Upgrade Thiel CS3.6 to CS6??

I think the problem here is that Thiel CS6 and up are not your average speaker. They require very high output amps to even come close to understanding what performance exists. A quick store demo with these level speakers not paired to the right amp is a waste of time.

The 2.4's are a great speaker, they are slightly better than the 3.6 but neither can manage what the CS6 can do powered correctly. What makes them attractive is the performance using a reasonable powered amplifier.

With that all said the Thiel CS6 is for very large soundstage at high levels and is not suited for small light listening like the lower lines. If you prefer to push the limits the Thiel CS6 comes alive at 500+ watts of quality power and the performance will amaze anyone. The top end blows away B&W in this regime and set up properly has all the bass response one could ask for sans subwoofer.

Mark,

You absolutely need to do an in home demo of the CS6 with proper amplification before crossing it off the list. While Jim Thiel is always improving his product and learning better ways to make a speaker his new products do not make his past lines obsolete by any means. Whether you love or hate Thiel you have to respect a manufacturer who can make their own drivers that can withstand very high input levels sustained.

Thanks,

"if you have a preference to rock music I would rethink about purchasing Thiels, just my opinion" excerpted from a post by Chryslers Rule

Yeah, well he likes Rock and that's just your opinion. In his room your suggested wattage would mean his system would be outputting 112dB at his seating position, so this is not practical and likely speaker damage danger zone. I can't believe you haven't blown up your speakers yet. You have a very special pair of CS6's.

Stevecham;

I bet you love the percussive hits of the drums and the sense that the guitars and brass have real sense of bite to them. You can't get that kind of clarity with the other speakers. The 6's just seem to highlight the instruments in the stage with a pinpoint accuracy that your Dynaudios and the 2.4's cannot match correct?

Tell me I'm wrong and I'm on the j :)

Well, this thread certainly has opened up Pandora's box. All of your opinions are well taken and appreciated. I was unaware that a 3.7 was on the horizon. Perhaps, I ought to wait to see what fruits it might bear.

I still haven't made any decisions. I have already bid on the CS6, but I have a feeling that my max bid will not stand up. I certainly think the seller would not want to let go of these for less than 1/3 the original cost, even though there is no reserve price. At the current level of bidding I would be stealing these if the auction ended right now. There are still 5 more days for the auction to progress.

Again, considering the CS6. Is a Mark Levinson 23.5 sufficient to drive this speaker to a reasonable level of performance? It can definitely provide 400 WPC continuous into a 4 ohm load.

I am still quite happy with my CS3.6's, and really would rather keep them, if the consensus is that the CS6 is not much (if any) of an upgrade. Otherwise, the logical step would be to wait and see what the 3.7 will bring to the table.

Your Levinson amp is quite capable of driving the Thiels to a satisfactory level for best performance. Whether or not the 6's are a substantial enough upgrade over the 3.6's is something you must decide. In my opinion they are especially given their price on the used market but again you must decide. The 6.0's are far superior, again in my opinion, over the 2.4's. Thiels tend to have a common sound quality through-out their line. The bigger models simply dig deeper and extend higher and with better clarity and more detail than their lessor models. Hope this helps.

Chuck

Let me present my hidden agenda

http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/218/index4.html

http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/216/index6.html

http://www.soundstagemagazine.com/measurements/thiel_cs24/

I was waiting for this, above in these links to measurements you can see the difference between the 2.4, CS6 and the 7.2 which uses a Gen 2 version of the coincident driver. Atleast 10% smoother than gen. 1

I have a personal opinion and I expressed it, but let me state clearly that the CS6 fans have every right to their opinion about the sound. Funny thing is they have honed in on certain aspects of the sound that makes the CS6 unique to the 2.4. When looking at the maesurements the only thing i would argue is the CS6 having a better midrange, because if we just look at the data that would be hard to substantiate. But it may be their preference. What I'm trying to show is that people have preferences and satisfying those preferences is all anyone needs to worry about but when you're giving advice in a forum its not good enough to simply say its better...better why? How....how can you justify an 8dB dip in the midrange as superior? See a few paragraphs down for why and how.

So as the victim ( I mean original poster) how do you know which way to go? Measurements help guide the way if you can quantify them into what you like and be honest with yourself if something you like does not fit a "technical" ideal. tube guys have grown a sense of humor about this and distortion #'s do not matter and no longer explode into a thousand post thread of misunderstanding. They accept the technical flaw and get what they want from the sound.

Looking at these measurements there is no wonder that you will have people on distinct sides of the fence regarding these two speakers. They are dramatically different which debunks a few erroneous statements that all Thiel speakers sound alike. And also that the "lessor" models aren't as extended as the the moror? models. The 2.4 gives up 5 hz in bass extension to CS6 (somewhat insignificant to the original poster) and has a tweeter that is flat to 24Khz. And well since my preference is for Flat speakers with an excellent power response there's no wonder I like the 2.4 so much relative to the CS6.

I know most of you haven't done the research I have but the CS6 is an imaging machine, that dip in the upper mids is a trick found on the 2.3 and the early CS7 and about a thousand other wanabe high end speakers. Folks look long and hard at what a great imaging speaker measures like. And feel free to move through the remarkable amount of speakers that use this trick to image (Wilson Watt puppy's)etc.

Since I do not use my speakers like a TV, this is lost on me and the metallic tinge it creates to the violins leaves me cold. This is typically the price paid for great imaging a slight nasal character or metallic sound to strings, there are others but this coloration is very consistent from speaker to speaker.

Thing is if you like the CS6 this what you like and if you like the 2.4 that is what you like and nobody can criticize that opinion until you make unsubstantiated comments about better and best or is technically impossible.

I admit to looking hypocritical through my earlier post but it was to reach this end...have a good reason based in fact, audio is not some random crapshoot, there are real things going on that can be counted on and measured. there will always be a surprise here and there but that is the anomally not a reason to throughout the rules.

Review outlets are givng you some facts you can work with, use them to build some knowledge on real materials not some writers ability for digging superlatives out of the thesaurus. These products are expensive and if you care so much about it why not learn the facts not the BS.

I don't mean to belittle anyone and any insults by stating the obvious or what appears to be assumption about, anyone or any group and what those people know was likely a result of my writing for a wide audience and the effort to keep this as short as possible.

Thanks for reading my post,
have a good one

Doug