Considering thiel 3.6 but need feedback

i have the same size room, and am intersted in the same speaker. my showroom listening (i have not had any thiels at home yet) has sold me on the fact that i need to go down one model. either to the 2.3 or 2.4. the main reason is these speakers will just be too big for my room. the sound will not have enough time to align properly before it hits my ears without putting the speakers on the back wall and me sitting right against the front wall, which will be a disaster for listening. sitting too close also did not sound natural to me. it seems like you need to be able to set 12-14 or so feet away from the 3.6's for good time alignment. the 2.3's maybe only 8-10.

According to Thiel, ideally you should be have the speakers about 3 feet from the back wall, 5 feet from the side walls, 10 feet between each other and 10 feet from the listening position. Also, acording to Thiel, as little as 1 foot from the rear wall, 3 feet from the side walls, 8 feet between each speaker and 8 feet from the listening position will still provide satisfactory results. Every room is different, YMMV.

I've owned Thiel 3.6's for several years. I've had best results with them 2.5 to 3 feet from the wall. You might also consider dedicated Sound Anchor platforms. They really snap the image into sharper focus.

Without hesitation, I would go to one of the new generation Thiels--1.6 or 2.4. (Is a new 3.6 in the works??) Why buy into the prior generation? I've never heard a speaker that sounds right, or "better," close to the wall. I say adamantly that speakers ALWAYS sound better away from the wall. More bass is not good bass, and everything else suffers. The soundstage goes flat, images are not focused, the picture gets fuzzy, and there is a general loss of coherence. Of course, it's up to you and your room. But please, pull the speakers away form the wall in 2-foot increments, and see what happens to all the features I mention. Good luck.

I have these speakers, they are excellent but they need room to really shine. They need at least 8 feet between them, at least 3 feet from sidewalls and the further you can get them from the front wall the better. Now that is the optimum setup, most don't have the room. I am fortunate that I do, I have experimented to great extent with placement. They become more transparent with space but more importantly they become less boxey and more open and natural sounding especially with guitar, I'm talking realism. They also pass whatever is fed, you will find out what upstream is made of, tubes in the preamp is the way to go IMO. Hope this helps, just my experience. Good luck with your decision.

Thiels are great speakers but do need proper room placement. Many times I have heard them at dealers and they weren't showcased at their best. But I also heard them at the Thiel factory in Lexington, KY where they sounded better. You might also consider the new 2.4s. Usually the newest designs incorporate the latest technology. The 3.6s will probably have better bass, but the rest of the frequency spectrum - have a listen.

Not necessarily. My Thiels have the most even/extended bass response when placed 1' from the wall and 14' from my sitting position. Also Thiels are designed for farfield listening so you will want to strike a compromise between pulling the speakers out from the wall and still be able to sit a good distance away from them. If you have a little extra money, get a used TacT RCS 2.0. This is an invaluable toold in getting optimum response from your system in a room. Assuming you have a digital source.

My room is about 14' by 20'. I have my 3.6's also on the short wall, but they're about 3' from the wall, with the front baffle over 4' from the wall. They're about 2.5' from the side walls, and toed in slightly.

My equipment is Denon DCD1650AR/Dodson DA217MkIID/Bat VK-20/Aragon 8008BB. Great soundstage, and great bass, too. I'm very happy with the 3.6's.

Good luck!

I have room 15'x18' and Thiels 3.6, they in my case had to be moved 2.5' from rear wall. I have them against short wall to. Very good soundstage but not much bass in my setup.