THIEL Audio Celebrates 25 Years Of High-Performance Loudspeakers

13-Nov-02

THIEL Audio is celebrating its 25th year of designing, manufacturing, and marketing high-performance loudspeakers for home audio and home theatre. The company goes back to the very small beginnings in designer and co-owner Jim Thiel's garage, in the summer of 1977, with the first THIEL speaker, the model 01. THIEL now markets a product line of 13 loudspeaker models for home audio, home theatre, and custom installation applications. THIEL loudspeakers are designed and built in a 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Lexington, Kentucky with over 35 employees.Recent products include THIEL's surface-mount PowerPointÆ and the SW1 subwoofer featuring patent-pending SmartSubô technology for optimized integration with the main speakers. The SW1 subwoofer was awarded the 2002 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award, THIEL's 18th Innovations honor. In addition, THIEL has also received over 14 ""Speaker"" or ""Product Of The Year"" awards from around the world.Jim Thiel's belief that dynamic type loudspeakers have no serious inherent limitations led him to a career of improving dynamic speaker performance. His early design work helped pioneer the principles of time and phase coherence in loudspeakers by the use of time-aligned drivers and phase-correct crossover networks. These principles contributed to the development and recognition of modern imaging performance. Jim Thiel's designs have incorporated reduced cabinet diffraction with the use of rounded baffles, lowered driver distortion with innovative motor structures, achieved more accurate frequency response with stiffer and specially shaped diaphragms, and reduced unwanted enclosure resonances with heavy cabinet bracing and through the use of cabinets materials such as concrete and marble. Kathy Gornik, company co-owner and President, is also involved in promoting THIEL and high-end audio in general through leadership in several industry organizations. Kathy is on the Board of Governors of the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) and is also Vice Chairman of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the EIA's largest member. She is also a past chairperson of CEA's Audio Division as well as the Specialty Audio Subdivision, a CEA group she helped create. Kathy was honored as a 1993 Kentucky/Southern Indiana Region ""Entrepreneur Of The Year"" by Inc. magazine.In these past 25 years, THIEL has evolved from table saws, hand planes, and the outsourcing of drivers into manufacturing with high-precision CNC (Computer Numeric Controlled) machining centers, in-house driver design and building, anechoic chamber measurement, and computer modeling--but still with a great deal of hands-on human involvement every step of the way. Today, THIEL continues the pursuit of sonic perfection through advanced technology and construction techniques. The primary focus of each area of the company--research and development, acoustical and construction engineering, and marketing and sales--is to ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction possible and the greatest enjoyment possible of the home sound experience.For more information about THIEL, visit www.thielaudio.com.

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