Red herring lost in a forest of speakers, memories


Hello all you 'goners, I need some help.

I have been racking my brain, computer and internet connection trying to remember a speaker that seemed to strike a chord with me a while back, well at least the review I had read did.

Unfortunately I have had no luck in retracing my memory or steps treaded online and have been going a bit crazy since I cannot remember the name or even the speaker manufacturer... which makes it a little tough to find again in spite of my best efforts. I had found it inadvertently, I believe in another audio chat room(cannot remember which one) while I was doing some research on potential speaker upgrades.

Anyway, I will tell you what I do recall and hopefully with those pieces somebody will be able to put it all together and tell me the name of the speaker and manufacturer.

Well, it was a floorstanding speaker with fairly small dimensions as well as footprints, being upright it had a traditional rectangular look(which is my taste), although it may have been slightly slanted or angled backwards, in fact I think it probably was. Also I believe it was front-ported near the bottom of the speaker. FWIW, In the review I had read it was colored, perhaps painted a very rich and "woody" brown maybe a "coffee" color if you will. Of course there may be other colors available as well. I hope that makes sense.

Anyway, I am not sure, but I think the manufacturer had the word "acoustic" or "acoustics" in its name, although it is not Totem, Aerial or Silverline Acoustics. The model may have been something like the C5 or CS5(but not a center-channel)and had a suggested retail of either $6,995 or $7,995 well at least somewhere in that price range at the time of the reviews writing a few years ago.

Thinking back, I believe I read about it on the Stereophile website after I had Googled it, getting the name from another audio chatroom. I think it, the speaker was introduced with positive reviews at some audio show back in 2005, give or take a few years. I have spent hours scouring the Stereophile site looking for that review but have had no luck.

It may not be the best speaker in the world or even a good one for that matter(I haven't yet heard it), but it has struck my fancy and I have become my namesake, obsessed in trying to find it as the aesthetics and sonic potentials appealed to me.

Well, now you know what I know as best as I can remember it, any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated as they would be very helpful to my sanity.

Thanks.
audio_obsessed_novic
Maybe Thiel CS 5? There's a pair for sale now on A-goN, with a photo. Let us know if that's it.

Oh, and Thiel is often misspelled. Also try searching Theil as well as Thiel. Both spelling are currently found in the AudiogoN search and there is a pair of CS 5s listed under both spellings.

Enjoy,

TIC
Another possibility is the Thiel CS.5. It is the small version of the older style Thiel speaker. It is front/bottom ported, angles back and comes in dark walnut. The Thiel CS.5 is the smallest of the old series and the Thiel CS5i is a large speaker.

Enjoy,

TIC
It sounds like a Thiel, except for the price you mentioned, i.e. the CS .5 (Note the "point" before the "5").

Here's the Stereophile review:

http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/223/

Geven the price you note, check the Thiel website to see if it's actually one of their larger models that you're looking for.
Hey guys, thanks for your thoughts, but while it seems like you have reached a general consensus that Thiel is the manufacturer, making me hopeful, having checked out their website along with the listings posted here on the 'gon, I do not believe this was what I was longing for.

I think their speakers, Thiels' are a bit too wide, and the drivers don't look quite as stylish as the ones I am fantasizing about. I mean the speaker I am thinking of was quite slim, compact in size(height), and looked very sleek/stylish, elegant in its design, simply beautiful.

Oh lord......

Anyway, I will probably keep looking, and maybe I have piqued your interest and you will do the same, for who doesn't like a good mystery? Just don't go overboard and become crazy like me. LOL.

Thanks again, your help is much appreciated.
I think most people are going by your memory of a sloped design and a name like C5 or CS5. How sure are you about the name. Thiel has a model ".5" which is smaller than the rest, but its price is nowhere near your figure.

It might be useful to purchase a catalog of all audio products and browse through it, just in case something jogs the memory. Another line of attack might be to get some tech-savvy guy to look at your computer and find all of the web pages you have visited. Even your ISP has that record. :)
you may be thinking of the Gershman acoutics advant garde speaker, check out the gershman acoustics website. another possible company may be Avalon acoustics loudspeakers.

good luck!
Jim
Aktchi, yeah, I was thinking the same thing that people were going by my memory of a sloped design and the C5 model which I gave, and unfortunately it has seemed to be leading them astray in their efforts. This is entirely my fault of course, but I do have a vague recollection of those facts. So when you ask, "How sure are you about the name?", I must say not very, but then again, how sure are we about any of our memories? Ask a police officer or detective and they would likely say that most people's memory is faulty to some degree, but those who remember something are fairly confident of it and usually swear it is true.

I don't know, I am not sure about anything, but I just have the image of the speaker(probably sloped, maybe not) along with the model in my head.

And as for checking my computer and the webpages I have visited I thought about that(I actually went into my browser's history), but it would just be too tedious in that I visit just way too many sites and when a site link pops up in the same window, my internet browser may not, doesn't seem to keep a record(after I go back and move all around), of all the different pages I had been to. For example if I were to Google something and get to the results page, if I were to click on the first link and not like it and then press the left arrow to "go back" to the Google results page and click on the second link, my browser does not seem to keep a history of my having visited both pages, only the last one before I close the tab. I may be wrong, but I have checked before and this is how it appears to work to my understanding.

As for contacting my ISP, I have done that just for security/privacy purposes and they assured me that they did not keep track of the different sites I had been to, which I hope is the truth.

You say I could get, purchase a catalog of all audio products, how would I do that, from where? Also, what would it include, info for a complete listing of audio products? I was thinking though that here on Audiogon, they have a list of product manufactures and I was considering going through it when I have some time and patience. I do believe that the speaker manufacturer did have the word "acoustic" or "acoustics" in its name, but again, I am not certain about this. But it is somewhere to start looking, which is what I have been doing.

Anyway Aktchi, thanks for your suggestions I do appreciate the thought.

And Jim, believe it or not when I came back to check my post/thread for an answer yesterday to see who had responded and what had been said I was disappointed after checking out Thiel, but that immediately stirred my memory and then I went to check Avalon Acoustics certain that I had finally remembered what I was missing, but to no luck, no avail, it doesn't seem to be an Avalon speaker. Uhhhh..... I really thought that was it. I have checked out Gershman, and again no luck but thanks for the thought, intriguing, if a bit expensive. Finally, I want to point out that I forgot the name of the speaker model/manufacturer because I had looked it up a long while ago and seeing the price tag I thought it was out of my range, but now after having saved up a bit I thought maybe I could swing it or find it used because it just looked so damn good and enticing, matching my apartment's decor perfectly.

Ahhhhh.......................

Sorry about that guys, but the more I think about it the more I just ..........

Anyway, keep the ideas coming if you have any, and I will check them out like a good detective until the riddle be solved.

Thanks, the
Audio_obsessed_novic: I understand, we can all relate to such episodes. In my own experience the memory returns later, after I have stopped trying to remember. :)

That said, you should still keep trying to "triangulate" your memory from various sides. For example, even if you don't remember the name, was it long? Short? Common word? Foreign sounding? Etc. You never know what will jog somebody's mind. Although speakers are getting expensive, prices like $7000-$8000 still define a relatively small universe.

If it was sloped, that is likely to be time-aligned or time-coherent design. You could google those words and see if something looks promising.

As for the catalog of all audio products, I haven't bought one for many, many years, but they used to come out once a year.
Okay, we are going to keep trying until we solve this. In 2005 Tyler acoustics was getting alot of attention, front ported, seas drivers, many custom finishes. Give them a try, also I hope it was not the out of business now Meadowlark audio speakers. Let us know.

Jim

Audio_obsessed_novic: I understand, we can all relate to such episodes. In my own experience the memory returns later, after I have stopped trying to remember. :)

Actually Aktchi, I think the problem is that I have stopped thinking about the memory for too long, and now when I need it, my memory fails me and it is not there. See, it was probably early in this year, at least 6 months ago when I had stumbled across the speakers accidentally while doing some research on I think Totem Model 1s or Mani IIs in the AV forum or AVS forum and somebody there had mentioned another speaker which I then proceeded to look up. And yes, I know the Totem model 1 sig and Mani II are bookshelf speakers, and the ones which I am talking about are floorstanding. But honestly, I just don't know anything for sure about them, the speakers at this point, I only mention what I do because for some reason the features are stuck in my mind. But in "triangulating" things as you say, I do not think that the company had a foreign sounding name, the word sounded somewhat common but impressive/appealing, catchy to me. I do not remember its length. Also, for what is worth, because I cannot remember the name, I believe the manufacturer was relatively obscure and little known as it was not a prominent speaker brand being mentioned by many here, otherwise I would probably have better recall. For example they're not Tyler Acoustics, Vienna Acoustics or Dynaudio speakers. Nor are they Meadowlark, at least not from what info I could find on any of these speaker companies mentioned above.

Really though, I do certainly appreciate all of your guys' help with my problem. Unfortunately there seems to be too few good clues and perhaps too many red herring coming out of my memories to solve this mystery. If this doesn't work, the only thing I can think of is to try and re-trace my steps from earlier, many months ago, and hope that I get lucky and stumble upon the speakers again. But I think that would be a long shot and don't believe the endeavor holds much promise, and that really is too bad as they did seem like a pretty darn good pair of speakers for a relatively modest price.

I hope that doesn't sound like I am giving up, because I am obsessive and persistent, trusting that being so will pay off in the end.

Until then, please keep the ideas coming whatever they may be and I will proceed to check them out and let you know.

Thanks,