Thiel CS 2.2 Opinions?

[EdR]

<font color='#000000'>Hi,

I just walked into a local high end shop and they'd just taken a pair of Thiel CS 2.2's in on trade which they're letting go for $1,500. &nbsp;They appear to be in pretty much 'as new' condition, and have the original boxes, which are also in excellent condition (a comment on the owner). &nbsp;The store had originally sold them about 5 years ago, and the owner has just upgraded to Wilson Watt/Puppies.

Any opinions?</font>

 

[Guest]

<font color='#000000'>I listened to em when I was audiotioning speakers two years ago. They were in a poor room which probably colored my judgement. I thought they were thin in the low end but looked beautiful and imaged well. For the same price look at Vandersteen 2s. They image superbly and are great in the low end. They are a little short in the high end which propelled me to the Vandy 3As.
PS If you are looking at surround I have heard that Theil's rears and centers are excellent although expensive.</font>

 

[abe]

<font color='#000000'>I too walked into a local hifi store and the sales guy showed me a Thiel HT system.  Demo'ed both multi channel and 2-channel.  I will have to say I was NOT impressed at all.  The treble is too harsh and the bass is bloated. mid is nonexsitent.  openness is ok.  dynamic is ok.  The demo room is very fancy and must be very expensive as well but the accoustic arrangement can be improved for sure.

If you really want to be into hifi,  not mid fi stuff,  check out Dynaudio.   Look everywhere on the web and you will see they are adored by many many audiophiles.  


Abe</font>

 

[EdR]

<font color='#000000'>Yesterday, I went and demo'ed them with my music for a couple of hours through Krell solid state electronics. &nbsp;To sum up.... afterwards, I felt like I needed a cigarette, and I don't even smoke

If you catch my drift... they were simply the best, most revealing, and musical speaker's I've ever heard. &nbsp;At $1,400 in mint condition, a steal IHMO, so I got 'em.

Now, I do need electronics. &nbsp;The store was out of stock, but want's to sell me a Krell KAV-400xi integrated, for $2,500. &nbsp;At that price, I could also get an Arcam FMJ A32 integrated, and I've really like the Arcam sound in their lower priced Diva series. &nbsp;There is also a local Classe' dealer, and I've been reading good reviews of their integrated. &nbsp;It would seem that for my use, an integrated would be just fine, and that's what I was demoing on, the sound was *more* than acceptable. &nbsp;The store that I purchased my yamaha from wants to sell me Rotel separates, the RC 1070/ RB 1080 stack for somewhat less money. &nbsp; I'll be using a Rotel RCD-1072 as the transport/DAC.

Any opinons about these choices or any other electronic suggestions?</font>

 

[Guest]

<font color='#000000'>Best of luck with em. Be sure to spend A LOT OF TIME positioning these speakers correctly as they are time and phase correct. This is a controversial subject but I believe it is very important and if you loved that sound you do too.

I push my vandersteens with B&amp;K 7250 (200W/ch x 5) and am happy $2500. I've heard negative things about Classe &nbsp;but have no experience. Also consider Sherbourn if you want 5 channel. Theta Dreadnought might also be in your range if you got 2-4 channels(bi amping anyone?). I've no experience but &nbsp;heard good things about it and you can always add more channels later to go 5.1 if you wish.</font>

 

[EdR]

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>

Guest : <font color='#000000'>I push my vandersteens with B&amp;K 7250 (200W/ch x 5) and am happy $2500. I've heard negative things about Classe  but have no experience. Also consider Sherbourn if you want 5 channel. Theta Dreadnought might also be in your range if you got 2-4 channels(bi amping anyone?). I've no experience but  heard good things about it and you can always add more channels later to go 5.1 if you wish.</font>

<font color='#000000'>Thanks,

The Theil's are not bi-amp-able, and I think I'm going to set them up for stereo only. &nbsp;I'll check out your amplifier suggestions.</font>

 

[Guest]

<font color='#000000'>I owned a pair of CS 1.2's in college and it was the best pair of speakers I've ever owned. I upgraded after a year to CS2's and was really disappointed. &nbsp;I think the 2.2s came out just after that and we much better - similar to the 1.2's with more bass.

I read the bit on placement from another post and disagree- the CS1.2's sounded fantastic everywhere, everyangle, all the time, the only benefit I saw from placement was improved bass response.</font>

 

[EdR]

<font color='#000000'>Thanks Jack,

I had trouble purchasing the Copland amp I was going after, and decided to buy local. &nbsp;On Friday, I spent about an hour auditioning the SimAudio Moon i3 integrated, and thought it sounded much better than the Musical Fidility 308 I had auditioned through the same setup- and for a thousand bucks less. &nbsp;160 amps into four ohms, and a very clean sound with great soundstaging and bass response down to the cellar. &nbsp;I was listening through JMLab Utopia's @ $18K the pair. &nbsp;The only thing I noticed was a slight silibance to the highs, but the room wasn't all that well setup, with bare walls and many glass window plus no acoutic control at all. &nbsp;Thus, that could have been slap echo and other reflective problems in the highs. &nbsp;I had also noticed it with the 308.

So it looks like my system driving the Thiel's will be that amp and the Rotel RCD 1072 CD players.</font>

 

[Unregistered]

Thiel CS 2

I auditioned a pair of used CS 2s with the music that was lying around the audio shop - I was in to pick up a repair and thus was not really prepared to be auditioning anything - which I think was a Human Leage CD or some such...the highs were open and transparent, the lows were there - tight and not boomy at all, but the mids were flat...so, after much hemming and hawing, I told the salesperson as such...so he went fishing for a more suitable demo disc...a really good recording of some Chopin piano work...and WOW these opened up...they show a bad recording for exactly what it is...so, before passing judgement, please listen to something recorded well as they pass on any studio badness and can make you think it's the speaker that is the limitation...not the recording. I was sold within one minute with the good recording...bad recording I sat looking at my shoes for 15 mins.

 

[Westrock2000]

Well aside from "Human" much of their stuff is kinda harsh 80's experimentation, so probably was the material....but "Human" is great.

Its better than me, I went to listen to Martin Logans, and got rap in SACD for the demo. This was at Tweeter, and the guys were like "oh ya listen to that....sounds good ehh".....one of which was the manager.

Certainly there are different tastes

 

[UmAlum1990]

I auditioned a pair of Thiel 1.6's today; after looking at Paradigm PS2's and Sonus Faber Concertinos, the Thiels were sonically superior.. wider sound stage, controlled the music very well, not too bright... simply sounded better. I can only imagine what the 2.2's must sound like.

 

[UmAlum1990]

Sorry, Concertos, NOT concertinos!!!

 

[Unregistered]

thiels

I am a long time Thiel user and own a pair of 1.6's. THe 1.6 is a much better speaker then the 2.2. Thiel 2.2, 2.3 and now 2.4. The 1.6 is the latest generation of the 1.5 and is in the same generation as the 2.4 Dont buy the 2.2's

 

[Jason]

thiel 2.2 is good

Please use POWERFUL amplifier for thiel 2.2. No matter how cheap the amplifier is. 200w to 400w would be best choice. Try Threshold or Theta, or the low price Kinergetics would be good choices.

 

[heyitsmedusty]

I have had the Thiel CS 2.2 speakers for a while now, and I honestly am happier with them every day. They are consistently good, and perform flawlessly every time. The unregistered user above is right on the money with the recording quality being an issue.

Think of it as a high-definition television versus standard definition. On a regular TV everyone's skin looks good, but on a high-definition television suddenly you're looking at pores and individual hairs and sweat, and if someone's skin still looks good then it looks REALLY good. That's a good analogy for these speakers, because they will expose the mediocrity of a recording, or they will expose the brilliance of a recording.

 

[Seth=L]

You revived a 3 year old thread, that spreads bad voodoo.

Just for the record, I have always liked Thiel.