Attention Thiel CS3.7 owners

James63,

Thanks for sharing your experience with those models. It's very instructive and tends to support some of my prejudices. I am currently auditioning a number of amps and will post my impressions when I've finished this phase of the quest. In the meantime, keep the stories coming, please!

Thiels are very good speakers, but they can be bright and forward. They are difficult loads for amps. Bryson tends also to be bright and forward. I would look at a used Audio Research, Mac, BAT, the more power the merrier. Whatever you decide on, either pre-hear it all together to see if it is to your liking, or have the option to return it.

A friend drives 3.7s with Parasound JC-1s. The combination sounds pretty great to me and is, comparatively speaking, reasonably affordable.

As a long-time Thiel owner, I have found that the Thiels sound really sweet with high quality tube amps, particularly if you listen to a lot of classical music (which I do). I have auditioned, but do not currently own, the CS3.7 with both solid state and tube amps, and the tubes produce the more natural sound IMHO. Solid state electronics produce a more "etched" sound with almost holographic imaging, which can be impressive, but live music does not sound like that in my experience.

VTL and ARC are good choices but others may work well, too. I don't care for E.A.R, which I find to be very dark sounding. Just be sure the amp is good at driving low impedances because the Thiels are not particularly easy loads to drive.

07-07-13: Vhiner

"They don't produce bass below 35hz as the 3.6's do, but what they do with upper register sound is simply sublime."

That is the main reason I have not committed, I listen to a lot of classic rock and blues in a large room and the bass performance worries me a little. The 3.7's with a sub would probably be awesome, but now your are in the 20k range and the choice in speakers begins to get really interesting.