Thiel CS 3.7 and Vandersteen 5a, 5a Carbon

I own both Thiel CS6 and CS2.4 as I am a huge Thiel fan, and I have listened extensively to the 5a. If I had the bux I would go with the Vandersteen simply because the bass alone is unparalleled and I do not find these speakers to be dark. They are simply amazing.

Larry, you rock man, couldn't have said it better myself!

What kept me from being able to audition Vandy's in my own system (moan, here he goes with a 'story') was that in an unmentionable San Franciso dealership many years ago, I wanted to check out their model 3 sigs. The dealer hooked them up to a system that required the volume control to be almost all the way up in order to listen at about 80dB! I asked if I could home audition them with my system and the dealer told me "no, we don't do that because the speakers will come back torn and tattered." And I said, "even if I give my credit card number and sign an agreement that they will returned in the same condition they left the store?" "No, we can't do that."

So I went to the Thiel dealership and auditoned and purchased.

The brick and mortar demise of the 21st century signals a bygone era. Hard goods as commodity and not instruments of art, they way they were intended, and the attitude supporting this, is why the entire industry is coming undone at the seams. If it weren't for their sheer love of design and execution and music, there would be no Vandy, Thiel, you name 'em.

Thiel now sells through Crutchfield.

Vandersteen dealers are loathe to home loan.

WTF gives?