Thiel CS.5 Manuals

TONALITY 75 DYNAMICS 75 RESOLUTION 82 IMAGING 80 TIMING 79 OVERALL 77 Good looking? Oh yeah! It dresses up as nicely as the whole Thiel family in a classy to-die-for wood finish. The CS.5 is not only beautiful to look at, it’s beautiful to listen to! Sure, it won’t go as low (It’s voice hasn’t changed yet), but it’ll go loud! Starting off with Clair MarIo’s Let It Go (Sheffield Lab CD-29) there was a nice sense of “air” to the vocals. Timbral and dynamic shading was so good, the emotion of the music just poured out. Both piano and cello were full and resonant. Detail was good without sounding analytical. When, however, passages became difficult, the highs THE RAMBUNCTIOUS BABY AUGUST 1995 VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8 E x p l o r i n g F r o n t i e r s o f S o u n d TM reprinted with permission from T he floorstanding $1,350 Thiel CS.5 loudspeaker is the littlest Thiel to stand on its own and, just like a lot of baby brothers, it has got an attitude. “Hey! Look at me! I can play too!” And can it ever. Standing nearly as tall as its prodigious sibling—the CS1.5—the CS.5 is a two way design featuring a 6.5 inch woofer and one inch metal tweeter. The Thiel CS.5 Loudspeaker tended toward hardness. Don’t get me wrong, though. It never actually became brittle sounding. It just lost its smoothness. On Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet (Minne- apolis Symphony Orchestra, Skrowaczewski, Mercury CD 432 004-2), the soundstage was wide and nicely layered. The CS.5 produced an excellent soundstage that was limited only by its compressed stage height. The accuracy of tone and timbre allowed easy identification of all instruments in the symphony, even during complex passages. During the “Death of Tybalt,” the brass had just the right amount of bite for the mood, not to mention the instrument. And the midrange Upper bass has a slight emphasis, no low bass. Instrumental timbre is exceptional. THIEL CS.5 LOUDSPEAKER Treble compresses slightly during demanding peaks. Excellent microdynamic resolution brings back the realism of the performance. Tonal resolution is very good indeed! Good detail without harshness. If you want a high quality speaker with a wide listening area, the CS.5 will do it. Excellent image separation and focus. Never wavered. Large “sweet pot” where imaging and accurate tone can be enjoyed by many. Harmonics are so well stacked upon the fundamentals that, in most cases, the deep bass is not missed. Very good rhythm and pace which leads to musical involvement. By Dayna B, The Hi-Fi Hussy

EUROPE’S FIRST HOME THEATER MAGAZINE • AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1999 Loudpeakers of Craftsmanship and Perfection Thiel MCS1 / CS2.3 T he smaller that speaker manufac- turers are, the less often they are able to realize their own ideas and concepts. Especially with drivers, they are largely dependent on standard available units. The same applies vice-versa. Large manufacturers, with their own driver production, often lack the time for innovative technology and involved woodworking. Very high level, depth of production. In this area, Thiel can be counted among the rare excep- tions. The small manu- facturer in the American state of Kentucky performs woodwork- ing according to best tradition of craftsmanship and has also recently been manufacturing all drivers in-house. But that’s not all: physicist and mathematician Jim Thiel’s speakers also exhibit a series of special construction features, from the cabinet, to woofer with metal diaphragm, to complex crossovers. Aside from the “trivial” demand of a linear frequency response, Thiel pays special attention to two other parameters: having low distor- tion and very minimal phase shift to ensure great dynamics and correct spatial information—virtues which are also important in home theaters. Speakers for every purpose. With the MCS1, Thiel has recently introduced a speaker predestined for home theaters. Of course, two MCS1s can also be used magnificently in a two-channel system. Thanks to its flexibility of positioning— it can be used vertically as well as horizontally—nothing stands in the way of its use as a center channel speaker either. For this test, we supplemented one MCS1 with two floor-standing THIEL CS2.3s featuring the same midrange-tweeter, but making a subwoofer unnecessary as the CS2.3 has sufficiently powerful bass. For rear speakers, either two MCS1’s or alterna- tively small floor-standing speakers such as the Thiel CS.5 were used. Reprinted from

MONTHLY MAGAZINE FOR VISION AND SOUND Reprinted with permission from An informed and insightful choice SOUTH AFRICA FEBRUARY ’96, NO 82 the art, due to the diminishing depth presented by the sloped front baffle. The baffle allows the drivers to be positioned for correct time alignment, while the crossover is designed to provide phase-accurate transitions between the drivers. The heavily constructed cabinet uses one inch thick cabinet walls, which are said to reduce unwanted vibrations, and improve both clarity and imaging. The one inch tweeter is a metal dome unit, while the 6.5 inch woofer incorporates a short coil/ long gap motor design, which also utilizes copper, to maintain a stable magnetic field. The CS.5 is said to go down to 55 Hz, with in- room response confirming that the bass response may go even lower. The finish of the speaker is exceptional, with the ultimate in A new level of sonic maturity and finesse is made avialable through the Thiel sound. An elegant and compact floor standing speaker which offers a large voice that is detailed, transparent, and dynamic. The .5 provides a whole lot of sonic value. Not all listeners may appreciate at first the sophistication offered— listen some more. Benefits from correct and careful placement, and fine amplification. FOR AGAINST TESTED WITH Theta Data Basic II CD transport, Theta DS Progeny digital processor, Harman/KardonHD7325 CD player, Copeland CSA 14 and Harman/Kardon HK660 integrated amplifiers, Cardas 300-B, Kimber PSB, Transparent Audio Music link plus interconnects, Kimber Illuminati MkII and Simply Physics digital coaxial links, B&W DM 610i, B&W P5 and Sonus Faber Minima loudspeakers, Transparent Audio The Wave and Siltec FTM-12 Ribbon speaker cables. R C PRICE R9 995 pair [$2800 US] PEAKS A S ONE EXPERIENCES things, it seems kind of automatic that one starts to gain insight. I suppose the coined phrase— “Live and you will learn” sheds some light on my point, but falls short of being completely explanatory. A combination of time, experience, and honest open mindedness goes a long way to providing a level of insight that is simply not always available on demand. My reaction to the CS.5 loudspeaker may have been very different if I had not had the opportunity of spending time with so many various speakers over the past several months—from a variety of entry level boxes to reference trend setters, including the top range Thiel CS5i and the very musical CS7, and of course my own Wilson System V. But I have, and it has enhanced my ability to get to grips with what the Thiel CS.5 is all about. Since 1976, Jim Thiel has been building loudspeakers, with the main intention of making listening to music enjoyable. Today Thiel offers a line-up of seven models, with the CS.5 being their smallest floor- standing speaker. The CS.5 is a two way ported speaker, offering the same styling as the full range CS5i. The styling is classic, with a hint of state of

The THIEL CS.5 offers outstanding sound at an outstanding price. CS.5 Quality construction and materials The CS.5 uses the same quality materials as the more expensive THIEL models—a die-cast magnesium woofer chassis, polypropylene or polystyrene capacitors, and rigid 1-inch thick cabinet walls. Magnetically shielded for video sound systems The CS.5 is magnetically shielded to prevent picture distortion when placed near televisons in video sound systems. It is small enough to be placed as a center or rear channel speaker, high performance enough to be used as the main pair, and beautifully finished to enhance any room. T HE CS.5 IS A TWO-WAY, ported, floor-standing loudspeaker offering high performance in a compact, easy-to- place cabinet and at an entry-level price. Completely time and phase coherent, the CS.5 provides a dimension of clarity and realism that conventional speakers in its price class cannot achieve, making it ideal for both music and video sound. Innovative THIEL design techniques The CS.5 incorporates many of the same design techniques used in other THIEL speakers to achieve our goal of accurate musical reproduction in all areas of performance. The drivers are positioned along a sloping front baffle for correct time alignment, and the crossover is designed to provide phase accurate transitions between the drivers. These two design features alone result in an unusually high level of spatial and transient fidelity for a speaker of this price. A specially shaped grilleboard decreases diffraction for more open sound, and the heavy cabinet construction reduces unwanted vibration to improve clarity and imaging. …this little speaker is as well engineered as its more expensive siblings—another finely cut gem from the House of Thiel. —John Atkinson, Stereophile, Vol. 18, No. 10, October ’95 ” “

Technical Information THIEL Coherent Source ® Loudspeakers This paper describes some of the technical performance aspects, design considerations and features of THIEL Coherent Source® loudspeaker systems. It is intended to supply information for those who are interested in such matters. It is not intended to imply that good measured technical performance is sufficient to guarantee good sonic performance. THIEL • 1026 Nandino Boulevard • Lexington, Kentucky 40511 • USA • Telephone: 859-254-9427 Fax: 859-254-9427 • E-mail: [email protected] • Web: www.thielaudio.com 7/00

THIEL • 1026 Nandino Boulevard • Lexington, Kentucky 40511 • USA Telephone: 859-254-9427 • Fax: 859-254-0075 • E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.thielaudio.com 5/00 Technical Information THIEL CS.5 Coherent Source ® Loudspeaker This paper describes some of the technical performance aspects, design considerations and features of the THIEL model CS.5 loudspeaker system. It is intended to supply information for those who are interested in such matters. It is not intended to imply that good measured technical performance is sufficient to guarantee good sonic performance.