Thiel 3.7

I have had Thiel CS2, CS2.2 and CS2.3s. I had the CS2.4s in my room for a week. Whenever upgrade fevor hit me I always came back to Thiel. However, that slight glare was never far away. I heard all the big names including Harbeth, Spendor, Quad, Vandersteen, Revel, Von Schweikert, etc., etc. Finally, I heard the Linkwitz Orions and that was the end of Thiel for me. The brightness was gone but the clarity was not. They may not have the razor sharp image of the Thiels but they sound more like real music than anything I have heard. I still have a soft spot for Thiel, and will try to audition the CS3.7s at some point, but the upgrade bug seems to have been squashed for me. My Orions are a little over a year old now and I still can't imagine what could sound better.

Tim McTeague

Mcteague, did you buy finished or build your own, and how'd you hear them first? Reading the Linkwitz website, the Orion does seem to be in opposition to some central Thiel design precepts. Have you found it necessary to do anything special in the way of diffusing the rear radiation? I enjoyed the way Mr. Linkwitz was unabashed in discussing other speaker makers, and even providing links to them -- certainly a first from what I've seen -- although I noticed no mention of some (such as Nola and Genesis) who also produce open-baffle/dipolar, dynamic-driver designs.

PS - Think Cinematic Systems might approve of you now? Nah, probably not -- being as they're not in stores he couldn't sell these either ;^)

Zaikesman,

I got the "semi kit" form of the Orions. It had the woofer box and part of the top panel assembled and painted but I had to screw it all together, install the drivers and wire it up. The EQ/XO was fully assembled. I listened to the speakers at Don Barringer's house. He lives in VA and helped SL with the testing of the Orions. However, the Orions caused a major bass boom in my room that the Thiel CS2.3 and REL sub did not. No amount of moving speaker and chair could get rid of it. I tried homemade bass traps as well as a pair of RealTraps. Nothing helped. Finally, I picked up a refurbished TacT RCS 2.0 and WOW did that help. Not only did it allow me to kill the boom but it really opened up the sound. The Orions alone bested my Thiels but the Tact/Orion pair is the best sound I have ever heard in my 20+ years in audio.

Funny, but I forgot all about the Cinematic Systems VS Thiel war a while back. I agree the Orions seem to do the opposite of everything Thiel does with regards to speaker building. SL knows a thing or two about the subject and is firmly in the science camp.

Tim McTeague

Prices have just been released: $4950 to $5500 EACH depending on finish. These babies better be able to offer some seriously good sound with extended bass response and hopefully a gentle impedance. Geesh, remember when Thiel 3 series had an MSRP of around $2500? These new 3 series are going to cost more than twice as much as the preceeding 2 series in the Thiel line. On another note, Thiel is about release a new SCS model that may actually cost LESS than it's predecessor!

Hmm...I *do* listen to a lot of mono recordings, maybe I can get by with just one...

Has anybody else noticed that some photos of this speaker show what looks like a second passive radiator in place of the conical-diaphragmed bass driver with comparitively mild corrugations that we first saw? With no obvious attachment point for a voice-coil on the heavily corrugated but seemingly essentially flat, dustcap-less diaphragm, might these just have been stand-in appearances by the passive for photo ops while the real driver was out being worked on? Or could the final bass driver in fact employ, similar to the midrange ring, a non-conical, non-dome, corrugated flat diaphragm, outwardly identical to the passive? That would be radical, although I prefer the differentiated look with the grille removed.