Thiel Owners

These comparative observations are quite interesting to me. As you know, Jim developed new technologies throughout his inventive career. Each new product incorporated something, or multiple things that were brand new. So the timeline becomes a parallel consideration to the model capability. Bigger, more expensive models bring greater dynamic range and deeper bass. More drivers can deliver better signal integrity spread more evenly across the musical range. The time factor / when the model came out, brings subtlety and sophistication due to new solutions, primarily in driver subtleties, especially after Thiel began making its own drivers in the mid 1990s.

jafant,

I am using a Coda amplifier with an Ayre preamplifier and for sources I have a Meridian CD Player and Pro-ject Turntable, most of my music is on CD. Together it all sounds very nice, with tons of detail and sound-stage.  I have a dynaudio active studio system that is very different and I like having the less forward presentation from the Thiels for listening.  The only thing that seems like it would be a significant upgrade is going from the cs 1.6 to a larger speaker where I am looking for more "presence" in the mids and low end. I have decided on the 2.4 and will post some comments in the near future, hopefully the amp matching will be successful and I don't feel the need to go back down that road again.

halifax,

A consideration worth noting is the volume of your listening room. If it's on the smaller side then by default you will rule out the CS6 as they need a little elbow room to hear their potential. 

Another consideration are amps. You mentioned bass. To drive the CS6 or even the CS 2.4 you will need amps that can push some current and Class A being at the top of that list. 

Another consideration is the upgrade path you can take on xovers with the CS2.4 which Tom Thiel has been very generous with his time to help members. You will no doubt extract more performance from this upgrade. 

I'm holding out for the upgrade xovers for the big Thiel's. 

FWIW - room size is a many-faceted thing. When we purpose built Thiel’s listening room, Jim specified a maximum size of 11,000 cubic feet. A larger room requires greater woofer excursion, which is difficult and expensive to achieve. That room works nicely with non-subwoofered models from CS2 upward. The larger Thiels didn’t over-drive that room unless really cranked. The room had 4 doors that could be opened to vent the bass if needed.

I suspect a room much larger than that one might require subwoofer support to pressureize the room and keep the woofers from flapping.

I’m off early tomorrow morning to see Bill Thalmann, pick up a pair of 2.4s and 7.2s under the guise of my niece’s wedding. I’ll report when I return next week.