Le Petit THIEL
Our smallest ever pair floorstanding speakers remain an astonishing testament to sound quality and musicality.
Discreet sound and subtle style, these small THIELs are a joy to play.
Sounds so much larger than their size
By the time the CS.5 was introduced in 1994, its larger sibling, the CS1.5 was a year old and THIEL was well established in the audiophile pantheon. Besides obvious notoriety for producing time and phase coherent loudspeakers, THIEL sound quality was improving rapidly due to innovations in cabinet build quality, crossover component quality, short coil / long gap drivers, sculpted limited diffraction baffles, and more.
Each of these features was driving up the prices and justifiably so! Reviews and customer satisfaction were extremely high. Even still, THIEL wished to answer the call for a less expensive more accessible model.
This was no small challenge because reducing cost certainly meant sacrificing quality somewhere. So began a study of how to cut quantity, not quality. Ultimately, CS.5 would result in a slightly smaller cabinet than the CS1.5 using a ported bass reflex system instead of a passive radiator, a damped paper cone woofer instead of aluminum and no polystyrene bypass capacitors. Yet the model featured the same neutral tonality, exquisite time and phase coherennce, and enjoyment as our other models. Original retail was $1495 per pair.
I purchased these on an unrelated driving trip last year mostly because the price was right and I had a soft spot for the model. I didn’t realize they would be in such good condition.
The cabinets are finished in walnut with a subtle stain. Speakers of this age inevitably collect nicks, dings and scratches, but these were in remarkably good condition. I elected to lightly sand and top-coat with matte lacquer rather than fully sand and refinish the walnut. Because they didn’t receive a full refinish, there are a few small scratches (visible in pictures). I also refinished the black baffles and stretched new fabric over the grilles.
The original binding posts are also in excellent condition with no slop (a sign of over tightening).
The woofers and tweeters, and crossovers measured well, but I have installed all new drivers nevertheless.
CS.5 is an excellent choice for those wanting a small stereo with superb sound, and this beautiful walnut pair will fit in anywhere.
Contact us to purchase.
