Thiel Owners

There seems to be some talks of what if you want to upgrade the CS2.4?  Overall I still think its only real weakness is the lack of low bass.  For clarity and detail and natural integration, it's probably still some of the best even for today.  Some newer speakers now are using fancier tweeters such as be dome, ceramic which may offer better treble detail but I am not sure it's necessarily better.  For speakers using higher order filter, they can afford to add like a 10in. driver such as the Wilson or Dynaudio and so on, but for the CS2.4 being first order time coherent, it's not that trivial and given the constraints I am not sure if it's even possible.  So with larger bass driver such as 10in, you get a more fuller sounstage abeit with higher order type of sound.  I guess it's all a compromise.  You choose the CS2.4 for all its strengths, but have to accept its lack of low end grunt.

But can we add an active subwoofer with some type of room correction DSP?  Probably - just like what Vadersteen did with their top of the line offerings that costing even above $50K, which is why I am a bit surprise why none of the Thiel speakers follow this strategy which would not only solve the low impedance issue but still retains the time coherent characteristics.

So the best upgrade for the CS2.4 would probably be some of the Vandersteen top of the line speakers (although a lot more expensive) with a built-in subwoofer.

@andy2 The CS2.4 goes down to about 30 cycles in my room and I have them well away from walls. That’s enough to reproduce all but the left most one or two keys on a piano. Not much music down there. My previous speaker was Vandy 2CE Sig II, useful output into the mid 20s. My collection includes a single song wherein I noticed the deficit via the 2.4s. If you can afford Vandersteen 7s, go for it. They are fanatstic *and* have full output down to about 20 cycles. Or, if you really want those last couple of notes, you can add a subwoofer or pair to the 2.4s. I seriously considered subwoofers when I had the CS1.6 but that model quits at about 50 cycles. I have zero desire to add subwoofers to my 2.4s.

It depends on the size of your listening room.  As good as the CS2.4, as far as the bass is concerned, it cannot compete with other speakers with 10in. or 2x10in bass drivers.