Thiel Owners

Thanks Jafant.

Thanks Thieliste. I know I should be playing in the living room. But they sounded great in my small room besides the bass which seems to be lightweight. So I wanted to try. 😅

Jafant. I am listening from

 1. my mac mini via tidal

2. with a uad Apollo twin interface

3. Topping a90 discrete preamp

4. Schiit Aegirs power amp

I am listening mostly to vocal music.

Cheers

Hi, just purchased a pair of Thiel Cs1.5. Great sounding pair of speakers in my tiny room of 2.3m by 2.3m with a small rectangle extra space like 1 m by 1.5 m, driven by Schiit Aegirs. Seems that the bass is a little light weight when compared to playing in my living room with a Cambridge audio cxa81. When I am near the speakers, I can hear the bass but at the listening position the bass is much less.

A few suspects.

1. Amplifier too low powered

2. Phase cancellation

3. Speakers placed too away from the wall. Now is making use of the small spaced place about 1m out from the rear wall.

4. Not run in speaker cables and interconnect. Run in for 30hours so far.

Any advise much appreciated.

Thanks

Jon

Hmm the bass is opening up after another 24 hours of run in. Think probably is the cables.😅 

Let me see after a few more days.

@tomthiel ​​​​​​thanks for the inputs. I will see what I can do with the placement of the speakers. Room is definitely small. Now only treating first reflections with some absorbent foams.

Using custom cables as below.

The power is shielded cable with rhodhium Iec.

The speaker is awg4 super thick shower ofc cable with silver and gold plugs

The rca is twin core double shielded upocc from japan with silver plated plugs

Btw. Do you raise the Thiels 1.5 higher with stands? Currently I don't have too much issues as my sofa is low. Would it change the sound signature as some of you have mentioned?

@tomthiel great info!

I just managed to swap the listening position to allow for a longer distance from the speaker to the listening position as recommended from the user manual. Initially was about 4.5 feet and now to about 6 feet. But distance from the back wall is now about 1 feet from about 4 feet. The speakers sounded different now, the brightness that I experience earlier was totally gone. The bass is much reinforced. However the soundstage height and depth seems to have suffered as the speakers are closer to the rear wall. I am not sure why the soundstage height is shorter now. I suspect that the distance between the listening position and the speakers affected it.

It really is a very interesting speaker.

Thank you @tomthiel @unsound ​​​​​​.

Yes I am still playing around with all the variables within the constraints of my room. One thing I really loved the 1.5s now in my system is the vocals sounded very real. So most of the time instead of trying to set it up right, I am sucked into listening to music.

Especially with the current distance which has slight bass reinforcement making it a slightly fuller sound. Soundstage depth is a little lesser and on certain music the bass notes seems a little muddy.

Will keep moving the speakers and hopefully can find the best position in my small room. I do like the pairing with the Aegirs amp even though the low power.

I have tried it in my living room with my Cambridge cxa 81 which I don’t really like as the sound is lean in the midrange although bass control is better.

Until I find a bigger better room and a more powerful amp that has the similar sound signature of the Aegirs. It will be finding the best room placement I have in my current place and enjoying the speakers 😄. I really loved how this speaker sounds despite the fussy setup requirements from equipment and placement.

I have copied the link for the setup of the 1.5s. I guess the most important is the minimum distance from the listener of 6ft. For the minimum distance from back wall I’m treating it with bass traps. And for one side of the side wall which only has a 1 ft distance, I’m treating it with diffusers to damp the first reflection.

Happy Friday!

The soundstage height and depth is back. Soundstage focus is better now. Did 2 things,

1. Level the speakers with spirit leveler

2. Treat the side first reflection with foam. (Tomthiel is right about the side walls)foam is 2 feet higher than the speaker height and place to behind the speakers.

I think all is also right on the amp being too low powered. I think when on some songs that are louder and more complex, I can hear some hardness in the vocals. And when there is too much bass on certain sounds, it seems to mess up the vocals a bit in terms of teh placement of the vocal in the sound stage.Or could it be other reasons the hardness in the sound?

What is a good amp that is more powerful and sounds similar to the schiit Aegirs?

Thanks 🙏

I was listening to this song yesterday with my 1.5 and the starting percussion jumped at me and the bass was shaking the room with little overhang. The transient speed of the speakers were so fast. I am in love with thiel speakers.

That is great! I would want to own a 3.7 one day too!

Bought a linear Power supply to try to improve the sound of my dac. Ended up that it is incompatible with the Dac. However, managed to use it on my router. Ended up it sounded quite good. With lower background noise. Seems that there is more punch to the bass too. The highs hardness is very much reduced. Seems like my weak link is my source and the Thiels are letting everything through.