Thiels or Von Schweikerts

Both are excellent speakers, but have to agree w/ mjaudio, the Thiels are system sensitive. I'd do a search in members system's to see which amps & cabling synergize w/ the Thiels. I've owned the vr4jr's for over a year and can highly recommend them. Supurb sound and seem to mate very well w/ a variety of amps. Only requirements being 1) that they require a lot of clean power for them to open up to thier full potential 2) load w/ lead shot 3) biwire.

My vote goes to Von Schweikert, too, for many of the reasons noted by Mjaudio. As a bonus, they're way more efficient than Thiels, so you don't have to spend megabucks on an amp capable of driving them.

The designers of these two brand of speakers have rather different perspectives. I'm not at all surprised that you are getting very polarized opinions. At least for me, at these prices, I'd try and find a way to audition them. BTW, I fall into the Thiel camp.

I heard both the Thiel 2.4 and the Von Schweikert VR-4 JR. My vote goes to the VR-4 JR. I was more impressed by the Von Schweikert than the Thiel. Since you mentioned you can't audition them yourself due to your location, try to read the professional and consumer reviews that's out there (www.ecoustics.com) for these two speakers and see which one is more of your flavor/style of listening. They both are different in their own way. But like most have already said, Thiels are notoriously hard to drive in general, so make sure you got a good amp to support it if you go that route.

Good luck !

Rustler has said he knows he "love(s) the Thiel sound". I haven't listened to VS recently enough to know how they compare, but they'll obviously differ from that sound. What I don't know is how well they'll appeal to a Thiel fan.

In any case, the two Thiel floorstanding models that fall within his stated budget are the 1.6 and the 2.4, and despite the reputation alluded to above, neither of these models are terrible bears to drive, particularly the 1.6, which is fairly easy to drive and the one I'd choose for a smaller room. The 2.4 will work in up to generous mid-sized rooms, the kind where you'd want some beefier power anyway (at least 100w or more).

As usual though, quality power will be rewarded with quality results. The corollary to the unspoken inference of the cautionary comments would seem to be that if your amp's not really great you'll be better off with Von Schweikerts. I don't know if that's actually true, but Rustler appears to have Adcom amplification, so this might apply, at least in the case of the more demanding and revealing 2.4.