Prof, you raise an interesting point about listener's height and seating distance; one that I raised to Jim Thiel many years ago (back when the CS 5's were released). Jim told me that at distances of 8' or greater that the sonic waves were so large that critical distance became realistically less important. He also said (surprisingly enough, to me at least) that studies demonstrated that most listeners regardless of height had their ears measured to within relatively similar distances to the floor (I seem to remember approximately 3"(?) variance and typically 37-39"(?) ear to floor distance, but I'm really not certain of either).
In that the vast majority of Jim Thiel's work (and amongst those of perhaps a very, very small number of other speaker designers) appears to have been towards mastering time, it seems quite rational to me, to do as much as possible to allow those efforts to flourish. I seem to recall that Stereophile apologized in almost every Thiel review for not being able to test them at appropriate distances, and at appropriate distances they expected the measurements to demonstrate superior performance. John Dunlavy was so irked (he told me so himself) with Stereophile's measurements that even he invited Stereophile to independently test his time aligned designs at his facilities. With the proper distances, measurements were much improved, with Stereophile offering the blame of small glitches perhaps to reflections from the fork lift that was used to move those large cabinets. That is not to say that without such considerations, one couldn't enjoy Thiels (heck, most people enjoy their speakers regardless of the fact that their speakers are never in time alignment).
Thiels will make music even if underpowered, but again they won't be able to provide the strain free dynamics, linear frequency response and bass integration that appropriate power can. One can enjoy Thiels without proper driver integration, or even power, but they won't be enjoying the full potential of those Thiels.
In that the vast majority of Jim Thiel's work (and amongst those of perhaps a very, very small number of other speaker designers) appears to have been towards mastering time, it seems quite rational to me, to do as much as possible to allow those efforts to flourish. I seem to recall that Stereophile apologized in almost every Thiel review for not being able to test them at appropriate distances, and at appropriate distances they expected the measurements to demonstrate superior performance. John Dunlavy was so irked (he told me so himself) with Stereophile's measurements that even he invited Stereophile to independently test his time aligned designs at his facilities. With the proper distances, measurements were much improved, with Stereophile offering the blame of small glitches perhaps to reflections from the fork lift that was used to move those large cabinets. That is not to say that without such considerations, one couldn't enjoy Thiels (heck, most people enjoy their speakers regardless of the fact that their speakers are never in time alignment).
Thiels will make music even if underpowered, but again they won't be able to provide the strain free dynamics, linear frequency response and bass integration that appropriate power can. One can enjoy Thiels without proper driver integration, or even power, but they won't be enjoying the full potential of those Thiels.