Thiel Owners
Tom, Stereophile reviewed and measured the Meadowlark Shearwater speakers. 2nd page of measurements (and showing time coherence) here: https://www.stereophile.com/content/meadowlark-hotrod-shearwater-loudspeaker-measurements-part-2 I had listened to many Meadowlark speakers and had the larger Meadowlark Blue Herons in my room for quite a while. They wounded warm, airy, lush and spacious. But I never found the Meadowlark transmission bass design to be completely successful to my ear. And as I've mentioned before, the Meadowlarks didn't have the type of concentric mid/tweeter design etc like the Thiels, and suffered a sort of suck-out phase cancellation effect with vertical movement of the listener, giving the tone and imaging a sort of "shifty" quality if one moved about. I owned small stand mounted Meadowlark monitors for quite a while and though somewhat coloured, I really enjoyed the heck out of 'em. The disappeared and imaged like the bejeesus! Sold them and still kind of miss them. |
Sterophile never really measured any of the speakers claiming to be time coherent at the appropriate listening distances for proper driver intergration. So measurements were compromised. I suspect some manufacturers models might have been more effected by these measurement gaffs more so than others (Green Mountain?). Though I’ve wanted to for some time, I’ve never had a chance to hear their stuff. Roy of Green Moutain has contributed much on one of the best threads ever on Audiogon. It is very much worth seeking out. Be warned, he’s a bit critical of the Thiel coincidental drivers. Still a great read. With that said, the Meadowlarks claimed that there “simpler” 1st order cross-overs sucked less energy from the output. IMHO, in using such simpler 1st order cross-overs they glossed over the corrections needed to correct for driver irregularities, box and baffle considerations to make for a fully true time coherent speaker system. Some of their more expensive offerings used what are now pretty much irreplaceable drivers. Some of their more moderately priced models offered some time coherence on a small footprint, furthermore some of these models were pretty easy to drive. Some even with tubes. Some of these models offered pretty good value for those with more modest budgets. Unfortunately they disappeared with rumors of creditors chasing them. There has been some recent chatter that the brand name might be resurrected. |
@prof, pre-concentric driver Thiels have that same phase cancellation effect. If you're fairly close to them and move your head around vertically you'll notice huge shifts in sound. I still love my 2 2s, though. It's hard for me to imagine anybody not. You never know what some people will think, though. I saw a thread where some people were saying they're bright. They're nothing of the sort. I would say they're very close to perfectly balanced but if they're anything they're maybe just slightly warm. |
