It's funny to me. I've never liked the Thiel's. Too hot on the top end for me and I've tried all kinds of amps, cables, cords etc... My local dealer sells them and personally he loves them. That's just my ears and I respect all who swear by them, but I can't listen to em. I don't love the Focals that much either anymore. I did when they were JM Lab and I even had a pair. They do a lot right, but for their price points, I've heard a few others (for my ear) that I like better. For me most every phase coherent speaker that is first order crossed sounds natural and still detailed. The biggest problem I have with most speakers is that they cross things in the most important part of the mids and you lose that magic that music has. I have begun looking for designers who make their own mids that are fast fast fast and are crossed over in a 1st order so that you don't' lose that magic. It's a learned thing I think. You hear it sounding 'right' and don't' even know why. It just sounds 'un hifi' like and very natural like live music does. To me, even most of the esoteric speakers don't' get the mids correct. I"ve now heard so many of these top of the line, 100k plus speakers and they don't sound as good as some of these others speakers that I've fallen for. They do some other things better. They may be much dynamic, however in the end, they don't' get the micro or macro dynamics right and they really aren't so dynamic. As a reference though, I don't like panels of any kind really and I've only heard a ribbon tweeter sound good in a couple of speakers I've heard recently. Most are way too hot on the top end and even to the point of being distorted to me.
Again, nothing against my of these great speakers our there that you all love. It just reinforces that there are different makes for all our ears.
