Thiel Owners

Tom,

Yes, those 7.2s sure are rare on the used market.   Whenever one showed up on audigon or wherever, I'd get melancholy.  They were something of a dream speaker for me and used prices were affordable.  But their size has always precluded a purchase.  The size of the CS6s when I had them long ago unfortunately pushed just past the boundaries of acceptable in my room, in terms of aesthetics, which is why I didn't keep them.  It's not a big room and once a speaker gets too large for a room I find the aesthetics awkward.

But that's an entirely different question vs whether large speakers can work in small rooms.  I've had full range floor-standing speakers, flat to 20 Hz, that worked great in my room and I've heard some big speakers work well in other even smaller rooms.  (The CS6 sounded amazing in my room too).

I'll have a pair of 2.7 coming next week so cant wait to hear these puppies.  Never owned Thiel before but a local buddy has the 3.7 and I love them. Will drive them with either a BAT VK55 or Mark Levinson 27.5. I'm sure the 27.5 will control the speaker best since it's 4 ohm  but the VK55 will sound sweeter.  

Thanks sharing that interesting history regarding Thiel and Vandersteen dealers, Tom. I’ve read most of those journals Hardesty wrote and edited and he was certainly a fan of both brands (and not a fan of Wilsons, Pipedreams, etc). You might look to his writings for amplification ideas. He was a fan of ARC and Ayre - hey, so am I - and I recall he liked VTL among tubed electronics.

I’ve heard both the CS7.2 and 3.7 but in different rooms and different electronics plus a few years apart. I cannot pick a winner but both were extraordinary, just below the very best I’ve heard (but at a fraction of the price). I probably sound like a broken record here but I think Tom Thiel’s XO upgrade could bring both models into that next tier.

tomthiel, I have an updated Threshold S 500 Series II. It might be able to run CS 5’s, but I think there might be better options. 
The amplifier requirements might be the only thing that’s scared me off owning the CS 5i’s.

prof -  Our 'other' listening room was my victorian farmhouse living room, where the company began. That room was 10' high x 15' deep x 17' wide plus a bay wall adding another 3' depth with 45° clipped corners. It also had a door in each wall except behind the speakers. I never heard the room overpowered, mostly because of the doors to relieve standing wave buildup and the non-resonant plaster on wood lath walls and ceiling. Good rooms are at the heart of good playback.

unsound - I love that amp. We met Nelson Pass early-on and had the Stasis 500 for all our development work from about 1980 (pre-production). That amp was still there when New Thiel bought the company. I don't know the Series II, but the basic architecture was state of the art at the time, plus it had gone back to Threshold for service. The Stasis variable bias was brilliant and effective. I would consider using that amp today.

Time for a story? OK.
Nelson developed Statis, and patented the technology. Nakamichi who dominated the car-audio / cassette player market at the time, wanted in to the emerging high end market. They contracted Nelson to develop two Stasis amps for them. He did so for the then princely sum of $quarter-mil. Nakamichi took it home and in true Japanese-culture fashion proceeded to remove any and all traces of the novel Stasis technology. Those of you who Japan - 1985 know that signing off on anything not in the textbooks might require ceremonial death. Forward 1.5 years. CES introduction of the Nakamichi Stasis. No one cares; it doesn't sound exciting. Nakamichi challenges Nelson. Nelson buys some amps on the market and evaluates them to contain NO Stasis stuff. Nelson objects that his reputation is being impinged. Nak doesn't get it. Nelson sues in international court that his reputation is being damaged via the failure of his Stasis technology in the Nak amps which contain no whif of Stasis. Nelson looses. Court says that Nak paid for and is free to use any of the assets, even if just the Stasis name. Nelson has bigger fish to fry and goes on to his brilliant career.