Gershman RX-20 /Thiel's 2.3's:Too Soft or Bright??

Thiels demand great components, but they do tend to be bright. Try Sonic Frontiers DACs. Smaller Thiels and tubes, pure audio bliss.

The Thiels can definitely sound bright with the wrong choices of amplification, interconnects and room, but I've been fortunate with all of the above and they sound just right, though perhaps not 'cool'. However, I'll take a risk and say that there are many more 'musical' speakers out there. No doubts about the Thiel's coherence, imaging, all the technical specifics. Your gray area question of 'drawing the listener into a more *musical* experience' are not a selling point of Thiels in my experience, they lack a certain 'boogie factor', perhaps because they are so accurate. I certainly like mine for what they are, and have not heard the Gershmans, but might ask you to look farther afield to sample other mfgs interpretation of 'drawing you into the performance'. Don't rush it... Also read the thread about 2.3 power requirements elsewhere in this forum.

If the Thiels sounded bright, then your audition may not have shown them at their best. In general, I have not felt the Thiels to be bright and own a pair currently. I owned CS2s from 1985 till a recent upgrade to CS3.6s. I've listened to all their products over the years and my dealers must be good, because they never sounded bright.

I own the gershman's, I auditioed the thiels but found them a little bright for my taste, it came down to the aerial 8b and the gershmans, I found the gershmans to have a tighter bass and the best combo of hi's , mids and bass, although the aerial had a slightly sweeter tweeter, I have had the gershmans for some time now and am very satisfied, they do need a good amp, I am using the krell kav 2250, hope this helps, good luck