Thiel Audio CS3.7 - Made It Ma! Top of The World! - SOLD

THIEL is one of the most well known and long lived high end speaker companies. Jim Thiel founded Thiel Audio in 1976, building his company’s reputation on speakers that are time and phase coherent. All of THIEL’s full range speakers have followed this recipe, including his masterpiece, the  CS3.7. Where the CS3.7 differs is in its level of execution. The CS3.7 when new, was almost double the price of the older CS3.6 model, and approaches or exceeds the price points of the larger CS5 and CS7 speakers of the past. While the speaker follows the same recipe as past THIEL models, it is reinvented in almost every way. For some, the increased price was a big disappointment. Audiophiles who thought they could perhaps afford the CS3.7 but then had to realize they couldn’t. The CS3.7 is/was worth every cent, and is a strong contender versus pretty much any full-range speaker in the under-$20k price category. We feel the same way 15yrs later.

The Design

The CS3.7 follows many of the same design philosophies as THIEL’s earlier speakers. The main premise of the design is that the multi-driver speaker must be both phase and time coherent. This means that the crossovers must introduce a minimum amount of phase shift between the driver signals, and also not introduce any time misalignment that would effect impulse response.

Crossovers typically produce both a phase shift between drivers, and cause time misalignment as well. THIEL uses rather complex first order crossovers that are phase coherent. When combined with the sloped front baffle, the speakers are also time coherent. In addition, the crossovers are tuned to accurately correct all the response irregularities of the driver in the cabinet. The result is a design with exceptional frequency, phase and time response, at the cost of very complex crossover networks.

The heart of the CS3.7 is the THIEL-designed and custom made coaxial midrange and tweeter driver. Very few companies design and manufacture their own drivers. This driver alone is likely responsible for a large portion of the increased cost of the CS3.7 over previous models. It’s also like nothing the audio press had ever seen before. The idea of coaxially mounting a tweeter inside the midrange to make a point source wideband driver is nothing new. What THIEL has done here is re-examine how to build the midrange part of this combination. The results are extraordinary!

There's no escaping the way we feel about Thiel speakers. Every shop employer has or has had a set of Thiel CS something or other. Each model has the same sonic characteristics but with a slightly different presentation however, they are all each in their own way totally Thiel!

This set of CS3.7 has some sun bleaching. The prior owner had them delivered and positioned in 2009 and they were never moved an inch in 14yrs until we went to pick them up. They are however blemish free and operationally magnificent. Playing now with a big Parasound Halo stack but, they are breathtaking with our big Octave, V70 Class A integrated. 

This is a set of speakers that one really needs to experience to fully appreciate and know we have the price set significantly below market due to the sun fading. If that weren't the case, they'd be closer to $7K vs the $5500 HHA is asking. There is no better speaker available under $10K - we can emphatically state thate claim.

Thiel, CS 3.7 floorstanding speakers: $5500 plus sales tax when applicable

*Obviously reach out to us on shipping before you hit the buy now button