Jon - you guys are expressing the fundamental quandary, sometimes stated as ’Mother Nature is a -----’. The laws of physics can only be bent so far before they dig in their heels. The model 3 (as in 03) was developed with very good bass as a principal design goal. Serious engineering gives that 10" driver quite a bit of oomph and, coupled with a well-tuned passive radiator, it produces pretty satisfying bass response in normal rooms at normal levels. Although Thiel is not associated with Great Bass, in fact Jim valued it highly. The Subwoofer Project grew out of how to produce Great Bass properly integrated with Thiel speakers and the room.
The CS2 came more than 8 years later, at the request of dealers and audiophiles who wanted more nimble delicacy, and were willing to give up some bass to get it. An 8" woofer and smaller midrange have advantages in lower mass and break-up and pushing less air. Purity is considerably easier for the 2.
The 3.6 Renaissance can’t change that, but we can address and improve some deficiencies. We can stiffen the few cabinet vibrations; and we can provide cleaner signal paths via higher quality passive components. They will be cleaner and more transparent.
But when the dust settles and the same level of upgrade has been applied to both the 2 and the 3 series, the 2s will still win the purity contest and the 3s will deliver more bass.
The 6s and 7s use more drivers to cover the same audible range, and both deliver better bass than the 3s and potentially better delicacy than the 2s . . . at higher cost.
