Thiel 3.7

Anybody hear these at the recent RMAF show?

I did. VTL electronics as I recall. About all I can say is they sounded "promising." The system was bright overall, but the Thiels had great bass (no surprise there), terrific detail, and stayed wonderfully composed as the music got complex. I have the impression that these are a little more "buttery" sounding than previous Thiel designs (whatever that means), and may be a slight departure (not huge) from the Thiel house sound of the last many years. I like the way they look personally. But if you subscribe to the belief that what you see influences what you think you hear (I do), many may find this speaker too metallic sounding. LOL. $9900 by the way. Big spread from the 2.4.

Like buttah huh? Wow, that's over $1K higher than I was expecting based on earlier grapevine. But hey, long as it's bright and metallic sounding with the proverbial great bass (and this with tubes no less!), surely we dedicated followers of Thiel will be in clover ;^)

I wasn't there, but, I thought Thiel was showing the 3.7's with Audio Research.

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