Thiel 3.6's vs. Vandersteen 3 sigs

I own both Vandys and Thiels and love em BOTH!!

While the differences between Thiel and Vandersteen seem to be very apparent to those on this forum, it surprises me that so many here, besides the Bdunne and Stevecham, fail to hear how much they have in common. My final decision ultimately came betweene Thiel and Vandersteen, I chose Thiel. Seems a lot of folks here failed to note that Bdunne previouly owned Thiels before Vandersteen and misses some of the qualites the Thiels provided.
I'd like to point out to Ddunne that the newer Thiel 3.6's are not sealed boxes, don't go as low and harder to drive than his previous Thiel 03a's. If your looking to recover that sound quality, may I suggest the Thiel 3.5's, as they are most similar yet quite a bit more refined. They can be found at absolute bargain prices now.

The bigger Thiels will not sound great unless fed with a lot of power. My experience with the 3.6s is that, when driven by a less than macho SS amp, they can sound thin. Feed them a good 300-500 watts and the sound becomes much fuller.

Thanks for all of the great perspectives. I definitely agree with some of your experiences (even the old Thiels seemed to thrive with more power; would go deeper. Also, they were always a bit too bright for me. CD's could get annoying although vinyl would sound pretty sweet. Lastly, they sound impressive at first, with enough bass that a sub is not seemingly required). The Vandies sound rather plain in comparison and I don't mean that in a bad way. Bass extension would put them well ahead, overall. OK, so I'm going to look for a Vandersteen sub or the 3A's.

Agree with Sdatch. I've had my 3.6 for nearly 8 years. It's a fine speaker, considering what you can get them for these days on the used market. But they are very revealing of the source. (Or you can say that they are "picky" of what equipment they are mated to.) And they are power hungry. I've had many changes in my system in the past 8 years, and have been amazed at the "improvements" every time.

After living with it for 8 years, I was sure that I had driven them to their full potential. But earlier this year, I changed the amp from my long time reference, a Mark Levinson #333 (300wpc) to a Pass X350.5 (350wpc). I was floored by the improvement. Deeper bass, bigger soundstage, much more refined midrange. I wonder how much better the 3.6 can sound.

And if you think the 3.6 sounds analytical and harsh, please come by and hear my system. I've had over a dozen people that had the same opinion (incluidng some ex-3.6 owners)changed their minds after hearing my sytem.

FrankC

Digital Front End: Mark Levinson #37 + Sonic Frontier SFD2 Mk II (NOS Amperex 6DJ8 tubes)
Analog Front End: Michell Orbe SE + SME V + Shelter 901/Benz M2 + ARC PH3 SE (NOS Amperex 7308 tubes)
Amplification: ARC LS-25 Mk I w/ GNSC ref mod (NOS Amperex 7308 + Telefunken 6DJ8 tubes) + Pass X350.5