Thiel replacements

Thanks for all the good info so far, although it's not exactly what I wanted to hear.

I moved the speakers apart another 1'+ and moved my seat back about another foot. It did seem to help a little, but its not there yet. Instruments that were before cluttered around the center image have been moved out slightly and have a little room to breath. On recordings where instruments are placed further away from center, though, the sounds seem to still be coming directly from the speakers.

I can't position the speakers along the long wall because the listening position will not be far enough away. The way I have it now is the best it's ever going to get (room wise). I may try some different cables, though, if I can find somewhere that will loan them to me.

I tried switching the polarity on one speaker, and it obviously made the situation worse. It sounded like a mess. It was very fatiguing and nerve wracking, even after a minute of listening. The center image was gone, but it would come back slightly if I switched to mono. Is this consistent with others' observations when switching the polarity on one speaker?

Now, to answer a few questions that have been asked...

Vader, the only room treatment I have is on the front wall between the speakers.

Drubin, the speakers are new (to me), and they have never worked for me. It's tough for me to say what I like about the Thiels. I can say that they are much too harsh, though. They could really use some calming down. Any thoughts?

David, the bass EQ was bad... made horrible noise (actually just a buzz).

I'm already using spikes. I noticed that these helped bass tighten up.

So, of the guys who have owned Thiels in the past... what do you own now? I'm also wondering what speakers would be similar performance wise for about 1K used that would work in a smaller room like mine AND work with my equipment. I listen to jazz and jazz based rock music mostly.

Please keep the info coming. I'm learning a lot about Thiels from this thread!

Exertfluffer,
I agree with you when you say i have an "acoustically" larger room than 13X8 because of the opening in the wall where the left speaker is. The opening is 6' wide, and the speaker is more of less centered in it. The ceiling is 8'. The right wall has no treatments, and the rear wall has another opening that is 4.5' wide and almost centered behind my listening position. The front wall actually has a small couch along it, and the "treatments" are big pillows standing up on top of the couch's back. It sounds ridiculous, i know, but i'm just playing around here. The room is in a state of disarray because i'm trying to get the stereo to work.

What do you mean when you say that the right speaker is getting a double reflection back to my ears immediately after the direct response from the speaker? i know one reflection comes from the wall... where does the other one come from?

Ozfly, I have no opportunities to borrow different equipment as i don't know anyone who is into audio.

Gnobber, I don't think there are any big problems with either one of the speakers. I talked to Shari at Thiel about this, and she told me to do the pillow test. Short of driving the Thiels to Kentucky for testing, it's the only way to see if something is wrong. Anyway, she told me to get a soft pillow and cover all but one driver and listen closely and carefully with my ear right up to the driver. If you hear clean, clear sound, the driver is good. I did this for all six drivers and nothing seemed awry. At this time I was using a very old cd player, and she thought that was most likely the cause of the problem I was having. She was partly right. When I put the new player in I at least noticed center images which I did not have before.