remain an ardent fan of Jim Thiel’s
sonic design values (“just the facts,
ma’am”) as well as his devotion to
quality of both cabinets and compo-
nents. The Thiel pedigree is
deservedly among the most exalted
in Highendom. But know also that
mine is neither a blind nor deaf alle-
giance. For example, I’m not overly
fond of the appearance of some of
the 1.6’s more mesomorphic sib-
lings and, although excellent
in its day, the CS 3.5s were
to my ears never as tight and
fast on the bottom as the top,
thereby inducing a slight per-
ceptual discontinuity across
the frequency spectrum.
Happily, neither of these
concerns, and precious few
others, apply to the Thiel CS
1.6 speakers.
The CS designation stands for
“coherent source” and refers to
Thiel’s techniques for eliminating
the signal phase and arrival-time
distortions that can reduce sonic
clarity and transparency as well as
impair imaging and soundstaging.
As in other Thiel models, achieve-
ment of phase coherence starts with
the implementation of a complex,
expensive first-order crossover net-
work in combination with wide-
bandwidth drivers. It may not be
intuitively obvious to the non-engi-
neer, but when speaker designers
are working at getting the arrival
times of the two drivers’ signals to
match up, they have to make the
voice coils of the two speaker dri-
vers be the same distance from the
listener, rather than making the front
part of the speaker, the cones, be
the same distance away. Thus, to
listeners seated at “listening room
depth,” say at least eight feet from
the speakers, the front of the tweeter
is positioned further from the listen-
er than the front of the woofer, but
this is proper to coherently launch
the vital image information from the
two different speaker drivers.
The resulting sloped front surface
creates the dominant visual impres-
sion of all Thiel CS speakers. On the
1.6, the grill is neatly recessed into
the center of the massive, two-inch
thick front baffle, providing a flat
surface which transitions into grace-
fully rounded edges at the top and
sides. Attractive, heavy-duty “stabi-
lizer feet” are provided, and an
optional “outrigger” extension base
is available. This latter device is, I
suppose, for households with ram-
bunctious children or animals, but
on our pile carpet I noted no insta-
bility with or without the feet
installed. I’ve recently found that
with some lightweight floor-stand-
ing speakers, including the 1.6s, the
supplied feet didn’t enable coupling
with the subflooring through our
carpet and pad. Happily, with the
CS 1.6 I could discern no dire sonic
consequences of failing to implant
the feet into plywood.
The five-way binding posts are
substantial, with provision made for
tightening by wrench as well as
hand, although astute TAV readers
— a redundancy, no? — will surely
forgo the latter in favor of a half-
inch nut driver to assure solid con-
nections. Even though I’m sure it
was physics rather than aesthetics
that took precedence in Thiel’s
design decisions, I find the style and
proportions of the 1.6 to be posi-
tively artful in their implementation.
I don’t know the point at which
TAV’s Decor Score tops out, but to
my eye the CS 1.6 pins the meter,
and one common source of audio-
phile domestic strife is thereby
effectively eliminated.
On the inside, the CS 1.6 reflects
Jim Thiel’s “never rest on your lau-
rels” design philosophy, directed
this time towards improvements in
upper midrange performance. Both
drivers are new, with all-metal
diaphragms and “short coil
in a long gap” motor sys-
tems. The tweeter is a high-
efficiency, high output 1-
inch dome, while the woofer
is a 6.5-inch unit with a
remarkably large three-inch
diameter voice coil. This
unusual feature not only dis-
tributes the driving force
over a substantially greater area but
also reduces the distance between
the driving surface and the edge of
the cone, yielding an especially stiff
diaphragm. It also enables the mag-
net structure to fit inside, thereby
providing the shielding required for
use in a home video system.
TAV readers will undoubtedly
have taken note of Thiel’s ads that
display a large vertical slot in the
lower half of the front baffle of the
CS 1.6. Resembling an over-sized
coin slot (“Put another nickel in
...”), it is actually an innovation that
reduces resistance to the air driven
out of the cabinet by the back wave
of the woofer and lowers the chuff-
ing sometimes associated with tradi-
tional port geometries. There’s no
provision made for plugging the 20-
inch slot/port, so do-it-yourself port-
stuffing (a questionable practice,
methinks) will require a pair of
knee-highs to accomplish the mis-
sion. As is the result with most port-
ed designs, the overall efficiency of
the loudspeaker is increased some-
what and the low-end bass response
extended.
the audiophile voice
Within reason, it’s difficult
for me to conceive of a
better balanced or more
musical presentation.
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