Current Thiel and Aerial owners-- please comment..


After ten happy years as an Apogee owner, I've got the itch for a change. Unfortunately, my wife also has the itch for a change, so I'm under a bit of duress. Anyway, enough complaining and on to the questions:

As you can see above, I've been out of the speaker market for some time. I've got fond memories of both Aerial and Thiel from my speaker shopping days 10 years ago. Accordingly, I'd like to start my new search with them. My current short list is Thiel 3.6 and 2.3 and Aerial 7B and 8B. If you own any of these speakers, I'd like to know what speakers they replaced and what they did that your old speakers didn't.

I'd also appreciate some set-up information. My wife's biggest gripe is that my Apogees are 42" from the front wall and she's tired of walking around them (no jeers from you single guys, you'll get yours :-) ).
128x128macdonj
I replaced a Polk SDA speaker set with Aerial 8bs on stand, on spikes into hockey pucks. Driven by MC2300
(Grateful Dead amp) and Mac C31v (this pre amp changed the sound of entire system for the better) I am happy as hell.

My garage system is a Mac 4100 driving Thiel 3.5s- very articulate system. Everything sounds great. Bassy but tight, great spectrum in mids and highs, not even using the equalizer.
..to these ears, Thiel 3.6's were pretty near the top of the heap...why oh why did I sell mine????
Interesting thread in that until yesterday it hadn't been responded to in over 13 years!
The OP said,
I've got fond memories of both Aerial and Thiel from my speaker shopping days 10 years ago.
Ten years prior to 2003 means the OP last shopped for Aerial and Thiel back in 1993, only two years after Aerial began their business of making speakers. Since the OP's system  is not listed, I would be interested to hear about what speakers he actually ended up with.  BTW, I am still quite happy with my Aerial 9s, which have faithfully improved with every system upgrade over the years.  They are a nice combination of warmth, body, and impact, with pretty good bass, more than adequate detail and a relatively smooth top end.
@mitch2 ...totally agree!  Seems the OP likes to resurrect old threads, especially to bash Aerial or Vandersteen.  He's got Thiels, which I liked by the way, but the fanboy stuff is getting old.  Oh, IMO.