beetlemania,
On the subject of soundstaging:
I've always owned speakers that were particularly good at disappearing and soundstaging. Which is a bit ironic because my first priority by far is tone in a sound system - the ability to portray beautiful timbral qualities of voices and instruments. If a speaker doesn't do that, I don't care at all what else it does. I remember a formative experience with this in the 90's listening to some massive Infinity speakers at a shop in New York, playing some orchestral music. For the first time ever a hi-fi system reproduced in front of me something like the scale of a symphony orchestra, with incredible depth, transparency and soundstaging "like being there." Except to my ears what was missing was the beautiful nature and variety of the timbral voices of real orchestral instruments. It was the equivalent of listening to an orchestra where every instrument had been replaced by plastic replicas. I quickly learned that without beautiful tone, soundtaging and imaging was a neat trick that would quickly bore me.
But once I'm hearing great tone and find myself compelled to sit and listen, I love great imaging and soundstaging, and "disappearing" speakers. To that end almost every speaker I've owned or has passed through my listening room has been among the best disappearing/soundstaging acts I've heard anywhere, from Quad ESL 63s, Von Scwheikert, Waveform, Shun Mook, Audio Physic, Thiel, Hales and many others, on up to my current Thiels and my MBL omnis.
The MBL omnis are peerless for disappearing and creating a 3 dimensional sonic image. Absolutely spooky, and ultimately the most realistic presentation within their frequency range (that I've experienced in my room and most other rooms). But the Thiel 3.7s are probably the box speaker that gives them the most run for the money.
Back to the Thiel 2.7s - I love their image density and palpable presence at lest as much for electronic music (a love of mine) as for acoustic sources. When I go through various electronic music the ever-surprising variety of sounds, from the tiniest beeps dotting the air around the speakers to groaning upper bass synths vibrating a colum of air "between " the speakers, it feels almost like I've invited aliens right in to the room with me to perform. Hard to give up once heard.
