severe limiting factor

I just upgraded my CD player (see my above post) to a Sony DVP-555ES and boy, what a difference! I will reiterate my belief that you need to get those suckers about 8 feet apart and sit roughly 9 feet back, slightly toed in. Try out hanging some blankets at the first reflection point as others have suggested. Beg, borrow or buy a different CDP and see if that helps. I also agree with the assessment that nearfield listening with the Thiels isn't a good idea. According to Thiel, 8 feet is the distance where the time aligned sound begins to gel.

Good luck and keep us posted. FWIW my wife and I hated our Thiels when we first got them, totally unlistenable. Our first step was the Genesis Digital Lens which made it enjoyable. The Sony DVP-555ES is icing on the cake.

Newbee: After reading your response, it looks like we are pretty much on the same page. Thanks for re-affirming my faith in your good judgment : )

Other than that, i don't know what Kevin has done to try and work through this. He hasn't mentioned anything about checking polarity, etc... He may be frustrated and taking a break, i don't know. Sean
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I would have to side with Newbee on this one...as an owner of time/phase correct speakers myself...I can only say this...they are NOT space savers...part of the appeal of the time/phase sound is their SPATIAL/ATMOSPHERIC qualities...and this does require some real estate....ideally 3-4 ft from ALL walls...but to address your specific situation Ketchup....on the short wall you are going to have some(serious) reflection problems...and if you choose the long wall...you are not going to have adequate space behind the speakers to creat any depth in relation to your listening position(8-9 ft removed)...have you contacted THiel by chance with your exact dimensions? THis is giving me a MIGRAINE! LOL!

ok, i'm back :)

i've been holding off on posting, but i'm sure appreciating all the info that's been presented here.

the reason i havn't looked into the phasing issue yet is that i ordered some spade connectors that just came yesterday. i should get around to putting them on in a few days, which is when i'll check for any phasing problems. thiels are a pain with the posts are under the speakers, so the fewer number of times i have to lay them down the better!

after i put the spades on i'll mess with placement some more, then i'm going to move the system into a room thats about twice as big to see what happens.

can anyone recommend some really good jazz recordings that give a nice soundstage and imaging (preferably live recordings)? i'm sure i can search the archives for some, but i'de like to listen to something that some of you might know so i can check back and let you know how it sounds.

thanks again for all the good info!

i've been playing around and currently have some fine acoustic treatments (bath towels) hanging on the walls. this seemed to help "clean up" the music. after that, i put the speakers 6' apart, which puts them very close to the side walls, and toed them in severely as newbee recommended. they are crossing axis approximately 2 feet in front of me. i'm sitting 7.5 feet from the speakers.

so far this is the best set up for this room. finally i'm starting to get the feeling that the sound is not coming directly from the speakers. before, when the speakers were not toed in as hard but were aimed directly at me, i merely heard different instruments coming from either speaker. it was a lame attempt at imaging which didn't seem very convincing.

i'm still not exactly happy with the system and hope it can do a lot better. the true test will be when i move everything into the bigger room. hopefully i'll get around to it this weekend.