Thiel CS2.4 to what?

audiojan
Thank You for the update.  Happy Listening!

So on a whim I listened to a pair of Audio Physic Avanti 3 (not really a whim as my buddy has a pair of AP Virgo 2's) and the Thiel CS2.4's are now moved into storage. The AP does everything as well as the Thiels, but are smoother (without losing details) and I have never experienced speakers that can simply "disappear" like the AP's can. I'm VERY happy with them.

It's a shame to keep the CS2.4's in storage (although it's in a finished attic, so not much of a storage per se) so I will get them up for sale. The only thing I had to give up with the AP's is that they're in Cherry, not the Maple that makes the 2.4's look so darn awesome!

audiofan,

I’m a long time Audio Physic fan - have had in my room or owned the Virgo 2, Libra and Scorpio models, as well as having heard plenty other audio physic speakers. (I auditioned the latest Avanti as well this year).

I agree, the AP characteristic of disappearing as a sound source is intoxicating. They are very hard to beat. The only speakers I’ve had that do as well (aside from my MBL omnis) were my Thiel 3.7s. The 3.7s disappeared pretty much as fully as any AP speaker I’ve heard, if not more all the way to the bottom.

(But they were visually/ergonomically too big for my room so I sold them and keep my Thiel 2.7s, which soundstage really nicely but don't disappear as fully as the larger 3.7s).

For my money, the Virgo 2s had a magic tone that AP never quite recreated. The problem for me was always their bass - it was a bit coloured and wooly in a certain region that I could never get rid of.

What I love about audio physic speakers - especially in the old days - is that they managed the hard trick of totally disappearing, maintaining incredibly fine detail, yet doing so with a warm tone that really gave a convincing warm sparkle to acoustic guitar, a woodiness to wood instruments, etc.

They are a truly great speaker brand. And frankly the Audio Physic Codex is one I’ve wanted to hear, and I had urges to grab the Audio Physic Avantera speakers advertised on audiogon a while back.

@prof, Audio Physic can be wooly unless you give them lots of space and an amp that can control them. I would actually argue that the Avanti 3's are just as magical as the Virgo 2, but just more of everything (better highs, deeper soundstage, deeper bass and more than anything else faster bass) and will completely disappear. I can speak from personal experience as we brought my buddies Virgo 2's over to compare them.

I've heard some of the newer AP models and although they're great, they definitely do lack the magic of the old ones. It's really like a different company after Joachim Gerhardt left.

audiojan,

Yes I hear you on that.   I heard the Virgo 2s in quite a few rooms, with various gear, including mine in which I could have lots of space to play with.  I tried with tube amps, and powerful Bryston amps.  Never truly got rid of the wooliness.  Fremer also said that of that speaker at some point as well. 

Loved the upper mids.  As I remember the Virgo 2s had a metal dome tweeter.  I think it added a very attractive bit of "shine/shimmer" to the upper frequencies which, married with the warm tone of the mids, made for a very seductive sound.  AP moved to soft dome after that I believe.
Changed the sound a bit, but the designs also got more coherent sounding.  The Audio Physic Libra I had were sort of the next step for the Virgo in a way - more coherent, punchier better defined bass, soft dome tweeter.  Very, very "organic and woody" sounding, in a good way.

The side firing woofers were supposed to make bass more even, but actually I think I found AP speakers could be a bit more challenging to set up because of them.  But when set up right, I love the AP speakers bass particularly for classical music.  There is a sort of "spread" of bass that seems to spread out around the room, especially for a swelling symphonic passage, that really reminded me of the real thing.

The Audio Physic Scorpios I had were a post-Joachim Gerhard design, though still maintained a lot of the AP sound.  They disappeared insanely well, were the most controlled, dense and punchy top to bottom of any AP speaker I've had, but they just lacked that last bit of magic tone from the Joachim Gerhard era, so I sold them and moved on.

I remember being pretty stunned by the original Avanti design, especially the Avanti Century.  But they used different drivers (metal) and went to soft dome tweeters and...I think maybe paper for the midrange.  The Avantis and Virgos after that had a really nice warm, airy sound, a bit softer than previous models actually, a bit more polite.   

The latest Avanti model sounds more neutral, does the disappearing/detail stuff really well and is one of my favorite looking speakers on the market.  Just incredibly beautiful cabinetry with the glass coating.  Didn't *quite* have the AP warmth that originally attracted me to the brand. 

Anyway, it is interesting to me that you moved from Thiel to Audio Physic, as Audio Physic is one of the few brands I could imagine moving on from Thiel to.