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THIEL Audio
Company typeHigh performance audio equipment manufacturer
IndustryAudio
Founded1977
FounderJim Thiel, Tom Thiel, Kathy Gornik
Defunct2018
HeadquartersNashville, Tennessee
Key people
Jim Thiel; Kathy Gornik David B. Griffin Chairman of the Board until bankruptcy
ProductsAudio electronics
Websitethielaudio.com

THIEL Audio was an American privately held high performance loudspeaker (hi-end audio) manufacturer founded in Lexington, Kentucky, but now based in Nashville, Tennessee. Thiel Audio products are distributed to over 30 countries. All products by the founders were designed and built in their 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) facility located in Lexington. Thiel ceased operations in 2018.[1]


History

THIEL Audio was formed by three college friends: Jim Thiel, Tom Thiel, and Kathy Gornik, who started in 1976 with equipment in the Thiels' garage on Georgetown Road in Lexington.[2][3] THIEL Audio was formed with $25,000 borrowed from the partners' parents and some friends. Jim Thiel graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1968, majoring in physics. THIEL Audio first exhibited at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1977 (the year the company is commonly stated as being founded, although they had been selling since 1976[4]), with the introduction of the 01 full-range speaker. A year later, in 1978, the model 03 introduced the principles of time, phase, and frequency coherence, which would become the basis for all of Jim Thiel's designs and the fundamental idea for which Thiel would be known.[5]

A skilled woodworker, Tom Thiel built the speaker boxes. Their first hi-fi product was a two-way speaker with an equalizer to give it high-quality bass response. Jim Thiel soon realized that he would need someone to do the sales part of the business, so Gornik sought to sell them in her city, Washington, D.C.

Over the life of the company, Thiel had a number of long-lived series including the CS 2 which was first introduced in 1982 and updated through 2012 with the introduction of the CS 2.7.

In March 2006, THIEL unveiled the culmination of the CS 3 series, the THIEL CS 3.7, a high performance speaker in the Middle East, at an event hosted by Emirates Computers, one of Dubai's leading technology companies.

In 2007, THIEL Audio announced that it would offer its high performance line of loudspeakers in Crutchfield retail stores, the Crutchfield site, and through their catalogs. At the time, the primary lineup that THIEL was to offer through Crutchfield was priced from about $990 to $5,450. Thiel's products in general ranged from about $990 to $6,450.

Jim Thiel died of cancer on September 17, 2009.[6]

In 2012, THIEL Audio was sold to a private equity company in Nashville, and later that year, Gornik was replaced as president of the company. Since the purchase, THIEL had five CEOs in five years, and discontinued all of Jim Thiel's original designs. The company reintroduced themselves as a high-end lifestyle brand, focused on surround sound systems based on more traditional engineering. The new company's speakers did not follow Jim Thiel's time/phase coherency premise, however they continued to use the custom-designed drivers.

Former president of THIEL Audio Kathy Gornik was also the chairwoman of the Consumer Electronics Association.

In 2016 THIEL underwent another leadership change in which THIEL launched their Entertainment Division in Jan 2016 and the birth of AURORA Nashville the nations first Live 4K Concert Streaming Studio experience and viewing platform in May 2016. The Studio opened to much acclaim in Nashville in 2016 and was the set for AURORA Live, WMOT, MTSU and many other performances. The studio provided live streaming and production services to clients (music labels and artists) both on platform and off platform allowing their clients to instantly play in the streaming arena. AURORA was a significant play in downtown Nashville drawing max capacity crowds, celebrity appearances, and media for nearly every engagement.

At CES2017, THIEL returned to the main show floor and unveiled their 40th Anniversary line up, a custom finish build to order ultra high performance loudspeaker systems 40.1, 40.2, and 40.3. The 40th Anniversary Series was the first in a series of planned steps to bring THIEL back to its roots as an American built loudspeaker assembled in Nashville.

In addition, THIEL announced the arrival of the AURORA LifeStream connected speaker systems (HOME, TOUR, and STUDIO) to be sold by AURORA with custom designs for artists performing at the VIP studio in Nashville. The wireless speaker systems offered customizable elements of the design, multiple wireless protocols (DTS Play-fi, Bluetooth w/aptX, and Apple AirPlay) for expanded interoperability, Amazon Alexa voice compatibility. The result of the 9 month engineering effort won CES 2017 Best of Show awards in the Connected Home Products Category.

This appeared to be the rebirth of THIEL under new leadership and engineering that was in tune with the marketplace and understood where technology was headed in the near future. The new direction for the brand, Design and Technology that Connects was a reshaping of the company direction to pay homage to the legendary designs and push forward with technologies that would move the company into connected products. Leadership spoke at length at CES 2017 about "Connections" and that it was more than a wireless tilt on the future, rather a focus on how consumers view products that impact their daily lives. For some consumers that connection call for a high performance listening experience, for others it means having a product that complements the décor of the room in which it lives. these are not trivial motives for the consumer and THIEL delivered some stunning examples in their booth in Central hall at CES 2017.

In the back half of 2017, THIEL went through yet another change in leadership which stripped the company of much of the talent and expertise and once again raises questions. AURORA Nashville has been renamed under the THIEL brand and most streaming operations seem to have come to a halt. THIEL announced the space that housed AURORA Nashville is now a product showroom that is in operation a few days a week. The LifeStream products are now being sold as AURORA by THIEL which added to the confusion to yet another new direction.

Interviews with the new CEO have been a bit confusing where some indicate new product development is still robust under the expert leadership of Dennis Crosson who has been with the company for a few years, yet others have stated the CEO has told press that they are not building any new products. THIEL Audio dealers, buying groups, and global distribution partners seem to have been ignored by the latest leadership group, in favour of their direct to consumer efforts on their own website. This behaviour erased the efforts to bring dealers back in to fold and once again fuelled the negative response by the marketplace as relationships were simply tossed aside.

It was clear the last round of leadership lacked the industry experience necessary to bring the company forward. They were set up for success with products that were in step with the market (and ahead of it LifeStream STUDIO which other brands are now following), profitable for both resellers and THIEL, yet the decisions made seemed more driven by the desire to be seen as elite. Ultimately the lack of market focus and poor execution lead to the closing of the company.

In late 2017, amid rumours of the company's impending demise, long time THIEL Service manager Rob Gillum purchased the service operation from Thiel Audio. Plans to offer services to maintain legacy Thiel speakers He has stated his intention of providing repairs and warranty work to owners of "legacy" Thiel speakers, meaning those designed by Jim Thiel and sold before the company change in 2012.

On January 31, 2018, the company closed.[1] On October 24 of that year, they declared bankruptcy.[7]

Awards

THIEL Audio won many awards, including the International Consumer Electronics Show Innovations Design and Engineering Award, for which THIEL had been honored 22 times, and the Image Hi-Fi speaker of the millennium award in 2000. THIEL also won BizRate's coveted "Circle of Excellence" award seven times. Most recently their LifeStream wireless speaker won the 2017 CES Best of Show award in the Connected Home product category.

References

  1. ^ a b Nashville Business Journal
  2. ^ John E. Kleber. The Kentucky Encyclopedia. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 878–. ISBN 0-8131-2883-8.
  3. ^ The Absolute Sound. 168-72. Absolute Sound, Limited. 2007. pp. 18–.
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ [2]
  6. ^ Jim Thiel
  7. ^ [3]

https://www.strata-gee.com/management-turnstile-turns-thiel-audio/

https://www.strata-gee.com/strata-gee-interviews-elyse-mckenna-thiel-newest-ceo/

https://www.strata-gee.com/ta-ta-thiel/

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