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Neville Thiele dies at 92

PostPosted: Wed Oct 03, 2012 11:01 am
by stosostu
Neville Thiele, arguably Australia's greatest audio engineer, died on Monday aged 92. Best known for his development of the 'Thiele-Small Parameters" used to design speaker cabinets, he worked in audio all his life, largely for the ABC. His brother, Leonard Teale (he anglicised the surname) was an actor on Australia TV shows like Homicide.

I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Neville on a number of occasions through the AES and he was one of natures true gentlemen and an absolute font of knowledge on everything audio. He will be sadly missed by his friends and relatives and the audio community in general.

Here is the man himself,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3BbyYBrCJ8

and talking about his friend and mentor Alan Blumlein:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acJweM1Q78s

And a very good article about his and his brother's lives, written by Neville:

http://mybrother23.blogspot.com.au/2012 ... er-by.html

Re: Neville Thiele dies at 92

PostPosted: Wed Oct 03, 2012 12:21 pm
by Manning
Thanks for the update, Bob.I was unfamiliar with him but have since gone and learned about his extraordinary career.

Sidenote: I've actually met Leonard Teale when I was a child - he was a "very close" friend of my mothers during the 1970s (I have always had my suspicions about just how close they actually were, but have zero evidence to support my conjecture)

Re: Neville Thiele dies at 92

PostPosted: Wed Oct 03, 2012 4:02 pm
by peat
So sad to hear that.

I studied loudspeaker design under Neville at USYD in 2008.
He was a true gentleman with a non-stop driving passion for his craft. One of the most inspirational people in my life.

His knowledge and understanding of electroacoustics was unbelievable and it was a humbling experience learning from him.

I have a library of documents and information that he gave to us. Invaluable stuff.

Thank you Neville, without his lifetime of hard work, we would not have the modern loudspeaker.

Re: Neville Thiele dies at 92

PostPosted: Wed Oct 03, 2012 4:34 pm
by rick
he was part of the designer consultants of my mega parkside sound speaker system
2 x 18"
2 x 15"
2 x 6"
2 x super tweeters

( err same one that i have never finished and may never finish for a host of reasons none to do with him )


true gentlemen of a man .. sad