Thiel Owners

Rob is a really nice guy, and has been helping me DIY another repair on my 3.6s (SN 130, 131!).  He may get them up and running agian.

Any Thiel owners switch to  KEF and/or Harbeth?  Observations, things you miss from the Thiels?
I haven't heard Harbeths, and doing so in NYC requires dealing with Andy Singer, who is not the most gemutlich person I've met.  But I'm intrigued - they seem to have a similar cult following to Thiel, and excel at classical music and small ensemble Jazz, which are my thangs.

Thanks Tom!

ahofer,


I became infatuated with the Harbeth speakers last year and ended up buying a pair of Super HL5plus to see if they could replace my larger Thiel 3.7s (I wanted a somewhat smaller speaker).


Ultimately I simply found my Thiels gave me most of what the Harbeths gave, but more refined: cleaner, more precise, less speaker sound, more realistic, yet still rich and organic.    The Thiels also imaged/soundstage with more scale, depth and precision.  So I sold the Harbeths and ended up with the slghtly smaller Thiel 2.7 speakers to replace the 3.7s.


But that's not a knock on the Harbeths; the Thiels were just that good.


I still LOVE the Harbeth speakers and every time I encounter them playing - e.g. at a show or an audio store - I find myself luxuriating in their sound - so rich, organic, clear and "right" sounding.  In fact during a visit to a local hi-fi store I recently compared some highly lauded JM Reynaud floor standing speakers - a brand that has it's own fanatics - to the Harbeth SuperHL5plus.  I found the JM Reynaud speakers sounded very nice, but just not tonally realistic.  As soon as we switched the signal to the Harbeths it was like the tone and timbre of saxophones, drums etc just dialed in to "THAT is what they sound like in real life."


If I had the money and space I'd own some Harbeths too, probably,  But then I have a speaker hoarding problem . :)

ahofer

Thank you for citing the serial numbers on those CS 3.6 loudspeakers.
Nice low numbers!  Happy Listening!

I am a completely newbie to these things, but I am now a Thiel owner. A pair of Thiel CS2's fell into my lap last week. I was utterly amazed at how good they sounded, and how I could hear so much more going on in the music. I leapt at the opportunity to get them. I was recommended to this thread by someone from a different thread. Wow. You all are both extremely knowledgable and kind.

I have a question about adding a subwoofer to the system. Because of some of the music I listen to, and because the speakers are hooked up to my tv, I wanted a subwoofer just to capture some deeper bass. I went ahead and bought one. I guess I rushed it. No worries, as I can return it or exchange it easily.

The system I have is:

Thiel CS2s
Rotel RC-1070
Audionics BK-ST 140 (BT-2)
NAD 5000

The speakers are hooked up to the Audionics, which--along with the NAD--is in turn hooked up to the Rotel.

I bought a refurbished Martin Logan Dynamo 12" sealed sub for $583. It is connected through LFE to the Rotel. The main issue is that it makes me feel nauseous. This is so weird to me. I have never heard of that before. I feel unsettled and just plain physically sick. Some additional points:

1. It's better if I set the Low Pass Filter to 35-40 Hz, so it isn't in the same range as the CS2's. But I can still sense it.

2. It's also better if I set the volume incredibly low. In fact anything past the barest minimum volume on this makes me feel bad, and overwhelms the speakers.

3. I have played around with the Phase selection and this doesn't seem to affect anything.

It seems to me that if I have to set something at the barest level and it still doesn't sound great, I don't have the right sub, or the right set up. Do I need something smaller? Or a different brand or set up?

It's in a roughly 10' by 30' space with sloped ceilings.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!