Thiel Audio Needs to Evolve to Meet ‘More Complex’ World, New CEO Says

The audiophile of the future is going to be concerned “less about technology and more about robustness of sound,” incoming Thiel Audio CEO John Wittman told Consumer Electronics Daily Wednesday. “Our world is so much more complex,” Wittman said, “and we need to evolve with that."

Wittman also is committed to staying true to the Thiel loudspeaker legacy of a focus on “quality and sound,” he said. Attention to craftsmanship will remain “second to none” for Thiel as it moves most of its operations from Thiel’s former home in Lexington, Kentucky, to its new headquarters in Nashville, he said. Customer service and repair will remain in Kentucky, Wittman said, and the company will continue to stand behind Thiel’s product guarantee for the 14 current models in the lineup.

Industry experts have long spoken about the “dying off” of the traditional audiophile. On how Thiel will evolve to attract a next generation audiophile, Wittman said the company doesn’t want to move to a broader customer base. “It’s something we debated early on,” he said, but Thiel’s reputation has been to offer a good value for the premium that customers pay. “We need to continue to do that, at least for the foreseeable future,” he said.

"We have to be respectful of the heritage,” he said, referring to the company’s co-founder and speaker designer Jim Thiel, who died in 2009. Wittman, who has an engineering and consumer product background, never met Thiel but examined his work and called him an “innovator” who was “progressive in his thinking.” Wittman said, “I would think he would encourage whoever took over the helm to do the same.” The new Thiel, steered on the audio side by Engineering Vice President Mark Mason -- formerly with SVS and PSB -- “maybe will not follow the same engineering principles” that Thiel engaged in because he took the first-order crossover and “time-phase coherent science of sound” to an “apex,” Wittman said. “What I need to do is take the same principles and apply them to new technologies that we can bring into the business."

Wittman downplayed the likelihood of Thiel bringing out headphones or powered Bluetooth speakers for music or headphones, despite the popularity of those categories. As the company brings out new designs over the coming year, it will focus on high-performance audio, home theater and products for the custom installation channel, plus downsized products geared toward more “personal listening,” he said. Wittman will attend CEDIA Expo in September but the company won’t exhibit there, though it does plan to bow new products at CES in January, he said.

Wittman conceded that the Thiel brand has been “quiet for some time” even dating back to Jim Thiel’s last years with the company. The company will come out with new product that “re-establishes the brand in the minds of professionals, luxury buyers and audiophiles in the industry,” he said. Initially, Wittman and his crew will focus on “people who are seeking something above and beyond in terms of quality,” he said. Rather than introduce the same products at a lower price point, “maybe we examine other applications that allow people to get into the brand at a more relative price point,” he said, saying he doesn’t know what those products might look like.

Thiel plans to keep with its existing distribution for now, which numbers some 160 U.S. dealers who aren’t all active. Wittman called Thiel’s relationship with its dealer base “relatively quiet” because the company hasn’t brought out new products recently. It has “ample quantities” of “mature” product and plans to sell through those at the existing four-figure price tags while monitoring sales and then “making a business decision,” Wittman said.