Thiel Owners

dsper

Nice room dimensions and set-up.  

Happy Listening!

jazzman7

Nice catch! I hope those 2.4 speakers find the next good home.

Happy Listening!

tomthiel

in your hot rod garage and studio, which sources (CD, Downloads, Vinyl) are you using to test the speakers?  I recall you bought a Sony ES SCD-1 reference player at one point.

Happy Listening!

JAFant - Nothing very fancy, but chosen for neutrality and high value.I did indeed buy the Thiel Audio Sony ES SCD-1 at auction. It played a few discs beautifully and then failed. Long story shortened, I want to sell it with its upgraded internals and a back-up NOS laser to someone who can deal with it. PMs welcome.
My workhorse is a PS Audio Stellar Gain Cell DAC/Preamp which accepts digital and analog inputs, with balanced, RCA or headphone output. Nice, flexible, affordable unit.

My CD player is Thiel's original Philips CD-80 which was their flagship in the (1985?) day. I use both analog and digital output. It holds its own in comparison with some newer, pricier stuff - and it's what I have and have known since 1985.
My turntable is a Rotel LP900 with a decent Ortophon MM cartridge. The Classé DR6 has a decent MC/MM phono preamp. 

I store downloads on a SS memory card and play through iTunes or Audacity on my MacBook Pro using USB out to the PS Stellar. Audacity supports up to PCM 24/192kHz. These days most of my production session evaluation takes arrive in the form of emailed files or on a USB stick at 24/96.

The lion's share of my everyday source material is RedBook 16x44.1 CDs. Part of that is because I track producers, recordists, mixers and mastering houses to have a better idea what I'm listening to. I make notes on the jacket. And the CD-80 has good remote control and time code for easy A/B and recall.

I know this old-school and entry level stuff is less than impressive to most audiophiles. But it works for me, and I've never been embarrassed when comparing against other gear. But of course, there is something in the works. PS Audio is introducing a PerfectWave SACD player that plays everything listed above plus SACD as raw DSD out via their I2S cable to the Stellar converter. That will give me universal high resolution capability, which I have wanted for years.

Thieliste - I don't have 3.7s, but can speak in general to your listening angle question. I believe the biggest factor is the room. Jim designed all the floor-stranders to be fired straight ahead if the room can support that. Their cross points are unusually low to better balance the in-room power response with the on-axis direct response. Add the fact that drivers usually have some hot-spot beaming directly on axis - their smoothest response is around 15° off axis.

That said, nearly everyone uses them with the focal point somewhere behind your head, perhaps 5 to 10° off axis. Notable exceptions include the Thiel listening room and Tom Jung's mastering room with CS5s. Thiel speakers with their long, slow roll-offs exhibit less than perfect FR graphs, which are decidedly smoother and flatter at 15 to 20° off axis. I believe the discrepancy is that most rooms have side walls too close and too reflective to properly support Thiel's wide polar pattern. Those reflections are more onerous than the FR hot-spots on axis.

I suggest that you might try bringing the speakers closer together, perhaps 7' or even 6' C to C, and fire straight or nearly straight ahead. A 10' from baseline listening distance puts your listening angle at the 15 to 20° sweet spot. If the sound is less harsh when toed in, try instead putting some absorptive or diffractive material on the mirror-spot on the side wall. At best you can get greater image width, solid center fill, and smoother frequency response with no down-sides.

I realize I'm going against common wisdom that the wider the stance the better. In a large room like Thiel or DMP, you can get both. 9-10' spread and straight ahead with 12' listening distance approaches ideal in my experience. But smaller rooms reduce possibilities. In my opinion, most people toe in when the might be better served by narrowing the stance.