Thiel Owners

FWIW, if anyone has experience and opinions about the Gaia vs standard Thiel spikes, I'm interested in hearing about it.

I use the original spikes with the outriggers, i will report back once i receive my Gaia 2s.

@tomthiel great info!

I just managed to swap the listening position to allow for a longer distance from the speaker to the listening position as recommended from the user manual. Initially was about 4.5 feet and now to about 6 feet. But distance from the back wall is now about 1 feet from about 4 feet. The speakers sounded different now, the brightness that I experience earlier was totally gone. The bass is much reinforced. However the soundstage height and depth seems to have suffered as the speakers are closer to the rear wall. I am not sure why the soundstage height is shorter now. I suspect that the distance between the listening position and the speakers affected it.

It really is a very interesting speaker.

The CS1.5 spent its whole life on Stereophile’s Class A (limited bass) list. But its design constraints are real - a seated listener at least 100" away. Also, the only baked-in timbral balance assumption is that it is on a floor. The anechoic (no floor) frequency balance is shelved down 2dB below 200 Hz such that floor placement makes it flat.) Placement relative to walls, including the wall behind it, greatly affects amplitude and quality of bass. Your stage height observation is due to spectral interference from lobing of the individual drivers. Those propagation patterns integrate beyond about 8’ listening distance. I suspect you can get it close to right by careful attention to ear height and cabinet tilt. You gain some positional flexibility by listening up to 25° off axis (which would be straight-ahead at 10'.) If you have placed your speakers along the room’s diagonal axis, then the side wall reflection will be greatly reduced. If not, the Thiel wide-dispersion characteristic works against you in that small room.