Thiel 1.5 vs. 2.3

I have auditioned both side by side, w/same system setup. The 1.5's lack any low freq resp. The 2.3's(I now own) are better balance and synergy all the way down to 32hz or so. Make sure you get the updated drivers, if you purchase an older pair of 2.3's.

I even like the 2.3's better than 3.5 or 3.6's. Remember Thiel speakers require great componets.

Good Luck
David

If you want to keep the amps for a while, and given your taste, I suggest that you listen to mellower speakers like Meadowlark, Vandersteeen or Spendor.
I have auditioned the 2.3 at lentgh, they were the brightest, most upfront speaker in the store. Looks like Thiel designed them with the home theater market in sight.

BTW, I am not anti-Thiel, I own and enjoy Thiel 3.5s.
Good luck

I have owned many Thiels, including 1.5, 2.2, 2.3, 3.6 and also Spendors and Proacs. 1.5 and 2.3 are both wonderful speakers, within the Thiel "style" of being very linear and bright sounding, and requiring a lot of current to sound their best. The 2.3 had more bass, more height and more detail than the 1.5. It is much more a full range speaker. It is also the most coherent of any of the above. The 3.6 is substantially older design than the 2.3, much more current hungry, and less linear and coherent. It does offer more thundering bass than the 2.3, but you have to have power to drive it.

It is hard to make Thiels sound seriously musical - everything in the line must be high quality and it helps to have at least one warm sounding component. Warm sounding cables will help. I used Cardas.

Owning Thiels is a commitment to endless tweaking, and hearing the flaws in your averge recordings. Your best recordings though will sound fantastic.

Thiels need long breakin. I suggest doing several overnight sessions where you wire one speaker out of phase and place them face to face. You can then crank up the volume loud but the midrange and bass energy cancel out. Caution that you don't crank them too loud and damage a driver though.

This kind of rapid breakin process can make a huge difference in sound of a speaker.

Art

Art, thanks for the break in tip. Sounds like you can really shave off some time and still sleep at night!

Thanks again to everybody, and particularly to Art for the very clear comparison of the various Thiel models. It sounds like the 2.3s would do what I'm looking for. I'm trying to walk a fine line here; not bright or harsh, but not euphonic or or otherwise colored. I've never had trouble making my 1.5s sound good (probably because I have always had some tubes in the system), although I agree that they like all Thiels are very revealing of what's on a recording.