Thiel Owners

Is it too late to join this party?
2+ years and 100 plus pages of forum discussion proved too much catch up reading, so hope you all don’t mind me jumping in at the risk of repeating what may have been covered.
i just got a pair of CS5i  and am going through the process of getting to know them. It’s early on (3-4 days) so I will hold off on giving any comments. 
I will say that I have not found the right position for them to get focused imaging. My room is 14’ wide. The  length is 19’ but really doesn’t come in to play because the back wall is almost completely open to a dining room.  I have had success getting other speakers placed to focus fairly sharply in this room.  this pair placed 8’ apart 2’ off the front wall as a starting point with 4 moves so far have me lost.  Usually as I make changes I can tell whether I am going in the right direction and adjust as I go. Not here.
i’ll be Happy to list system components if anyone is interested.
Cheers.

Tomthiel,
thanks for your advice.
I am using Bryston 7b monoblocks.
i don’t think power is the problem but I will change the Parallel/series mode setting so they double down in the 2ohm loads.  will let you know if that changes anything. Then I’ll pull them out when my wife is not home just to hear what happens. You are asking for a lot - 5ft!! 
Jafant,
rest of my system is OPPO 105d, Technics SL-1600MKII with Shure V15 cartridge, Bryston BP20 preamp, Monster HTS3600 power center, Grover Huffman Empress silver speaker cables and Siltech connects.  Most of my listening is streaming through Tidal.

i will say this: I am pleased the speakers sound great even at low volume. That was one of the glaring shortcomings in my previous speakers, Egglestonworks Andra.

Tomthiel;
i little more about my CS5’s: serial numbers 183/184 probably make them fairly early production.
previous owner informed they were sent to a Maryland authorized Thiel tech for upgrades, namely woofers and internal wiring for what he termed “converting them to the CS5i option”.  There is no exterior evidence and no paperwork to back this up.
When I had them at 8’ apart, 2’ from front wall pointed straight there was no cohesion/distinguishing sources to the imaging
Toeing them in focused the image but only to the extent that I seemingly got 3 very point sources of  sound.  For the left/right, I would say it was the opposite of speakers disappearing .
moving them 4’ out from front wall 8’ apart with toe in changed the center image and gave it depth but the left/right were still very point sourced.
tonight I bridge the amps and try a wider stance with more toe in.
i am going to be at this for a while...till I get it right.
positive side effect is the muscles are getting a workout, these are REALLY that heavy!

Jafant,
if you are interested you may want to read the audio perfectionist journals written by Richard Hardesty. The 16 issues are available at vandersteen.com. 

Regarding differences between Thiels and Vandys, I only had brief demos of vandy 3’s, 5’s and my newly acquired CS5’s.
my impression was the vandys offered a wider sweet spot but the Thiels have greater clarity. Granted I only have theThiels a short time so I am still moving them around getting to know how they react in my room.
from a design perspective, I read Richard Hardesty’s journals and it seems both Thiel and Vandy pursue the most measurably flat responses. So in short showroom listening sessions some  people may opt for other manufacturers non flat responses because they may simply sound exciting ( read: as if the loudness button was pushed on an old 70’s receiver).
other differences I noticed between Thiel/Vandy is that on some models  Thiels went the coax route to get single point Source while Vandy went open air mid/tweeter to give some openness (if that’s a word).
i don’t see that Thiel ever applied a rear firing tweeter nor incorporated any of the adjustment mechanisms Vandy used ( settings for rear firing tweeter, multi step equalizer for bass on the Quatros, 5’s). Whoops, just noticed thiel 3.5 have Bass equalizers.
on the note of rear firing tweeter, I don’t get it. Here I am taping blankets to the wall behind the speakers trying to eliminate everything other than what is coming from the front of the speakers To tighten the imaging. So why throw the highest notes ( shortest wave that dies most easily) against the back wall ? 
I remember the 70’s Bose speakers that were meant to fire most of their output against a wall to give a wall of sound, hated the way those sounded, like listening to music coming from a neighbors apartment.

Jafant,
https://www.vandersteen.com/audio-perfectionist-journal