Thiel CS6 User manual

Over the course of the
year that Trish and I have
lived in our new home,
I’ve been rebuilding my
reference system a piece at
a time. I’ve been more or
less methodically working
through different cable
packages and combina-
tions of electronics, exper-
imenting with various
racks and isolation sys-
tems, even tearing down
and rearranging the room
layout and treatments a
number of times. But the
heart of the search was
always figuring out what
to use as a reference
speaker.
On paper, it was easy. I
needed something sim-
ple, to mate with the
broadest possible spec-
trum of associated gear. It
had to be big enough to
produce truly full-range
performance in my large,
open area, but small and
attractive enough to earn
Trish’s blessing. My con-
science dictated that it
had to represent good
value. Ideally, it should be
something that
Stereophile’s readers were
familiar with. And, of
course, it had to sound absolutely fan-
tastic. When I sorted all of the require-
ments and boundary conditions against
my database of experience and audi-
tioning, the answer came up “Thiel.”
But which model? First I considered
the CS3.6, a high-end classic and a great
match for the electronics I typically use . . .
but I was a little concerned about its abili-
ty to drive my large space. Next I looked
at the CS7.2, which I reviewed in the
February 2000 Stereophile. The ’7.2 is an in-
credible performer ...but simply too big
for the floor space I had to work with. So
I arrived, Goldilocks-like, at the CS6. Ac-
cording to my list of criteria, it would be
just right.1
John Atkinson reviewed the CS6 in
the March 1998 Stereophile and was favor-
ably impressed: “The CS6’s balance was
warm, smooth, and grain-free, coupled
with excellent low-bass response, pin-
point imaging, good soundstage depth,
and superb retrieval of recorded detail.”
He also noted that its
dynamics were “startlingly
natural,” and found the
CS6 to be very revealing,
noting that miking tech-
niques were clearly obvious
through the Thiels, and that
“differences between CD
players and preamplifiers
were similarly audible.”
However, he also took pains
to note that these differ-
ences were “vividly clear,
but the presentation was
never upfront or in my face,
or ‘ruthlessly revealing,’ or
any of the other descriptors
that reviewers use to dis-
guise the fact that the speak-
ers have them leaping up to
turn down the volume.”
On the minus, or poten-
tially minus, side of the
ledger, JA mentioned a
couple of logistical limita-
tions and one sonic short-
coming. The former are
that the CS6 needs to be
mated to a gutsy amp and
top-quality associated gear,
and that the listening posi-
tion needs to be at least 10'
from the speakers for the
drivers to integrate. The
sonic shortcoming was a
slight midrange reticence:
“the midrange didn’t offer
quite the same degree of ultimate clarity
or cleanness that so distinguished the
bass or treble octaves.”
My experience with the CS6 pretty
much mirrored JA’s, but I’ll add a few
comments. The first one, which JA
alluded to but didn’t elaborate on, is that
the Thiels were not trivial to set up. It
makes sense —the CS6 is a large speak-
er and truly drives even my large space,
so there are bound to be a lot of room
interactions —but it’s worth noting
nonetheless. I spent many, many hours
moving the speakers and my listening
chair around before I got their balance
Stereophile, October 2003
Follow-Up
Brian Damkroger
Thiel CS6 loudspeaker
1 Serial numbers of units reviewed: 1447, 1448. Price:
$7900/pair. Warranty: 10 years. Manufacturer: Thiel
Audio, 1026 Nandino Boulevard, Lexington, KY
40511-1207. Tel: [phone]. Fax: [phone].
Web: www.thielaudio.com.
Electronically Reprinted from October 2003
Thiel CS6 loudspeaker

right. I then spent many additional
hours fine-tuning their placement and
toe-in, and arraying Echo Busters bass
traps, diffusers, and absorbers both
behind the speakers and behind my
chair, to get an integrated, focused
soundstage. Until I got the setup just
right, the sonic picture just wasn’t
coherent —bits and pieces of the
orchestra, and even of individual instru-
ments or voices, seemed to be scattered
disjointedly around the soundstage.
In my final setup, the CS6s were
approximately 32" from the front wall,
55" in from the sides of my space, about
80" apart, and just a smidgen under 12'
from my listening position. Like JA, I
toed-in the speakers a bit, but not to the
point where I sat directly on-axis. I also
raised the speakers a couple of inches by
extending their spike feet, then setting
the spikes on Immedia’s SSC footers,
which put the tweeter axis an inch or
two above my ears. I’m still in the
process of working through all of the
permutations of associated gear and
cables, but both sets of monoblock
power amplifiers I’ve used with the
CS6s, the VTL Ichibans (modified for
selectable tetrode operation at ~600W)
and the Levinson No.20.6 monoblocks,
worked superbly.
When I got everything just so, the
CS6s sounded absolutely glorious. Even
in my open space, they were truly full-
range performers. The subterranean
synthesized bass lines on Annie
Lennox’s Bare (BMG 65523-2) are vis-
ceral in their impact, and seemed to
reverberate through the house’s bones
and framework. And you haven’t lived
until you’ve heard Ray Brown’s bass
lines —“Mistreated but Undefeated
Blues,” from Soular Energy (Concord
Jazz CCD-4268), is my favorite exam-
ple —through the CS6s. Similarly, their
treble was every bit as excellent as JA
had noted: clear, airy, extended out to
forever…just amazing.
And some of JA’s other points —the
CS6s’ natural balance and dynamics,
pinpoint imaging, and reproduction of
detail? Absolutely. The CS6s were in-
credibly focused and detailed, giving
images a solidity and dimensionality
that most speakers only hint at. Their
dynamics were superb as well, and al-
ways perfectly matched to the source
material, from the tiniest vocal nuance
of a Suzanne Vega, for example, to ex-
plosive rim shots or the zero-to-+100dB
chops on Rickie Lee Jones’ cover of
“Under the Boardwalk,” from her Girl
at Her Volcano EP (LP, Warner Bros.
23805-1). Many, many times, the Thiels
caught me off guard with their lifelike
dynamics and the incredible realism of
their images.
The midrange reticence that JA
heard, and the suckout that showed up
in his measurements, were not things I
noticed in my relatively short time
with the CS6s. Their tonal balance was
very neutral, their handling of dynam-
ics was even —and superb —from top
to bottom. Nor did I hear any of the
spatial effects —a recessed center stage,
for example —that I typically associate
with a midrange-to-upper-midrange
suckout. On the other hand, the very
first thing I did notice about the CS6s
was the excellence of their perform-
ance at the frequency extremes.
Perhaps JA’s midrange suckout is
something I’ll become more aware of
with time. Or perhaps it’s not as severe
or as obvious in my setup as it was in
his.
In March 1998, JA concluded: “It may
cost $7900/pair, but the Thiel CS6
offers high perceived value. It is beauti-
fully constructed, well-balanced, and,
once set up optimally, with a gutsy am-
plifier and high-quality sources, sounds
simply superb. The CS6 gets an enthu-
siastic recommendation —it’s going to
stay in my system a while.”
I couldn’t agree more.
—Brian Damkroger
Follow-Up
Analog source: VPI TNT Mk.V-
HR turntable-tonearm, Grado State-
ment cartridge.
Digital sources: Burmester 001,
Simaudio Moon Eclipse CD players.
Preamplifier: VAC CPA1 Mk.III.
Power amplifiers: VTL Ichiban &
Mark Levinson No.20.6 monoblocks.
Cables: Speaker and interconnect:
Nirvana S-X Ltd., Audience Au24,
Nordost Valhalla, Monster Cable
Sigma Retro. AC: Audience Power-
Chord.
Accessories: Finite Elemente Pa-
goda equipment rack, String Sus-
pension Concepts equipment &
loudspeaker feed, Immedia SSC
footers; Nordost ECO3 and
Disksolution CD-cleaning & treat-
ment fluids; MIT ZCenter &
ZSystem power-conditioning & de-
livery systems; AudioPrism Noise-
Sniffer AC line analyzer, QuietLine
AC filters; Echo Busters room treat-
ments. —Brian Damkroger
Brian Damkroger’s Associated Equipment
1026 Nandino Boulevard • Lexington, Kentucky 40511 • USA
Telephone: [phone] • Fax: [phone] • E-mail: [e-mail] • Web: www.thielaudio.com
Posted with permission from the October 2003 issue of Stereophile ® Copyright 2003, PRIMEDIA Inc. All rights reserved.
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