From Thiel CS6 to Wilson Sophia 2 or 3

Moving from Thiel to Wilson is a step in the wrong direction in my very honest opinion. Why would you sacrifice the superior frequency response and time and phase coherence of the Thiels with high order crossovers in the Wilsons?

From Stereophile measurements: "The tweeter and woofer are connected in positive acoustic polarity, the midrange unit in inverted polarity."

This is something Wilson does consistently that is rarely addressed in the audio world and few seem to care about it. But it does make a difference, and I can hear it.

Why anyone is his/her right mind would even consider any speaker that has out of phase polarity for the drivers is beyond me. Why intentionally sacrifice or damage via the speaker the phase requirements of accurate timbre reprduction of musical instruments, by design? That's simply poor physics and nothing can correct that which is lost in the first place. Speakers should attempt, by design, to preserve this content as much as possible.

I'm sure I've opened the can of crawly things here but I stand by my opinions on this as I have extensive listening experience with both designs.

Perhaps consider improving your power amplification with something stouter into 4 Ohms. Mark my words, if you move to Wilson you will regret it and it will take about a year to conclude that you should have kept your Thiels.

I have not.
I tend to agree with Stevecham.

Stevecham, Life is not that simple. Based on your logic, every speaker designer should use 6db slope crossovers, and any design not using them is inherently inferior. That's just not correct. A speaker can sound very good (or bad) using either first-order or sharper slope crossovers. That aspect alone doesn't tell the whole story.

It is true that first-order (6 db) crossovers have a mathematically ideal performance, i.e. the frequency and phase response of the two drivers will add mathematically to a flat frequency and perfect phase response. Other types can come close but are not textbook perfect. However, there are other considerations. A first-order crossover makes greater demands on the out-of-band performance of the drivers. Each driver needs to have smooth response for at least two octaves beyond the nominal crossover frequency. Also, the driver must be able to handle high levels of power beyond the crossover frequency since there will still be high signal levels there. These factors limit the drivers that can be used with a 6db crossover.

In addition, a speaker with first-order crossovers has more pronounced lobing. It's easy to hear this by simply moving your head up or down vertically while about 3 feet away from the speaker. There will be significant peaks and valleys in the response due to lobing. This effect can be averaged out by being further away from the speaker, and it also bothers some listeners more than others. I found it quite annoying when I owned Thiel 3.6 speakers.

I have used first-order crossovers on many speakers (including the Thiel 3.6's that I owned for about 10 years), yet my speakers now all use sharper slope crossovers for the simple reason that they sound better with my particular drivers.

With regard to the midrange driver being connected out of phase, this is the proper means of connecting a driver to a second-order (12db) crossover to get the optimal response due to the phase shifting that occurs with the crossover itself.

As far as the OP's question is concerned, I have no opinion since I haven't heard the CS6. I have heard the Sophia 3 and the Sasha several times recently and they are certainly very good sounding speakers whatever crossover slope they may have.

IMO, I wouldnt get hungup on all that geeky stuff,go listen and judge yourself.Personally I think the Wilson Sophia 3 blows away the Theils...all day long!