Thiel 1.5 vs. 2.3

I have owned many Thiels, including 1.5, 2.2, 2.3, 3.6 and also Spendors and Proacs. 1.5 and 2.3 are both wonderful speakers, within the Thiel "style" of being very linear and bright sounding, and requiring a lot of current to sound their best. The 2.3 had more bass, more height and more detail than the 1.5. It is much more a full range speaker. It is also the most coherent of any of the above. The 3.6 is substantially older design than the 2.3, much more current hungry, and less linear and coherent. It does offer more thundering bass than the 2.3, but you have to have power to drive it.

It is hard to make Thiels sound seriously musical - everything in the line must be high quality and it helps to have at least one warm sounding component. Warm sounding cables will help. I used Cardas.

Owning Thiels is a commitment to endless tweaking, and hearing the flaws in your averge recordings. Your best recordings though will sound fantastic.

Thiels need long breakin. I suggest doing several overnight sessions where you wire one speaker out of phase and place them face to face. You can then crank up the volume loud but the midrange and bass energy cancel out. Caution that you don't crank them too loud and damage a driver though.

This kind of rapid breakin process can make a huge difference in sound of a speaker.

Art

Art, thanks for the break in tip. Sounds like you can really shave off some time and still sleep at night!

Thanks again to everybody, and particularly to Art for the very clear comparison of the various Thiel models. It sounds like the 2.3s would do what I'm looking for. I'm trying to walk a fine line here; not bright or harsh, but not euphonic or or otherwise colored. I've never had trouble making my 1.5s sound good (probably because I have always had some tubes in the system), although I agree that they like all Thiels are very revealing of what's on a recording.

I love my Thiel 1.5's with CJ Premier 11a tube amp. I also have Audio Research VT100MKII which has more punch and dynamics but I think the CJ is a better match for my taste. I like the Thiel sound so this thread was helpful to me too in that I am thinking of getting bigger Thiels. Not sure if the CJ Premier 11a will drive a bigger set to their fullest potential (so thats why I have the VT100MKII waiting in the wings). If I find I don't like the sound, I may get CJ monoblocks and sell the ARC amp. Both are outstanding amps, just different sound.

I love mine also. However, one of mine has a "failed" 6.5 woofer that is essentially impossible to replace. If anyone knows of a source, or someone with damaged cabinets, etc. and hoping to part out the internals, please email me.

Thanks