Thiel Owners

hi Prof,  boy it has been an interesting six weeks since i first got them.   first week or so, they were not very good.  they have improved enough that i prefer the sound of them over the 2.7's. for a point of reference i would assign the 2.7's a sound quality of 8.  at first the 3.7's were about a six as they were bright and one dimensional.  now they are at 8.5 and improving as they were essentially new speakers,  and from all that i have read,  they need 200 plus hours to really start sounding their best.

 they seem to be more extended, accurate,  and less congested.  that said,  i could live happily with the 2.7's. and i do like the more compact size and looks better on them as well.   my girlfriend likes the "warmer/sweeter" sound of them but i think she likes the bit of mid bass bloom that the bigger ones do not seem to have.   overall two awesome speakers and you are right,  in that whoever gets my 2.7's,  is going to be very lucky.

the sub is an REL S/5 and i really like what it adds.    seemed to mate well after playing with room placement and the settings.   Paul at PS Audio is who turned me on to them.   They are his faves as well.  they are very easy to hook up,   just run their cable from the outputs of the amp right to the REL using their special connector. 

ronkent,
Yes I've commented on the mid-bass bloom of the 2.7s as well.  It can really add some nice punch and warmth in many cases, and a dynamic feel.  And for the most part it does it invisibly.   But certain tracks can really zone in on that hump and then I hear it thrumming, getting confused.
Fortunately this doesn't happen very often and so most of the time the 2.7s sound to me superbly defined and controlled.  They are a dream speaker for electronic music - the imaging, palpability, punch, control, gorgeous tone. 

But the 3.7s do sound more linear and a touch more open in the midrange.

Prof: 

i think that mid bass bloom is very addictive and i can see why she likes it.  but i find the articulation is better on the bigger ones and they do go deeper with less effort.   either speaker is amazing.   I heard a system today with a pair of Magico's that sell for about $29,000 for the pair.   I did not leave the demo wishing i had them instead.  The system sounded great but not really any better than mine with a much more affordable speaker.
I was at a seminar on REL subs and i think you might find them easier to set up and use than the JL's

Funny you mention Magico, I'm going to be checking out the Magico A3 speakers soon.

I tried hooking up my JL subs in the REL fashion (they allow for that type of set up) and didn't have great success - the sound got tonally darker and less dynamic for whatever reason. So I went whole hog and bought a high end JL crossover to "do subs right" and split the signal between the mains and the sub (as all the subwoofer aficionados will tell you).  

But it's such a friggin' hassle I can't get around to doing it.