Quote:
Originally Posted by keef
Charles glad I found this thread. Late congratulations! You have a beautiful well thought out system.
I particularly like your reference to the financial investment a top flight upgrade takes, hurts in the near term but goes away in the long term as you enjoy the system more and more! I think we all feel that if we are able to have the courage to make the right call and not compromise which causes regrets later.
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Keef, thank you so much! You have some great gear. Most folks do not know about the quality of Thiel loudspeakers. Jim Thiel's so very unfortunate illness and his foray into sub woofers and electronic crossovers and coaxial mid/tweets prevented the full realization of his greatness as a designer. He believed in the value of the 1st order crossover and the value of both time and phase alignment. He was a true pioneer. I remember years ago the CS5 and the Wilson X-1 came out at almost the same time.
I remember hearing both speakers speakers. The 5 at one dealer and the X-1 at the other in town. The 5 was 11,000 and the X-1 was 70,000. I brought a lot of my CD's along because I was going to buy one. I didn't know which. I ended up buying the 5 because I liked it better. I did not like the X-1 very much. Can't remember why but I was disappointed. One might think the 5 cheap but considering the amp and cables required to get the best out of it, it quickly became expensive.
Also, the dealer selling the X-1 told me he thought one should never pay over cost plus 20% for any of his gear. I like a dealer with that attitude a lot. We did a lot of business but no X-1. The other dealer sold Mac and Thiel. He sold Theta. Then Thiel came out with the 3.6 which frankly was a better speaker than the 5 and one of the great all time speakers. But I clung to my 5 for years. Thiel never produced another acoustic suspension speaker other than the 5 but his subs may have been acoustic suspension. His electronic crossovers and room correction were brilliant and ahead of their time but still very flawed, IMO.