Thiel Owners

Thanks for your welcome jafant, 

I currently have 3 Thiel systems, my main 2 channel system, a home theater system and a small home recording system. I have had a lot of things pass through the systems here. From Thiel- 1.5, 2.3, SCS3, 3.6. I have had Adcom, McCormack, Ayre, Krell, Classe, Sonic Frontiers, ARC and Spectral. As a source I use primarily a ClearAudio turntable with Lyra cartridge. I haven't heard anything more transparent, dynamic, resolving and ultimately musical than Spectral. It just sounds harmonically correct. Every recording sounds different and the imaging and soundstaging are spectacular. Having Spectral mandates a use of MIT cables (my amps came with warning stickers sealing the bag.) I take some comfort in knowing which cables were used in the design of the electronics. I have a number of ASC tubetraps in my listening room and I listen on the short dimension of the room to maximize the distance from the speakers to sidewalls. 

In my opinion, Thiels have a/n (unfair) reputation of being lively (kindly) in the upper octaves or bright. When I have heard systems that sound bright, the speakers are usually too close to untreated side walls, too close together or toed-in too far. I find that ideally they need at least 5 feet from the outside of the cabinet to the nearest wall, slightly wider placement than an equilateral triangle with minimal toe-in. This, in my system, allows for the tonality of instruments to be same whether they are panned left or right or in the center of the soundstage. It also seems to help with eliminate the soundstage curving in or out in the center as the sound passes from left to right (etc.) Some distance from the listening position to the speakers is needed for the drivers to sound cohesive- with the 2.3s over 9' seems to work well. I am sure all of you have as much or more experience setting up your speakers, this is just a personal observation.

During my recent downtime with my 2.3 coaxes off to Rob, I pulled a pair of 1.5s into the main system. I had forgotten how good those can be. 

After leaving my desk at Thiel, I wanted to show them some appreciation to the folks on Nandino Blvd for my time there. I ordered my 2.3s with the specification that they were to be in birdseye maple and stained a "fun" color. They sent some samples and I chose a bright red finish. I will never sell them.

Thanks again for your welcome to the forum :)

Hello fellow Thiel owners!

Just wanted to give you all an update on my system: today, I was finally able to secure a second ARC D240 MKII ss amp to go with my current one.  As an added plus, I bought it locally from a fellow Thiel owner (he has mint CS 5i's in one of his systems...gorgeous speakers that sounded even better) and was able to spend time with him listening to some jazz and talking about our great hobby.

Running these amps in bridged mode will give each of my CS 3.5's 480 watts @ 8 ohms.  Mated to my tube ARC LS7 line-stage and tube ARC PH3 phono preamp, I'm feeling that I have a system that I can finally be satisfied with from both power and sonic standpoints.

Unfortunately, will have to wait for the weekend before I can listen to my system in "monoblock" configuration as business travel calls, but will definitely let you guys know how it goes once it's all setup and running.

Finally, to contribute to the cable discussion, I'm using Audioquest Golden Gate RCA for all my source interconnects, MIT Terminator 2 RCA interconnects from my LS7 to the Thiel 3.5 Bass Equalizer and to the amps.  Speaker wires are MIT AVT-3.

Thanks and hope you are all doing well!

Arvin C

As I understand is that the Thiel 1.5 was/is quite a good speaker.

I got the CS1.5s a few months after they were introduced. It has more bass than it has a right to have, it is small and easy relatively to set up. They seem to forgive not having exotic electronics/cables but will resolve any upgrade you make. The replacement CS1.6 did transients better and were more dramatic to listen to (new woofer design and increased sensitivity maybe) but I think the 1.5s are exceptional with both male and female voices. In my rooms and systems the soundstage with the 1.5 always starts just behind the speaker which tends to draw me into the recordings.

@ rascs
Finally, someone with Spectral/Thiel! I'm currently on the "mid-burner" spectrum to upgrade my Classe 300 amp that I use with my 3.7s. Tell us,is that a full Spectral ensemble, or just the amp, or what?  Thanks!