The long sad saga of Thiel is just about over for good. Having entered bankruptcy in October 2018, an auction house has finally been selected and started the process of liquidating all that remains of the former Nashville, Tenn-based Thiel…including Thiel Loudspeakers, Aurora by Thiel wireless music systems, and detritus from the Aurora Studio live streaming music studio.
Hot deal – cold brand: The Thiel liquidation…
It is, to say the least, an ignominious end to a once revered and to many a glorious high-end line of loudspeakers. But with a changing market, the death of one of the founders and leading engineer, the sale of the company to private equity…coupled with revolving multiple management teams…the brand seems to have landed with a thud, teetering on the edge of the trash heap of history.
McLemore Auction Company is auctioning off all that remains of the company including: office supplies, studio equipment, musically-themed furnishings & decorations…AND speakers – lots and lots of speakers. In Aurora speakers alone, there are more than a 1,000 pair available (1,100 to be exact.)
Not Just Aurora, Lots of Thiel Speakers As Well
Also included in this liquidation auction are many of their updated series of Thiel-branded bookshelf and floorstanding models including the TT1 and TM3 speakers which originally sold for $5,798 and $3,000 respectively. The auctioneer notes that many of the items are being offered with no reserve – opening the door to “a lot of people” getting “some great deals on equipment they may not have been able to afford before,” according to McLemore Auction Company President Will McLemore.
In looking over the wide assortment of items, you find everything from a dainty vanity seat and stylist chair…to a box full of various surge protectors, assorted desktop telephones, and a big box with an “assortment of office supplies”…to several different speaker and subwoofer component parts…to spotlights and stage lights used in the Aurora studio…to cables, headphones, microphones…and even a 40-input digital mixing board. But mostly, lots and lots of speakers.
Several items like these were labeled as ‘venue decor’ 
Surprisingly, of all of the famous musicians in framed artwork, this one of Lou Reed has drawn the most bids 
This system was their main showroom system, featuring electronics from AudioControl 
Because there were so many of them, the Aurora Tour must be purchased in lots of four units 
Like the Tour, the Aurora Home model was also sold in lots of four units 
I didn’t even know about these – Aurora bluetooth wireless in-ear monitors 
Thiel TM3 
There were several lots of speaker pairs with mis-matched finishes, like these TM3s 
Not only Aurora or Thiel, there are also JBL pro speakers as part of the Thiel liquidation auction 
The Thiel liquidation includes many lots of speaker components, in this case a pair of super sub drivers 
More speaker components, in this case a tweeter 
There are many lots to choose from if you want to design and build your own speaker systems… 
…but you might have to buy them in big lots, In this case, the lots are 28 drivers in a box 
There are all kinds of miscellaneous electronics in the auction, like this Theta unit
An Extensive List of…Stuff
The list of available items is extensive, and many of them are presented in multiple-item lots – for example, the Aurora by Thiel Tour speakers must be bid on in a lot of four. Yet many have no bids on them yet…literally waiting for the first bid of a dollar or five dollars.
The auction opened on May 20th and runs to June 20th, so there is plenty of time to get in on the action. Items have to picked up in Nashville, or you can otherwise arrange to have them picked up and shipped, but such arrangements must be made in advance. Some of the items shown have been listed in parallel on eBay.
Island of Misfit Toys – Mis-Matched Pairs, Partially or Completely Empty Speaker Cabinets
It is interesting to see the items that have drawn a substantial number of bids…and which have none. This is understandable with some unique items, such as partially finished speakers that may have some drivers but are missing one or more others. And there are some mis-matched pairs, where each item has a different finish.
Interestingly, many of the items up for bid have been put in a special class where the auctioneer has designated them for an automatic extension of their specific auction if they receive the winning bid in the last five minutes of the auction. They call these items part of a “soft close” group. Otherwise, the auction has a hard close of June 20, 2019.
What Took Thiel Down?
Strata-gee has followed the Thiel story closely for a number of years, especially in the wake of their purchase in 2012 by Tennessee private equity investor David B. Griffin. At first, Griffin brought in industry experts Bob Brown and Stephen DeFuria, a move that seemed reasonably calculated to chart a new perhaps more positive course for the brand. But within only a little more than a year, both Brown and DeFuria were out and a seemingly endless revolving door of managers began to spin.
By the time it was over, there were at least five different CEOs and management teams between 2012 – 2018, when they finally threw in the towel and closed it down – filing for Chapter 7 (liquidation) bankruptcy. The turmoil, with changing CEOs and strategies was just too much for the company to make headway in a challenging market.
See the auction here: www.mclemoreauction.com.
Back in the 1990’s the local newspaper had a expose on businesses in the Lexington, Ky area. One of the businesses that it highlighted was Thiel Audio (off of Nandino Drive, next to the Post Office). I was intrigued about the company and speakers being produced and called them up out of the blue. I was wanting to know if their showroom was open. I was told that this was not a storefront and they did not really sell any speakers from this location. The person who answered the phone then asked what I was looking for and I simply related the article I had read in the paper. He then said – “Want to come on down and see the place?”. Well, HELL YES…. It was amazing, here was this beautiful facility and I was being given my own private tour even though I was a “NOBODY”!!!! I spent almost 3 hours being toured through the front office and the back warehouse where they were doing the woodworking. I saw racks upon racks of veneers and wood. I even was allowed to go into Jim’s office workshop and see the current stuff he was working on. Don’t ask me to explain what I saw, it was way above my head!! Then we ended the tour by going into a medium size room where they had a complete setup with speakers, amps, CD player, etc. The guy (I wish I could remember who it was) asked what kind of music I liked and if I wanted to hear what the speakers sounded like. It was pure euphoria when I heard the sound come from the speakers. I kid you not, I can not explain the ultimate feeling of what music sounds like when played through THIEL speakers, its amazing…. Every article you read about how THIEL operated before the transfer of ownership is downplaying the extraordinary skill and craftsmanship and sense of purpose that I witnessed firsthand. I was treated like royalty for 3 hours even though I couldn’t have afforded to purchase even a set of speaker wire for hooking up speakers to amp.
Thank you to all the workers who made THIEL audio components, it was a true blessing to have been afforded the opportunity to have experienced the creation of a legend..
Butch,
What a great story! Thanks so much for sharing it with us. Your story reminds me of the golden era for specialty audio when most of us did what we did out of a love of music and a commitment to capturing it in all of its glory! We were compelled to share with all!
Ted