Please help with choosing speakers

How big is your room? What are the dimensions. Do you have some particular set up problems? Do your Thiels sound exactly as you would expect your new speakers to sound or are you looking for sonic improvements/changes? How much bass are you willing to give up? What kind of music do you listen to? Do you have a budget? Nice electronics - you should be able to find some excellent matches.

And when you say too large for your room do you mean you need to put them on the wall or hang them from the ceiling? Just about any speaker that goes on the floor, unless it is super slim (think the active Bang and Olufsen) is going to take up just about as much floor space as the Thiel speakers. Small moniters on stands will occupy just about as much, or more, floor space as floor standing Thiel speakers. If you must wall, or ceiling, mount then the options are much more limited. Spendor makes a nice speaker designed for wall mount as does Linn. Many speakers can be hung from the ceiling; setup is a pain but once you have it hung correctly it can work very well.

"system sounds beautiful"-- Man, I would hate to mess with something that sounds beautiful, already. Get rid of some of your furniture. Where are your priorities, Florin? peace, warren

I have a large room and 6 ft tall speakers in a sub/sat set up. The sound is awesome, but I don't like the way the towers cut up my living space.

As good as 3.6s are, they suffer from the same issue that all "full range" speakers suffer, which is the fact that bass does not load properly in the same plane that mids and tweeters do. When you separate these two functions wonderful things happen to your sound stage, and coherence.

I have on order the new 6 Seres Ushers, both the 6311 and 6371s. Bass reinforcement is supplied by a powered sub which resides slightly right of center along the back wall; contrary to hype, subs do NOT work best in corners.

Considering the recent AV Monthly 6311 review, this should be sonically close enough to what I have now, but with literally half the speaker doing it. Time will tell, but I have had various sub/sat systems here, and they always sounded quite good.

Try monitors, the JM Electras have come out with a limited edition at a more reasonable price than the mini Utopia which itself wouldn't be a bad choice used. Monitors for a small space are an excellent match. New the regular Electra Monitor is about $2000 the 926 floor stander in the Electra series is also a consideration they are list about $4000. They are rarely seen used, the Mini Utopias are about 3K+ used.

If you have a local dealer, go listen to a pair of Harbeths. Of the three systems I have, I'm really enjoying them a lot lately.

Dear Fffccc:

I have VAC 140/140's. Call Kevin Hayes at VAC and ask him for a recommendation for a more compact speaker.

Good luck.