i've owned my pair of gently used cs.5 minitowers for about 4 years now, i wouldn't own any others, they were the only speakers i tried that would work in my 14' wide tin can listening room, they image like just about no other speaker in a small room. the speakers themselves are not immediately apparent as sound sources for anything i play on them. their mono specificity is the best i've heard of any speaker in any room. best of all, unlike the bigger thiels, these are MELLOW! but still accurate, i can still "hear into" dense recordings about as well as with the last pair of maggies i heard. on the best recordings their stereo imaging is wall-to-wall with almost palpable instrument placement. they are power-hungry just like their bigger thiel brothers but not as tough a load for non-audiophile amps to power. they have the cleanest purest deep bass i've heard on anything less than a megabuck system. they pass the "sit-down-stand-up test with flying colors. wish i'd found these decades ago.