Thiel PowerPoint 1.2 Product Support Bulletin

R e p r i n t e d f r o m
T H E M A G A Z I N E O F H I G H P E R F O R M A N C E H O M E T H E A T E R
Thiel Audio Power Point
The Perfect Home-Theater Speaker?
he $1,300 Thiel Power Point sur-
T
round speaker is the single most
extraordinary—the best—home-the-
ater product I have encountered. It is,
for lack of a more moderate term,
awesome. But I didn't always think so.
Over two years ago, my friend Dick
Diamond, then owner of Audio Design in
Salt Lake City, showed me a mock-up of
the Power Point that Jim Thiel had sent
out in search of feedback. My feedback?
"Has Jim lost his mind?" It was, um,
unusual looking (see the picture) and con-
trary to conventional wisdom, it was a
point-source design, not a dipolar design
in accordance with THX's specification
for home-theater surround speakers. What
on earth was Thiel thinking?
The problem with visionaries is that
they see what the rest of us cannot see
until much later. Jim Thiel is a visionary.
I next saw, and first heard, the Power
Point at the 2000 Consumer Electronics
Show. It was a part of the most extraordi-
nary sound I heard at the show (see CES
Report, www.theperfectvision.com). What
I couldn't tell was how much credit the
Power Point deserved in that system. I
know the answer now.
It's a Bird, It's a Plane...
To understand why the Power Point is so
exceptional, start by looking up. What do
you see? The ceiling. There are always
AUDIO REVIEW
exceptions, but the ceiling is the
most universal surface in home
theaters—it is the common
denominator. As are the floor
and walls.
Audiophiles, however, have
long known that speakers
sound much better away from
the room's boundaries. Most
home-theater owners don't cot-
ton to the idea of speakers tak-
ing up precious floor space;
they want those speakers hid-
den in the wall. Therein lies the
relevant conundrum: How do
you extract high performance
from a set of speakers incon-
spicuously located
room's boundaries?
Enter the Thiel Power Point.
This is not an in-wall design
(Thiel does offer the $1,000
Power Plane in-wall design). It is an on-
wall design of unusual configuration. It is
this configuration that enables the speak-
er's exceptional performance. Indeed, it is
so unusual that Thiel is seeking a utility
patent on the design.
Let's start with the punch line. The
Thiel Power Point provides nearly unbe-
lievable performance because of its
remarkable time and phase coherence
combined with the clever way it finesses
the problems of room reflections and
room coverage. First stop: the Thiel-
designed (and manufactured) coaxial-con-
Tom Miiller
at the
figured woofer/tweeter drivers in the
Power Point. The high-output one-inch
aluminum-dome tweeter, originally devel-
oped for Thiel's flagship $13,500 CS7.2
loudspeaker, sits in the center of a shallow
aluminum 6.5-inch woofer designed espe-
cially for the Power Point. The benefit of
the configuration is that the arrival time of
the sounds from the tweeter and woofer
are identical regardless of where the Power
Point is located. The shallow flare of the
woofer minimizes early reflections of the
tweeter's output that would smear the
sound. Phase coherence is preserved by
November / December 2000
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Reprinted by permission from Absolute
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Any unauthorized duplication of this
article is strictly prohibited.
Issue 33
November/December 2000
The Perfect Vision reprint
1