Hey guys! I know a few of you have been wanting an update and I apologize for the delayed response. I appreciate your continued interest in this newbies journey. I apologize in advance for the long post.
The trip out to Denver was awesome. It was very rushed as I left my wife at home with 3 children the youngest of which is an 8 week old. I flew into Denver on a Sunday night with the plan being to pick up the speakers Monday morning and drive them all the way back to Alabama by Tuesday evening(I made it).
The dealer who sold me the speakers was very nice and very knowledgeable about Thiel, both their products and their story. He said he knew Jim and was very good friends with Kathy. He had some pretty cool Thiel stuff to show me including a cross section of a 2.4. I got a picture of it you can see here.
http://imgur.com/hVzEC4J I don’t know how to post it in the forum. I have it as my profile picture now. I got a picture of the serial number off the cross cut 2.4 if someone is collecting 2.4 serial numbers. He also had a pair of 2.4s and 2.7s(not cross sectioned). I have those serial numbers as well.
The dealer was also a Cardas dealer and he was willing to let me take cables home to demo. What he says he typically does is he gives the customers cables to demo at home that are at a price point the customer is comfortable with, then he also adds cables that are a step above that in price so the customer can hear the difference and decide which one to get. Then the customer returns the cables he doesn’t want or returns them all. I passed on getting any cables to demo until after I have the system burned in.
The speakers made the journey across the country safely and in good condition. I am so pleased with the way they sound. Everyone told me to brace for how terrible they would sound out of the box but I thought they sounded great compared to what I’m coming from. My entire system is brand new so everything needs burning in. I have all PS Audio gear, the BHK 250 amp, BHK Signature preamp, and DSD Jr DAC. I also have a MoFi Ultradeck turntable but I am still shopping for a phono so I haven’t played with it yet. So far I have been streaming to the DSD Jr DAC using my iphone with an app called Mconnect and Qobuz. Mconnect is the interface, kind of like Roon, but it is a one time fee of $5 as opposed to Roon’s subscription service. I like Qobuz so far but Mconnect keeps crashing so it might not be a viable option.
So most importantly, how do they sound? I always get so intimidated trying to explain what I am hearing to a bunch of very experienced audiophiles and critical listeners such as yourselves so please pardon my inexperience and lack of reference. As far as the speakers, I think they sound amazing and I thought they did out of the box as well but just got better and better with each hour I put on them. I told RonKent it was like watching a flower slowly bloom. After the first 100 hours they really started to open up. The sound stage is amazing but not quite on par with what RonKent has achieved. It does seem like as more time passes the sound stage has gotten more depth and separation to it. I had more than one person tell me in a critical way that Thiel are very forward sounding and I am not getting that at all. The sound is coming from the back wall and depending on the recording the speakers do seem to almost disappear. Voices sound very natural and pleasing to me. I do feel like there is something off that I can’t put my finger on, I think it may be that the bass is a little muddy or just not right yet but I don’t know. Shortly after I got the speakers home I had surgery, because of this I have not been able to move the speakers or play with speaker placement at all but I plan to start playing around with them this week and see what differences I can hear. I have 350 hours on the system as of now.
Also of importance, my wife approves which was really the big test for me. She told me she was happy to have music in the house again, which was her way of saying it was worth the trouble. She really likes them and we have fun switching seats and taking turns in the sweet spot. My family was busting my chops about the speakers recently and the fact that I would drive that far for them and my wife’s response was "I would totally be rolling my eyes too if they didn’t sound as good as they do". So I guess I win? ;)
Lastly, I know this is a Thiel thread but I wanted to put a quick plug out for MoFi as I feel they went above and beyond in providing me with customer service in a situation where most companies would simply have shrugged and done nothing. Long story short I found that my brand new MoFi Ultradeck was damaged in shipping, but I did not fully unbox and find the damage for a good 3-4 months after I received it. In spite of the long amount of time that passed, MoFi replaced the turntable question/hassle free. For them to do that after so much time had passed speaks volumes to me about how they treat their customers. I am impressed and relieved they were willing and able to replace my turntable. Now I just need a phono!
Thanks for reading, sorry for the long post. I tried to keep it as short as possible.
