Conventional wisdom says that a stereo or surround sound system is only as good as its speakers. That's why speaker designers often become celebrities in the world of high-end audio. One such celeb is Jim Thiel, who's been designing speakers for the company he co-founded for 30 years now. He calls his latest high-end creation the CS3.7 and it stands 45-inches tall, 12.5-inches wide, and 21-inches deep, looking more like a sleek piece of modern sculpture when compared to the bland boxes taking up space in Best Buy.
Mr. Thiel's gone to great lengths to suppress unwanted vibrations in the CS3.7. The top dome is made of a single piece of thick aluminum, as is the black front baffle, which holds the speaker's four drivers. The curved side panels comprise 15 layers of hardwood laminated together with rounded edges at the front to fight diffraction-- after all, we wouldn't want to disturb your audio's natural wave emissions. Looking at the speaker without its grill, you'll probably notice the strange looking, wavy fronts of the drivers. This nifty design lets Thiel keep the drivers flatter, to combat diffraction caused by traditional cone shaped woofers. Also, since the front baffle is angled slightly upward, the distance from the various drivers to your ears is more uniform. This is further enhanced by the coaxial design of the midrange and tweeter; the tweeter is mounted in the center of the midrange driver.
Mr. Thiel's gone to great lengths to suppress unwanted vibrations in the CS3.7. The top dome is made of a single piece of thick aluminum, as is the black front baffle, which holds the speaker's four drivers. The curved side panels comprise 15 layers of hardwood laminated together with rounded edges at the front to fight diffraction-- after all, we wouldn't want to disturb your audio's natural wave emissions. Looking at the speaker without its grill, you'll probably notice the strange looking, wavy fronts of the drivers. This nifty design lets Thiel keep the drivers flatter, to combat diffraction caused by traditional cone shaped woofers. Also, since the front baffle is angled slightly upward, the distance from the various drivers to your ears is more uniform. This is further enhanced by the coaxial design of the midrange and tweeter; the tweeter is mounted in the center of the midrange driver.