Anyone hear Thiel CS1.6?

FWIW, I've heard the Totem Arro on a couple of occasions and was pleasantly surprised by the bass response. In almost all respects, I remember it being better than the Thiel 1.6.

Totem's whole product line seems very impressive for the price. Lots of speakers use Dynaudio drivers, but I believe Totem is one of a few for whom Dynaudio makes custom drivers. They are also easy to drive and not finicky with room placement or associated equipment.

Don't get me wrong, Thiel also makes some nice speakers, but they seem a little more demanding about proper setup and amp matching.

Personally, I like less of an in-your-face type sound than either Thiel or Totem. If that is also your preference, then I would highly recommend checking out the Spendors. I have the S9, but I believe the S8 sells for near the same as the 1.6 and absolutely crushes it.

Crushes it how? You'll certainly get more warmth and more apparent bass from most Spendors, but you'll never get as much detail and resolution and image specificity as the 1.6 delivers. Nor will you ever hear a cymbal, for example, reproduced with as much fidelity as you will from the Thiel. IMHO.

Tweek - Haven't "heard it all"; haven't heard even a fraction of it. You're probably well on your way to being a much better audiophile than I'll ever be, because you aspire to it. Happy listening, Z.

Rbstenho, Labtec - I'll try to make a point of listening to a Totem speaker sometime when the opportunity presents itself. I confess I've been turned off paying attention to them in the past based almost entirely on some interviews I've read with their designer - he seemed pretty flakey to me - and the fact that they market those machined aluminum "beak" thingamajigs for $100 a pop, which is just plain silly at best and highly questionable at worst, from what I can see (no, I haven't 'heard' them either - there are already enough small miscellaneous objects around my listening room without me buying beaks and wooden disks and such; there are still some things I just will not do as long as I've got a brain remaining between my ears, sorry!). But it's true none of that means their speakers ain't good.

For clarification, they're not $2K...unless, of course, you're fond of painted black wood. The 1.6 is $2,400 and that puts them into the ranks of some VERY stiff competition.

I've heard them and they sounded fantastic. Very UN-Thiel-like inasmuch as there was not hint of brightness or grain. Definitely not "in-your-face".

That said, there are a LOT of great speakers in this price range and you really have to cut through the hyperbole and listen for yourself to see if they're for you. I should also say that I heard them with some VERY high-end associated equipment, so it's hard to say what they'd sound like in the real world. The system was ARC CD-3, ARC Reference 2, ARC VT-200s. Cabling was all Nordost Valhalla.

Finally, I have to agree with Zaikesman about the bass. It's definitely there, just not exaggerated and not very extended. What's there, however, is very tuneful and accurate. They can definitely boogie with no sign of compression or strain.

Fair enough about the price, Dan, I had assumed only the premium wood finishes raised the price, not all of them. And I believe the outrigger supports add even more (my audition was done without them). They do give you a 10-year warranty, however, and I can vouch for their outstanding customer service.

But what's this about lacking "Thiel-like" treble grain? I haven't heard that from any of the smaller Thiel designs of the past ten years (including my 2.2's). And as far as not being "in-your-face", while it's true Thiels don't feature a 'pleasantly distant-sounding' type of upper midrange recession, they have always been noted for their ability to deliver a truly deep soundstage, so no surprise there. I think it says a lot about this speaker's abilities that it was able to shine in the system you heard it with, and I wouldn't be shocked if a lot of Thiel's products are justifiably used in chains where they are the most economically priced component, but the system I heard them with was definitely 'real-world', and they still sounded great.

All right, that's enough pimping from me in this thread! Happy auditioning, everyone! :-)