Current Thiel and Aerial owners-- please comment..

I owned Aerial 10's and changed to Montana EPS's. (Both driven with tubes.) However, just about any speaker needs to be away from the wall.

Thanks for the thoughts. To answer your electronics question:
I currently have Threshold amplification (Cary pre-). Avguygeorge, good point about placement; however, I think WAF would improve if I could reduce the distance to the front wall by a foot or two.

Check out Revel studios or the performa serials. I always loved Thiels and agree they need the right engine to drive, but finally purchased Revel Studios. These have something of the analytical style of the thiels with more mid range. A tad more musical although still somewhat unforgiving of poor equipment.

Wilson Sophia's should be considered as well.

First of all, I hope your relationship with your wife is solid, otherwise what's yours is hers. Mine is the Jazzmama on WMNF 88.5, she is picky about her music and how it sounds. She loves our Thiel 3.6 speakers aquired last year. The 3.6 offers greater frequency extention at both extremes, and greater transparency, detail and 3-dimentionality.

We replaced our Thiel 22's with the 3.6's and consider ourselves very fortunate to be in the top 3% of gear owners. We are using Levinson ML 2 monoblocks ( With a Threshold T-50 backup) with 390S cd player/processor. Also use Linn Axis w/ Grado Reference Master and a Levine phono preamp. Both sources directly drive amps. We have availiable Purist Audio Design Cables, latest generation if you need any.

No one complains about our system when they come to audition and our audio friends are very skeptical folks. We are now listening to the performance not the gear.

At this level good source results in great sound, conversely, mediocre source is not a fun time.