@andy2 - I have both. I have two (or so) stereos and one is Thiel. The other has some active ATC 110s. I love both but I think there's no way to say one is better because there are inherent tradeoffs. The ATC system has dynamics that the Thiels can't come close to. The Thiels have a different kind of realism with unamplified, acoustic music that the ATCs can't touch. I like a variety of music and for any particular recording one system is almost always a clear winner.
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That's why I think either approach has its merits. To say one is "better" than the other is missing the point. As I also said in my previous posts (many posts ago), high-order speakers such as 24db/slope tend to have more "slam" vs. first order speaker, but on the other hand, first order speakers have a certain naturalness that not found in higher order speakers. |
The differences are subtle, but important. Thiel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkf5uscX7Mg ATC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_QsAlqTN_E |
The sound clarify in the second one is far from natural and has much distortions. I like heavy rock but would not measure speaker characteristics based on that kind of music (even some early Black Sabbath recordings are better for this purpose). There is no way to reproduce such recording naturally so it is hard to judge on speaker quality for that kind of recording, in contrary to the first one. Thiels never fail to reproduce naturally human voice, in particular. |
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