Vegas 2012

[James Tanner - Bryston]

UHF Magazine:

Jan. 13, 2012: THIEL AFTER JIM THIEL

It was a shock, over two years ago, when Jim Thiel died of cancer at a shockingly young age, but he left behind a lot of designs. Based on his legacy, Thiel has developed the CS1.7. Likely to sell around $5500 the pair, it still needs some tweaking of its crossover (and Thiel crossovers are not simple devices).

The shape makes it obvious that it's a Thiel. The aluminum "pie plate" driver is familiar too. Like all recent Thiel speakers, it uses drivers with short voice coils in deep magnetic fields.

Somehow Thiel and its show partner, Bryston, manage to make the horrible ballrooms sound good. The CS1.7's were driven by two channels of a Bryston 6B multichannel amp. The source was of course Bryston's own DAC and digital player. The result was excellent, and congratulations are due all around.

[James Tanner - Bryston]

Thiel’s CS1.7 and Bryston Electronics

By Robert Deutsch STEREOPHILE MAGAZINE• Posted: Jan 20, 2012

My experience with the Thiel CS1.7 at CES is a story in three parts.

Part I: Maybe. On the first day that I was at CES, which was the day before the Press Day, I visited the Thiel room while they were still setting up. I saw a prototype of the CS1.7, and asked if they were going to do a demo of these speakers. "We haven't decided yet. We're not sure if the crossover is finalized. But if the speaker sounds as good here as it did at the factory, we'll demonstrate it." Fair enough. I took some pictures and promised to return.

Part II: No. I visited Thiel again on the first day of the show (after the Press Day). The demo room did not have the CS1.7. "We've decided not to demo the speaker." That seemed to be the end of the story. I was disappointed but not entirely surprised; Thiel is known for having a long gestation period for their speakers, forever tweaking various aspects before coming up with a final version, and apparently this has not changed with the death of Jim Thiel. But that was not the end of story.

Part III: Yes. On the day before the last day of the show, I received an email from Gary Dayton of Thiel. The subject read "Come and hear the CS1.7s today at CES (tomorrow too)." So I visited Thiel for the third time. I asked Gary Drayton what led to the change of mind. Did they further tweak the crossover? "No, we just convinced Kathy [Gornik, president of Thiel Audio] that the speakers sounded good enough to demo." That was the right decision! The CS1.7s were demoed by James Tanner of Bryston, whose electronics and digital source were used in the demo system, and they sounded terrific. The soundstage, in particular, had a three-dimensionality that was just about the best that I encountered at this year's CES. The exact price hasn't been determined yet, but it's an estimated $5500/pair

[James Tanner - Bryston]

Nice comments regarding SP-3 from AIX Records

CES 2012 Presenting in the Thiel/Bryston Room

James

[James Tanner - Bryston]

From: Barry
Sent: January-25-12 10:54 AM
To: James Tanner
Subject: Re: Bryston SP3 - Nice feedback from a professional recording engineer

I would have to suggest that AIX is the best and most concerned record company and recording facility, period. They practice what others only preach and dream about. Their exemplary attention to detail, correct use of technology and correct binaural recordings are examples for everyone else to learn from.

While most other companies use a multitude of close-miked mono sources, panned in a stereo field with some fake added 'reverb', AIX correctly preserves both the dimensional space and dynamic range as faithfully as the technology will allow.

For a techniclly concerned company like that to praise and enjoy your electronics is a double kudos.

Regards
Barry

[James Tanner - Bryston]

Hi Folks:

Looks like the Magnepan/Bryston demo won a Gold Show Award at this years CES show in Vegas for BEST SOUND!

The Show 2012 LV

james