Thiel 2.3 vs 2.4 the real difference

I've owned many Thiels including 2.3's, and my good friend owns 2.4's. I think Swklein nailed it in his comment; the 2.4, to my ear, retains the best attributes of Thiels while being a lot more willing to sound musical with a wider variety of gear and source material. So I think there is no question that it's an upgrade, but, the question is how much of an upgrade and what would it cost you. I would personally pay the difference between used 2.4's and used 2.3's in order to have 2.4's. By the way another interesting alternative is 1.6 with a used REL Strata III sub : - )
Art

Its pretty simple to figure out how they differ,

Just look at the Stereophile measurements of the CS2.3's versus the Soundstage measurements of the CS2.4 and one can quickly see the evolution between the two speakers. The CS2.4 plays with considerable less distortion and clarity than the CS2.3 and you may be right about is soun ding softer.ack of distortion will do that.

Bunker..posted

"I have one small restriction however. I think I would like a little bit more air or energy on top. Sounds pretty outrages with that common Thiels are bright 'knowledge'. I am afraid if 2.4 would contribute to even less open mellower sound."

You may need to calibrate your sense of reality, the CS2.3's are +10dB by the time they get to 20khz and +15 to 18 dB from 1 khz depending on the individual speaker. Now you can make your system sound any way you like but if your goal is a semblance of "accurate" you need to rethink your instincts and or maybe get your hearing checked just so you have a baseline for what you need your system to do.
Because you may very well be right about needing the tipped up highs. A hearing test will cost less than the 2.4 upgrade especially if for you it was the wrong move.

The more you know the better the decision you can make.

Cinematic s.
Thank You for your concern but my hearing is just fine.
I understand why people can call Thiels bright cause I had them bright in my system before when paired with wrong components. To be honest I also had them dark and dull with some other stuff.
The last change I made was to get rid of old CDP and that brought HUGE improvment. I cannot belive what impact had made Meridian G08 on my system. Everyting is almost perfect but until you try you never know - that is why I want 2.4

The Stereophile measurements of the 2.3 were an anomaly. No other magazine showed the radical climb towards the treble that theirs did. I have used a Radio Shack sound meter and test CDs to chart my 2.3s in room and the speakers are remarkably flat. They actually look like they are down in the high treble until you add in the corrections for the Radio Shacks own tendency to be off at the frequency extremes. Also, check out the reviews of the 2.4. The brightness issue is mentioned in nearly every test, which was not the case with lots of the 2.3 reviews. Look at the NRC graphs on http://www.soundstageav.com/avreviews_speakers.html for interesting comparisons. Lots of speakers have, lets say, unusual concepts of flat. Thiel has no dip in the presence region that many do and thus come off bright by comparision. Together with the tendancy of CDs to be recorded a bit bright, for various reasons, and the package can make for a hard sound. But, when good recordings are played through Thiels the result can be wonderful.

Tim

Tim,

CD's are not recorded bright unless they are top 40 bound and my MLSSA and SoundEasy with B&K speaker measurement systems showed a dip and a rise on the four different pairs of CS2.3's I measured. In room response was ragged because off axis dips were high in Q causing excessive sibilance and other noises especially when the speaker was having to strain a little.

The CS2.3 was considerably brighter (to a fault) than any Sonus Faber, Dynaudio, Revel, Vienna Acoustic and Meridian speaker in the store. Personally I blame the lack of cone area as the biggest problem and distortion in the concentric driver.

"Look at the NRC graphs on www.soundstageav.com/avreviews... for interesting comparisons. Lots of speakers have, lets say, unusual concepts of flat. Thiel has no dip in the presence region that many do and thus come off bright by comparision."

I do...Lot's of speakers out there that aren't very good. and Remember I like the CS2.4 something I seem to not get credit for, that is a speaker that does it all very well. You will notice that the only instructions the NRC received from Thiel was the height at which the speaker should be measured. The CS2.4 is a complete design.

The CS2.4 enhances the Thiel reputation, the CS2.3 never was deserving of it and now never will be.