you to keep the time and phase coherency with any order of filter you like - considerably opening up the design options and easing the strain on the drivers.

Ultimately, though, the 'point' of the company disappears once DSP comes along and any idiot (e.g. me) can achieve time and phase coherency with any old drivers in any box..?

 

[dallasjustice]

bold may be missing one of the main points of DSP: as along as you can tolerate the latency of FIR, DSP allows you to keep the time and phase coherency with any order of filter you like - considerably opening up the design options and easing the strain on the drivers.

You should know by now the “first order” crossover has nothing to do with -6db per octave to the faithful audiophile. It is simply the purest way to do crossovers. Ridiculous, I know, but true.

I do agree that the Thiel name would have been better suited to digitally active speakers with excellent step response.

 

[RayDunzl]

Wow...

https://www.thielaudio.com/

 

[dallasjustice]

https://shop.thielaudio.com/

 

[amirm]

Ah, I had not heard. Speaker business is tough business. They had a very strong brand which makes it doubly strange that they tried to create the Aurora brand.

 

[DonH56]

You can't toss out the product line you built your rep on, go through five CEO changes in five years, and try to break into a crowded mass-market'ish wireless speaker arena and expect good things IMO...

 

[Blumlein 88]

You can't toss out the product line you built your rep on, go through five CEO changes in five years, and try to break into a crowded mass-market'ish wireless speaker arena and expect good things IMO...

Yeah this.

When I saw what Thiel was doing after Jim Thiel's passing there was little doubt what the result would be. A shame, but I don't know who thought the direction Thiel went was a good idea. Basically Jim Thiel's passion and focus for high performance speakers died with him.

Now for each and every CEO in that fiasco a pox on their houses. It is sickening to hear how each and everyone of them was PROUD of the work they did, and had Thiel headed in the RIGHT direction. When it was obvious it was headed straight into the toilet, and they were trying to dredge value out of the name and rep faster than consumers could catch on. It is an old story, and rarely do such people doing anything other than ruin companies. It doesn't set well with me that such people invariably get paid handsomely while they destroy an organization.

 

[WHO23]

Found a rant by Louis Rossman on Thiel Audio:

 

[FrantzM]

Asking an honest question : how good were Thiel designs objectively?
I remember that insistence on first order crossover but they did have some interesting ideas such as their coaxial midrange+ tweeter ...

 

[norcalscott]

Interesting that their web site is still up. I know hosting is relatively cheap these days but seems odd for it to be frozen in time is 2018 like that.

 

[valerianf]

The last CEO Elyse McKenna professional background was ticketing!!!!