Thiel CS3.7 vs WP8?

Luna...like everything else, speakers at these levels are good to excellent and their performance is more dependent on system synergy and room/speaker interaction and setup. Meaning both Thiel and Wilson speakers can be made to sound great and horrible. Can Thiel speakers sound bright. Sure. They are highly resolving and tonally balanced across the frequency spectrum. So if you have lean and bright sounding equipment/cables upstream of them, that's what you will hear. Wilsons are not my cup of tea but they are world class speakers and have many adherents and can be made to sound wonderful depending on what you mate them with and how carefully you set them up (they are notoriously harder to set up than most speakers). Your dilemma is your inability to demo these speakers with equipment you are familiar with (let alone in your own system). Maybe the way to go is to buy used and if whatever selection you make does not work out for you, then you can resell hopefully with a minimal hit to the wallet. Again my opinion is that the lower risk strategy for you is to stay with the Thiels because you are familiar with what the Thiel house sound is and seem to be happy with it. And believe me the 3.7 is vastly superior to the 3.6 (and will mate beautifully with your CJ Premier 350 amp). But at the end of the day, you have heard from people on both sides of the spectrum because they favor one speaker vs. another but the reality is they are both excellent speakers. The trick will be which one best matches your system and room but you won't know the answer to that question until you try. Good luck.

PS: with regards to suggesting buying used, i meant it with regards to the Thiel 3.7s because by definition you will be buying used WP8s.

Thanks Cmalak for your constructive comments. I also believe I will not go wrong with the Thiels. My only other compliant with my systems is that it can sound too neutral. Has anyone tried 3.7 successfully with tubes?

My buddy has tried his 3.7's with a BAT VK55. This amp sounds wonderful but the 3.7's need more power to get the most out of them. He currently uses a Krell FPB-200. I believe Thiel recommends and uses Krell amps. Thiel is located right here in Lexington KY. If you want to email offline please do so and I can give you my buddies email and you can talk with him.

Luna...is your Herron preamp SS or tube design (i know they have both)? I would keep your CJ Premier 350 (excellent power amp with more than ample power to drive any speaker) and introduce tubes via the preamp if you are currently running SS. High quality, high wattage tube power amps can get pretty expensive. I think you can get better results of introducing tube sonics (bloom, fleshed out timbres/textures, etc...) via the pre-amp or even a tube-based digital source (CD or DAC). You will find a lot of threads on Agon that talk about this and advocate for a tube pre and SS power amp setup. Just a suggestion.