Thiel Owners

Attn CS2.4 owners:
I’ve been thrilled with the performance of my "new" Thiels. One parameter lacking, however, was image density. My front wall is ~19’ wide altho’ confounded by a 4x4’ wall jutting in for the rear door exit in one corner. It is ~18’ on the sides. The ceiling is vaulted, 8’ on the front wall and ~12’ on the rear wall. There are two large openings on the rear wall, one just above my head; I sit within 2’ of the rear wall. I think the openings really "save my bacon" from unsatisfying sound with this room.

I did have the speakers about 10’ away from my ears to the tweeters and played with speaker spacing 7-8’. ~7’ sounds best but image density was not satisfying. I just spent most of the past hour experimenting with distance to the listening position, now have the speakers ~9’ from my ears and spaced at 7’ (7’ to the front wall!). Zero toe in. Image density is notably improved.

Anyhow, curious to read what other have for their placement. Thanks.

EDIT: Looks like my spacing is similar to what Shane Buettner used in his review: http://www.vandersteen.com/media/files/APJ%20Files/APJ13_Proof.pdf

@ish_mail

Wow, I couldn't have asked for a more helpful response!  What great information.  Thanks for sharing as it will come in very handy!

I'll let you know how things go.

beetlemania,

I'm always looking for the most immersive sound I can get, while not sacrificing image density.

For whatever reason, the 3.7s can be spread ridiculously wide and still have focused images.

The 2.7s, which are the next version of your 2.4s, are very good in that regard but don't take to be spread quite as wide.

Still, I've got my 2.7s at 8.4 inches apart, 6 1/2 feet from my listening position, and the image density (their hallmark) is superb.  I just demoed them to a musician friend and the first thing he raved about was the imaging and the "thereness" of the images between the speakers.

My room was designed with an acoustician - it does both home theater and 2 channel listening duty.  It's 13ft x 15ft deep, 9ft ceiling, with a large opening to one side of the room into the hallway.  That opening helps "save my bacon" too I think.  It's a well damped room.

My Left speaker is close to the side wall, near a fireplace with reflective tiles, so for years I have placed a thick velvet cover over those tiles when I'm listening.  It mellows out the sound, reduces hash, increases image focus.  But just recently I've tried leaving the cover off and I've really appreciated the added liveliness it brings to the sound.  The only issue is that tonality does take a little hit. 

So I'm going to order a curved diffusor and try that out, to see if I can keep some of the liveliness I'm enjoying, but restore a bit better tonality.

Thanks for the reply, prof
6.5' seems close for Thiels. Seems like most listeners prefer at least 8', so I'm surprised to read about your set-up. Sounstage's measurements of the CS2,4, however, were taken at 2 m (~6.5') and the frequency response was outstanding at that distance (as opposed to Stereophile's inadequate measurement at a mere 50"). I hope your diffusor gives that result you want!

@prof 
oops

Finally, a team of audio pros working with JLA f112's and Thiel CS3.7s chose 100 Hz in this example, http://www.soundoctor.com/studio/. 

Actually, these guys chose 80 Hz, not 100. It seems that 80 Hz is the default choice for crossover freq. Still, no harm trying other values.

As in my prev. post, it's interesting that Thiel says 80 and below, while Sound Doctor says 80 and above. Too bad we can't ask Jim his reasons.