2. speakers
  3. 1243179844

Thiel 3.7 Placement

Really considering perhaps purchasing these speakers. Auditioned them at a dealer for about 2 hours and was really, really impressed with the sound. My question is, even though I sat and toed the speakers to how they would be set up in my house, the dealers room was a lot bigger with no side wall infractions and the speakers were out about 7 feet from the back wall, so how sensitive are these speakers to placement? I can only bring them out about 2 ft from the wall and side walls are about 3 ft. Speakers will be about 9 ft apart with my position is about 11 ft in front, toed in centered right at me. That's how I have my B&W 802 S3 set up currently. Finally, how long did it take to break-in your 3.7's? Still happy with them? Thanks
stvrvin

Showing 4 responses by unsound

unsound
7,343 posts
 
While the dealers set up might have been better, your home placement should be just fine.
unsound
7,343 posts
 
With all due respect to the above posters, I have to disagree. In my 20+ years with Thiels, I haven't found the distance with the (what I call the back wall (the wall behind the speakers) as important as the distance from the side walls. Sure, postioned further out they will provide a deeper soundstage and cleaner bass, but with as little as 1' (FWIW, I use 3') the Thiels will still work well. I find that having them too close to the side walls, requires toe in. Too much toe in and they can get bright. Too little toe in and things get messy. Like any other similar purchase, I suggest you make sure your dealer provides you with generous return policy.
http://www.thielaudio.com/THIEL_Site05/PDF_files/PDF_owner_info/CS3_7ownerinfo.pdf
unsound
7,343 posts
 
As Thiel suggests, each room will be different and a little experimentation might be necessary. Pops brings up an excellent point. The distance from listener to speaker might be the most important dimension. Thiel recommends a minimum of 8' and a maximum of 12'. Less than 8' and driver intergation will be compromised. Jim Thiel has stated he measures his speakers at a distance of 3 meters (9'9"), of course that's in an anechoic enviornment.
unsound
7,343 posts
 
Stvrin, perhaps you'll need recommendations as to how distance yourself from sarcastic responses.:-)
More to discover