Thiel replacements

I have 3.6's, and they image very well, but as others have alluded, are very sensitive to upstream gear. For soundstage, I found the biggest improvement in my system by upgrading the amps. After auditioning several amps, I ended up buying a pair of Theta Enterprises, and they present a very deep and wide soundstage with my Thiels. Instruments are well placed, and you really don't hear the speakers at all. In fact, if you close your eyes, you really can't hear them at all, though most of the soundstage is between the speakers. I have mine about 11' apart, and my listening position is about 10' from each. For speaker cables, I tried lower end MIT, but wasn't happy, so I upgraded to Cardas Neutral Reference, and I am very happy with them.

Tom.

Thanks for passing on your accumulated knowledge, Ex. Your advice is helping me as well. My room is even more of a mess than Kevin's (I think), with two hallways, and a doublewide sliding glass door leading off of it, but worst of all, with an open archway right behind my listening position. After messing with location, I have my Thiels setup where the imaging is very good, but the bass response of that room has always been pathetic. A Velodyne DD-12 has greatly helped that problem, though. I'm now down to looking into room treatments to fine tune a bit. Your comments have given me some good ideas and inspiration. Great point about endless gear upgrades that are really a fruitless attempt to correct for room anomalies.

Thanks again for sharing, Tom.

I have had a somewhat similar experience to Akaddict's. When I decided to upgrade my amps (I had two Adcom GFA-555II's in bridged mono), I took my 3.6's into my dealer and tried them with a number of amps. With a Krell source and Spectral pre (and hugely expensive MIT cables), the 3.6's were able to reveal every detail and nuance of each of the amps used with them. I couldn't believe how good they sounded with the Theta Enterprises, and even though it might seem like overspending on the amp side in relation to the cost of a pair of 3.6's (which I had previously acquired used), I figure that if the 3.6's can reveal all the good things that the big Thetas are doing, and sound fantastic in the process, then why worry?

You will often hear about how Thiel speakers are revealing with regard to their associated equipment. While it is true that they may highlight other system flaws, I can say from firsthand experience that when you associate them with great gear, Thiels will let you hear how good this "great gear" is. I find that very impressive, myself.

Tom.

Pops - I have a terrible room, from an acoustics perspective. Past my left speaker, it opens out into two hallways (one continuing along the same plane as the front speakers, and one running at a 90 degree angle heading behind and away from the listening plane), and the remainder of the room also opens up off to the left. On the right side, I am closer to the wall, about three feet from the side, perhaps slightly less. The speakers themselves are about 11-12 feet apart, and they are about 18" from the rear wall (I might be able to get another couple of inches before WAF and fear of toddlers become the controlling factors).

In my room, with some rearrangement of furniture (but no dedicated sound treatments), and with the addition of a Velodyne DD-12 sub (which allows for a great deal of tweaking), I have my Thiels sounding "pretty darn good" to "very good." If you are wondering, yes, my room has huge bass issues, as in addition to those two hallways, my rear wall is really an archway, and I also have a very large sliding glass door along one wall. Plus, I have a very high, sloping ceiling. Without such issues, the 3.6's certainly do not require a subwoofer. However, in my dealer's room (which is not ideal, being an older building converted to use as an audio retailer, but is fairly well treated), the same or similar associated gear with my 3.6's is "extremely impressive" to "awesome." Obviously, I am using my own subjective scale, here, but the bottom line is that in a well adjusted room, with quality (and synergistic) associated equipment, Thiel speakers (especially the 3.6's, IMHO) will really show off what the rest of the gear can do, even when the associated equipment costs much more than the Thiels.

As always, though, your mileage may vary.

Tom.