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We began with our human voice test,
on which the Thiel did well. The lows
were not boomy or chesty, but they had
satisfactory resonance. “The bass isn’t
constipated anymore,” said Gerard. Our
voices were startlingly natural. Perhaps
you can fool us on the exact way a bassoon
or a bottleneck guitar should sound,
but not with the sound of our own voices
reading short poems. We really did seem
to be there, perfect clones of ourselves.
With the two musical selections,
the tonal balance was finally just right.
Those troublesome strings in the
Beethoven sounded like those of a real
symphony orchestra. “Here’s proof that
this is a much better recording than we
had supposed,” said Gerard. The Jennifer
Warnes song was very good, her
voice expressive and rhythmic. All was
in its place. Albert alone hesitated, still
haunted by the sound of the JMLab.
And now into the Kappa room, to see
what this large Thiel could do with our
three movie selections.
We listened with great interest to the
CROSSTALK
pink noise bursts as the Moon Attraction
set itself up. The Thiel’s character wasn’t
identical to that of our other speakers,
but it was close. We guessed that on
actual program material the MCS1
would have little difficulty blending in.
We were right. The Amadeus segment
was breathtaking. “I thought it sounded
perfect before!” exclaimed Reine, “but
this…you know in the first seconds that
it’s going to be great.” Albert used almost
the same words. “This is the first time
I’ve been able to hear the decay of each
One day, in the not too distant future,
audiophiles will wonder how we managed
to enjoy movies back then and yet missed so
much of their inherent audio quality. (We
do acknowledge today how little audiophiles
actually heard, in the 60’s, from their best
LPs.)
Sound is absolutely essential to the
enjoyment of movies — images show you
what is happening from a distance, but great
sound brings you right where it is happening.
I remember, many years ago, driving
long hours, listening to classic movies I had
recorded on cassettes. The trip seemed to
take mere minutes while I was taken through
Casablanca or A Night at The Opera.
Central speakers are for voice, of course,
but also for details, those wonderful tokens
of reality that complete the illusion, that
carry you right where the images were captured.
You can hear what the actors heard or
what the director wanted you to believe the
characters heard, and when the magic works
you find yourself right there. Live.
Magic worked very often with the wonderful
ProAc and the superb JMLab, but
only the Thiel created magic all the time, in
every scene, and with an unmatched ability
to reveal real space and even silence.
That’s the sign of things to come in that
not too distant future.
—Albert Simon
The voice test was so revealing that I
wasn’t surprised when it turned out to be
an excellent predictor of how each speaker
would perform on an actual movie. Three
of the six are exceptional. With any of those
three, watching a film is not a waste of time
or a mere pastime, but an opportunity to
leave behind everyday worries in favor of
spending enchanting hours in the comfort
of your home. Savings on gasoline, theatre
tickets and perhaps baby sitters help pay for
a true high end home theatre system.
So let me talk about those three. The
ProAc surprised me. Our voices were natural,
and music emerged with lots of impact,
a satisfactory bottom end and a remarkable
balance, though with a slightly sharp top end.
When we put it into the movie system, voices
remained very natural, with clear words and
an excellent reproduction of the choir. I was
surprised even by the fine details of ambient
sounds. This is a speaker that deserves serious
consideration.
Our voices seemed natural with the
JMLab as well, and music was reproduced
with all of the usual audiophile virtues. But
with films I heard even more detail, and I was
astonished by the depth of image. Ambient
sounds, right down to the rubbing of feet
on floors added to my pleasure, as did the
reactions of crowds, and their applause. This
speaker helped draw me into the film. This
is a terrific speaker.
The Thiel more than delighted me
from the start. On both voice and music,
it was even clearer, with even more subtle
detail. Sounds are well separated, rhythm is
flawless, strings and brass shine but without
shrillness, the human voice is exquisite in its
modulations, the string bass is solid, percussion
is at once substantial and detailed…in
short, lyricism and emotion are present and
accounted for, and nothing gets hidden.
But it is before the screen that it showed
off the qualities indispensable to making a
Third in number, not in quality
Bïa (pronounced Bee-yah) was born in Brazil, lives in France, records in
Canada. She’s the sort of singer whose records sell on first hearing. This is her
third recording (after Sources and La mémoire du vent). Our recommendation?
Buy any one of them…after which we’re sure you’ll order the other two.
film truly involving. It finally demonstrated
what I had always maintained: for a film to
be truly satisfying, a great picture is not
enough. It must have the support of impeccable
sound. The Thiel can satisfy the most
demanding videophile.
—Reine Lessard
I think I went into this dizzying test
series underestimating the importance of
the central speaker. For instance, I was
convinced that the Totem would be adequate
even for our (increasingly) expensive Kappa
system. After all, I know how good the other
Model Ones sound, so why not…?
And it turned out to be reasonably good,
a logical choice for the Model Ones if you
choose to use them as your main speakers
(an interesting idea by the way). Our system
needs more.
Since four of the six speakers were
broken in by use in our Kappa system, I got
a considerable advance listen to them. For
quite a while I was convinced the JMLab
was going to be our final choice. Indeed, if
it had matched our main speakers better, it
well might have been. Then I fell in love with
the ProAc. I wish it were better looking, but
oh what a speaker!
That said, I have to stress that I agreed
with my colleagues that the Thiel was the
one to get. I was ready to reject it, because it
was so large and heavy that we would probably
have to leave it parked on the floor,
attached to that ill-conceived stand. When I
discovered that our in-house platform would
let us place even this large speaker on top of
the TV, the choice was an easy one.
—Gerard Rejskind
40 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine