Thiel Owners


Guys-

I just scored a sweet pair of CS 2.4SE loudspeakers. Anyone else currently or previously owned this model?
Owners of the CS 2.4 or CS 2.7 are free to chime in as well. Thiel are excellent w/ both tubed or solid-state gear!

Keep me posted & Happy Listening!
128x128jafant
Hello brettmcee,  I will chime in.  I have had my CS6 speakers for 16 years now.  I know them pretty well.  As far as amplification they need lots of current.  The impedance drops to 1 ohm at some frequencies.  As a rule if your amp can double wattage from 8 to 4 and then from 4 to 2 ohms then it should handle the Thiels.  But another important consideration is a dedicated power line to your amp.  That also helps the sound quite a bit.  Next, placement:  I find the Thiels sound best when at least 8 ft apart on centers to get a good large sound stage.  I also find that the bass sounds best when the center of the tweeters are 4.5 to 5 feet from the side walls and 5 feet from the back walls.  Yes, they take a large room, in my experience to sound their best.  At those dimensions, I toe the speakers in just a bit, like 1/4 to 1/2" front to back to bring the imaging into sharp focus.  Too much toe in and the imaging gets too much in your face and the large holographic sound stage starts to collapse.  I also find tilting the speakers back slightly affects the sound.  Try tilting the speakers back such that a level on top of the speaker front to back is off by 1/3 bubble.  That should help with the hollow sound.
Now, about the floor.  The CS6 speakers will interact with the floor even when using spikes.  Without spikes you do not stand a chance.  The speakers must be decoupled from the floor to clean up the bass.  Carpeting seems to suck the life out of the music.  I have my CS6 speakers in a carpeted room too (but I am getting hardwood installed any day now) so I have the speakers sitting on stone tiles.  I tried wood boards and stone.  I preferred their sound standing on their spikes on stone tiles on the carpeted floor.  In my last house, I had the Thiels on carpet and then changed the flooring to hardwood.  It made a big improvement in sound.  Decoupling the speakers from the floor is crucial.  
I added subwoofers to get that last 1/2 octave.  I feel I have successfully integrated the subs with my Thiels by having them roll off at 34 Hz and I phased them based on their relative position to the Thiel's woofers.
I have auditioned the Wilson Alexia 2's a couple of times now.  The Wilsons have incredible bass.  They are a little faster than the Thiels and the bass is a bit cleaner.   The problem is that it is not a hands down massive difference.  The Thiels do some things better actually.  So I'm struggling with the idea of changing speakers because I'm asking myself if I will really move up or am I just looking to change for the sake of change.  
The Thiels can be very rewarding.  Even after 16 years they still give me goosebumps and can move me to tears.  These things are very nearly timeless.
duramax747

Welcome! Good to see you here. What other gear rounds out your system? I look forward in reading more about musical tastes.

Happy Listening!
thoft - I’ll pick up this SCS4t query. It is a regular SCS4 on a built-in stand which is acoustically non-functional. The stand provides no bass boost or any other function than to elevate the speaker. I have an SCS4 here - the final iteration of the 02-SCS series. It uses the coax PowerDriver that inhabits all the 6.5" HT models. It is a well developed driver with all the Thiel special sauces. The twin ports seem to be some sort of tractrix or similar advanced room coupling form, but they present a rather convoluted baffle plane for the waveform launch. Perhaps the unbraced cabinet might have some resonances. All that said, I don’t warm up to the SCS4; it presents a somewhat hollow and edgy sound compared to many other Thiel speakers.  In my experience (far from all Thiel speakers) I would place it as the weakest entry for dedicated music listening; but it's probably a pretty good Home Theater contender.

As an aside, I use one (or two) SCS4s on stands for live sound reinforcement in a small venue where it shreds the regular contenders. Try to get an audition against some known speaker of your choice.