Vandersteen and Thiel

[blast8180]

Hah, my second topic within a few days of the other.

An opportunity cropped up where I am able to get my hands on a pair of Thiel CS2s for a good deal. I currently own a pair of Vandersteen 2ci's, and I've read that Thiels are similarly designed and sound similar to the Vandersteens. My main questions is, would it be wise to buy the Thiels and set them up as surrounds to accompany the Vandersteens? I am inclined to stick with one brand, but this deal is what is kind of pushing to one side.

Does anyone enough experience with both of these speakers to give some input?

[Otto]

I believe that Thiel and Vandersteen have similarities in that they are both phase and time aligned. I have the Vandersteen 3A Sigs, along with the VCC-5 and the VSM-1s. I like the Vandersteen surround package.

I have some limited experience with one pair of Thiels -- a friend had some, but has since moved on. I found them to be a little brighter than the Vandersteens, but must admit that it's been a while.

I lived with a pair of Definitive Technology as rears for a year or so (paired with my Vandersteen front side setup). I didn't find that using different speakers was a horrible, since, in my opinion, there's enough distance between fronts and rears for it to be not that noticable (there's also not TONS of rear audio information). So, I believe that you can get away with mismatching rears and fronts, and I also believe that the disparity between my Vandersteens and my DTs was greater than a potential disparity between a pair of Vandersteens and Thiels.

So, ultimately, it'll be up to you. Personally, I would wait till a good deal comes up on Audiogon for a pair of VSM-1s to match your fronts.

Good luck either way!

[lcaillo]

I think the CS2s are a fine speaker, and personally preferred them over the Vandys. I would not, however, mix them up. Try to find some speakers to match what you have, or start thinking about a complete matched set for surround sound.

[superchad]

If it were me I would do budget surrounds and save the cash towards a matched pair, why spend real money on Thiel just to get it only half right? Many Thiel speakers are also hard to drive so think about that aswell, Many champion all matched speakers in multi channel but I bet 95% would flunk a blind test of reasonable thought out speakers no matter who makes them, I run VMPS for fronts and center and BW for all 4 surrounds and cant justify changing anything, if you knew me or my gear its easy to say I am the kind of guy who would spend the cash if needed.........but its not. I too have ised Def Tech speakers for non-critical surrounds, even used a center once and again it worked well.