Is a 12' X 16' room big enough for stereo?

You are lucky a man! My listening room is only 12ft x 14ft. But I'm also lucky, the room have a cathedral ceiling(highest point is 12ft and lowest point is 8ft) and after a few years of experiment with different room treatments. The cathedral ceiling that I have is like a pyramid(look sideway). The sounds now is very very nice. Your 12ft x 16ft room is good enough with your tiny Thiels CS1.5. If you can try to build a cathedral ceiling or some kind of sloping ceiling(not parallel to the floor). Both the cathedral and the sloping ceiling will eliminate one of the three standing waves that are created by the 3 demensions of the room. Then you have only 2 standing waves(from the length and the width) to deal with. Send me an e-mail, I will send you an image and detail regarding the my speakers.

Hi, drrdiamond and Alexc are giving you the proper advice. Those dememsions will cause problems. Keep the demensions unequal and NOT divideable by even or odd numbers. The room is big enough, just the wrong demensions. I suggest you do some research on room accoustics and speaker placement before you commit to your plans. Happy Labor Day

Have you thought about sky lights at all? Nothing like taking in the moon while listening to good music:~)

I used a pair of Hales Revelation Twos in a room about 10x11 last year. At low volume, it sounded gooda and surely would have sounded better with wall treatment. You are OK. I think your Thiels will sound fine. Maybe a little wall treatment & some bass traps in the corners will help.