Upgrading from Thiel 2.7 to Sonus Faber or Focal???

There’s a nice pair of Joseph Audio Pearl 3s available here now for about $18k if that’s in your budget.  Game, set, match. 

The only time and phase-aligned speaker is Vandersteen at this point.  It might suit your ear. 

For my smallish room, I demoed the Magico A3 and was also considering the Kanata 2 because of the ease of placement (never demoed it). However, I went with a used Thiel CS3.7 (that I completely rebuilt), I think it is still a great choice and definitely not a step down from any of the speakers I demoed. It is rather difficult to drive though. Maybe your 2.7 needs more power. I have no clue about your amp or the specs on the 2.7. I am just going by my experience with the 3.7.

I demoed the following:

Magico A3
Vivid Kaya 90
TAD ME1
Paradigm Persona 3F/5F
Vandersteen Treo CT
Yamaha NS5000*

*The Yamaha is the only one that I liked as much as the 3.7. I need to navigate some house politics before I can buy the Yamaha for another room. It has more bass than the 3.7 and is a little warmer (maybe). You can get home demos of the Yamaha from the online seller.

Definitely not Focals if you want warm, though they are warmER than Thiels.

I think the 2.7 has the same COAX as the 3.7. If so, the Focal is definitely not as warm as the Thiel.

Might be worth getting REW, a UMIK-1 calibrated USB microphone, and doing a frequency sweep of your room.

This is a great suggestion. I did the same to get my large speakers to fit into my small room (plus some other things with the data).

Well, it's all subjective but...


I have the Thiel 2.7s and love them (Also owned the bigger 3.7s).I actually find my 2.7s to sound rather rich and even "warm" (I'm partial to rich sound - I also own Spendors for instance).  Though I'm driving them with tubes, CJ premier 12 monoblocks.  They still sound rich even driven by the Bryston 4B3 I have on loan. 



Having auditioned the Focal Kanta speakers and and the Magico A3, I certainly wouldn't call either of those speakers warmer than the Thiels.Just the opposite IMO.   The Focal will give you a more toppy high end - grain free, but more vivid.   They are warm in the bass, but not in the mids/highs IMO.



Magico is very "audiophile" in the sense that when listening you know you are listening to a highly engineered product with very low coloration and box colorations reduced to negligible.  Quite detailed.  But I found them actually a bit more fatiguing and more analytical than my Thiels.And most of all, to my ears, less dynamic.   I played some of my favorite tracks and the palpability and drive seemed to be missing.   When I got home and played them on my Thiels that density and dynamic drive was back.


Of course, those are just my own impressions.   But it is a little hard to get at what you want, when you mention wanting "warmer" while mentioning speakers that are not known for "warmth" but the opposite if anything.