Warren, I hate to break it you but when you replaced your Thiels you put a painkiller on a fracture - what your Thiels were telling you with their "harshness" was that something somewhere in your system wasn't pulling its weight. The Thiels are notorious tattle tales - they let you hear exactly what kind of quality your system has. The harshness your were hearing was either from a solid state amp, DAC, SS preamp or transport. Check other threads for Thiel comments - they are far from negative. You'd be surprised how Thiels sound with the right equipment.
I would have kept the Thiels and auditioned other front end compnents first taking advantage of the Thiels transparency. But, in the real world we have cost and (ahem) wife constraints to deal with. But with that said, what works for one may not work two. By going with things that work for you, and the process continues to yield benefits to yourself, then who's to say otherwise?
I would have kept the Thiels and auditioned other front end compnents first taking advantage of the Thiels transparency. But, in the real world we have cost and (ahem) wife constraints to deal with. But with that said, what works for one may not work two. By going with things that work for you, and the process continues to yield benefits to yourself, then who's to say otherwise?