You just need one stereo amp or one set of mono blocks and one set of cables. what a savings! Great bass no subwoofer needed extemely accurate tweeter sweet midrange.

Extreme power is needed to drive them forget tube amps they just ain't got the balls minimun 300 watts or forget them

The 7.2s are finished beautifully there are many choices of finish I like thier amberwood myself. I live near the factory so any service issues have been attended to quickly and at no cost. You must give them juice they aree very ineficient but if you uderstand that, you will be thrilled. In terms of price when you condider that they are not biwireable or bi-ampable you will realize the low cost in the long run, this is made possible thru the extensive cross-over network. The bass is exellent I have used there SW1 sub-woofer and a variety of veledynes I amn not sure they make much differnce in stereo but in a surround sound system it is another ball game all together, I am refering to stereo in my review. The tweeters are exceptionally accurate. Midrange in the upper portion fantastic there is some lack in the the low midrange. The soundstage can be a bit finicky due to placement concerns, but once you find that sweet spot you will be amazed. Comparing them to the Nautilus 800s, finish is equivelant they have a very different look, I believe the B&W appeal to women. The B&W also sound great but give a more mellow softer sound if you are looking for true accuracy Thiel is the way to go. Wilsons what I fell is a cheap painted finish which doesn't fit with all the wood in my home I hat the red ones, as far as speaker wires B&W work well with any good cable copper or silver I prefer silver with Thiel,Wilson I prefered copper. I am very happy with the top of the line Alpha-Cores. Ifound that Nordost Valhallas were just a waste of lots of money, but I am looking for true sound reproduction and accuracy as far as the Wilson Watt Puppy's go I don't like them period. If you don't use there extra sub-woofer system stick with a set of Thiel 3.6's though I must admit the Thie CS6 are hard to beat but these are 3-way speakers compared to the 4-way 7.2s you will save a small fortune. I will say the Wilsons have excellent mid-range but the B&W have a better tweeter. The bottom line is, if you properly place the 7.2 which like the others are very heavy KEEP they away from walls use silver cables and by all means give them power at least 300 watts class A,I like the Krell solid state amps but the Classe CAM 350's work well but the big Krells 650 monos or the stereo 700 really make the Thiels sing I found that by bi-amping the B&W's with only 60 watts to the drivers and 400 w

Similar Products Used:

B&W Nautilus 800 Thiel CS 6 Thiel CS 3.6 Wilsom Watt puppy 7 system

Build, fit, and finish, Full range reproduction, excellent at reproducing the live event whether recorded in a studio or in a live venue, extremely truthful and revealing in a positive way

Recordings with less then natural balance and perspective will sound poor on the CS7.2s, requires quality-associated components to perform near or at CS7.2’s potential, a powerful amplifier is mandatory

I had been auditioning speakers in the 6-8k range for several months when I came across a pre-owned pair of CS7.2s in excellent condition for roughly half their retail cost. After listening to the CS7.2s I was convinced that they were considerably better then the speakers I had been listening to for 8k and under. At the time the Thiel CS6s and DAL SC-IV/As were on my short list. If I had been shopping in the 13.5k range I can’t honestly say whether or not the CS7.2s would be my final choice.

None the less the CS7.2s are excellent speakers, and represent a not so subtle improvement over Thiel’s own CS6 (although the lateral imaging of the CS6 is better then the CS7.2’). They sound warmer and sweeter, yet possess even higher resolution. Bass is deep, taut, fast, and full of rich harmonic overtones. Midrange is excellent. Inner detail, musical nuances, spatial perspective, pace, …its all there. Treble is very good, but I don’t sense the treble is as extended as it might be. Integration is very good, much better then the CS2.3, and improved over the CS6. The CS7.2 will play quite loud without hint of strain or compression. The soundstage is excellent inside of the speaker boundaries, depth is excellent, as well as placement and position of the performers. Instruments and voices have a solid palpable presence rather then a ghostly outline within the soundstage. When I listen to the CS7.2s I find that I am listening to the music more often then compiling a list of faults about what the speaker isn’t doing right. No speaker is perfect however. If there is a fault it’s in the lower treble which can be a little hard at times. The treble could be more extended relative to the bass, but this is minor. These things occasionally stand out mostly because everything else works so well.

My equipment and room are not the best relative to the CS7.2s capabilities. My room is medium sized at 16 x 20 with a 91/2' tray ceiling with the speakers firing down the length of the room. I am using a Meridian 561 surround sound processor with a 508.24 (transport) connected to Bryston 7B ST monoblocks. Cabling is Transparent Ultra. With this combination I haven’t experienced an overly bright, thin, or fatiguing sound. In fact the Meridian/Bryston combination is quite synergistic, and the power of the 7Bs suits the CS7.2s very well.

I read TAS’s controversial review before buying the CS7.2s but I could not correlate the review to what I was hearing, other then some occasional hardness in the lower treble (I can live with this). The CS7.2 can be picky, and if not properly fed they will let it be known. But when everything is right it’s hard to imagine a better and more involving sound. The excellent build quality, fine furniture finish, and ten-year warranty is also worth mentioning.

And, yes they sound great for home theater applications. I’ll be getting the MCS1 for the center channel soon.

Similar Products Used:

Thiel CS2.3, MCS1, CS6, DAL SC-III, Athena, SC-IV/A, B&W 803N, 802N, Matrix 802, Aerial 8, 10T, Hales Transcendent 5s, Legacy Focus

Finish/build quality

Closed-in

Sorry, not my cup of tea. I owned 3.6's and wanted to like these as an upgrade path. Had I not heard the current best dynamics speakers (Aerial, Waveform) I might have been happy, but no dice.

I found them bright on axis, dull off-axis, overall not realistic. They measure well, but the first-order crossovers cause too many problems in power response - they just don't illuminate the room as well as other designs.

(Review with typos fixed) Re: the 7.2. Full range, coherent, very rich sound: cello, double bass awesome. Re: Green's review in TAS: unworthy of TAS. He argued that the 7.2's didn't work-out with his equpment, placed where he succussfully places speakers, so they must be inherently flawed (tilted-up, sucked-out). The argument is flawed. 7.2's are very sensitive to placement, wire, amplification and room. Like any great speaker, they require proper matching and attentive placement which can be time-consuming and tedious. Green surely knows this. After proper attention and break-in (400 hrs), my speakers are glorious in the upper bass and lower mids and not tilted-up at all.

Thee require very careful matching and set-up, and long break-in, as do any fine, full range speakers.

An excellent full-range speaker, warm in sound, beautiful to look upon.

Similar Products Used:

Hales Concept 5.

RE the 7.2. Full range,coherent, very rich sound: cello, double bass awasome. Re: Green's review in TAS: unworthy of TAS. He argued that they didn't work will with his equipment where he usually places speakers, so they must be faulty. A flawed argument. 7.2's are very sensitive to placement, wire, amps, room. Like any great speaker, they nee careful matching and set up. Green knows better.The speakers are glorious especiaally in the upper base and lower mids which Green did not like.

They need very careful matching and a good sized room.

An excellent full range speaker, warm in sound and breautiful to look at.

Similar Products Used:

Hales Concept 5

Very ggod sound

Assistance policy

CS7s are one of the best sound loudspeaker systems. I have a terrible experience with the assistance service. My CS7 have a very fragile coaxial tweeters. I don't know why but they broken several times and I have to ask them to send the replacement part. Two or three times I received broken or bad assembled drivers. A lot of problems and now I have no more Thiels at home.

Sound

Assistance and not respect of warranty statement

THIEL Assistance? A nightmare!

Last 1996 when I bought a Thiel CS7 loudspeaker system in Italy, Thiel audio gave me a ten years warranty. Thiel Audio statement tells one simply thing: if during 10 years you have any problem with our drivers, send back your defective product at your expense and we will send the replacement part at our expense. False, absolutely NOT true for international customers. Thiel Audio asks to its international customers to pay all shipment charge in spite of their written words on Warranty statement. Absolutely not correct because nowhere on that statement is written about shipment charge for not US customers. Last December 2000, my CS7 had a problem with a defective coaxial driver. The incredible Thiel assistance organization had satisfied my right to have my product in perfect conditions again, only 3 (three) months after. I mean after a lot of fax, letters, registered letters, possibility to sue Thiel Audio and its totally inefficient italian distributor. All to have my right satisfied. Actually in Italy a CS7.2 costs about 23,800.00 US.Dollars. I don't know if it is moral to refuse complying written words on a warranty statement for a so costly product. The Thiel CS7 have a wonderful sound but that sound become disagreable when I remember the Thiel management behaviour. I know that the "style" is innate in each of us. It is possible you have it, but it is possible you don't have it. I think style in Thiel Audio is totally absent. It is not possible to exist only to make money. Sometimes you have to accept to lose something if you don’t want to lose the face. For that incredible nightmare I vote 0.

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Avalon Ascent

Francesco, why would someone spend $ 23k on a pair of speakers costing in their original country $ 13k when he/she can buy for much less the all singing, beautifully made all Italian Sonus Faber Amati Homage is beyond my understanding. I always liked Thiel, to be sure, but if I were you, I'd choose the Amatis over CS 7 or CS7.2 any day.
Sorry to hear about your problems, but they really seem related to your particular distributor, since otherwise I've heard or wittnessed only good things about their customer service. Curiously, I read somewhere complains about the Italian Krell distributor. Hmmm, are they the same, maybe ?!
My ratings are strictly based on US price and customer service.

I have had the CS7s for about 8 months now with about 200+ hours of music play. After this run-in period, the speakers sound glorious!! Having owned the Thiel 3.6 before, all the characteristics of the 3.6 have been improved upon, better highs, substantially more realistic midrange and (almost) bottomless bass. While it is certainly unfair to compare the CS7 to the excellent CS3.6, I must say that the premium price of the CS7 is returned with dividends. The CS7 is critical of anxiliary equipment and requires lots of current to drive it well. With my Krell FPB300, the speakers sounded great though it was still a touch "hot" in the upper midrange. I have tried larger tube amplifiers (CJ, Audio Research) but the lower bass was less controlled. Before I purchased the CS7, I listened to other competing speakers like the Avalon Radian HC (fabulous midrange - more natural than the CS7), the Dynaudio Confidence 5 (smooth everywhere), the Sonus Faber Extrema (excellent but no lower bass). In the end, the CS7's neutrality, octave to octave coherence, dynamic capabilities, ability to resolve fine detail and sheer gutsiness won me over. I've listened to many speakers which are safe, warm and gutless!! Therefore, no regrets!! The CS7 is an excellent speaker which (unfortunately) demands equal quality in the rest of the hi-fi system. Even with less than the ultimate system (the rest of my system is hardly the best of the best), the CS7 provides many hours of listening bliss. This is what home audio is all about!!

This is for the Thiel 7.2's4W4hen mated with the right combination of amplifier and preamp, AWESOME. When I finally put it all together, in my case with a Krell FPB600C and Wadia CD, no one could wipe the smile off my face for days. Extremely revealing of any deficiences in a system so expect to spend big bucks acquiring the right mix of associated equipment. Also, these speakers need power. 300 wpc into 8 ohms as an absolute minimum. My Krell FPB600 is a perfect fit for the Thiels so I recommend going with at least a 500-600 wpc amp. Once you get the right mix of components, room layout, speaker position, acoustics, etc., there is nothing better out there for the price. Totally life-like reproduction.