introduction in “Lay Down Your Head,”
[How Glory Goes; Nonesuch], the
entrance of the harp and string quartet
was breathtaking in the intricacy of the
softest details and the clarity of the space
they occupied. Clearly the CS2.4 is a
speaker that elucidates the minutiae of
music with a resolving power on a par
with any speaker in this price range.
There is a sophistication to this
Thiel’s sound that is a balanced mixture
of extension, micro- and macro-dynam-
ics, speed, and transparency. A recording
that shows these sonic attributes was
Nickel Creek’s self-titled debut album
[Sugar Hill, SACD]. Nickel Creek is an
acoustic trio with a fresh folk/country/
pop fusion style; its blazing instrumen-
tals incorporate bluegrass banjo, violin,
mandolin, guitar, and acoustic bass.
During each track the mandolin, tiny-
bodied and highly percussive, and the
bluegrass banjo possessed all the crisp
articulation and speed of the real things.
Characteristic of the mandolin, the clatter
of the flat-pick off the strings almost
matched the volume of the string note
being struck. The banjo had a forward
sound, accurately pushy in its aggressive-
ness. The guitar, larger and warmer,
seemed a little thin in body resonance,
however. Sara Watkins’s soaring violin
imparted rich energy from its soundboard,
but as it neared its upper-octave limits it
grew a bit constricted. Images were repro-
duced with locked-tight stability and
pristine edge definition. On a reference
piano recording like Live At Bernie’s
[Groove Note, SACD], the Thiels
wrapped themselves around the warmish
tonality of Bill Cunliffe’s grand conveying
the lush soundboard and Cunliffe’s gentle
modulation of the sustain pedal. My one
reservation was the coolness the Thiel dis-
played in the top octaves—a faint hard-
ness depriving the keyboard’s hammers of
some of their felt cushion, and attenuating
the more delicate interplay of harmonics.
Bass extension was taut and plum-
meted confidently into the low 30Hz
region, offering as much bass as most of
us desire (unless your last name is
Richter). If there was any overhang or
bloating attributable to the passive radi-
ator, it was subtle, indeed—low- and
mid-bass notes were tuneful and quick,
with natural bloom. Loudspeakers often
“thicken” and congeal the lower octaves
of a piano, but the CS2.4 never lost sight
of individual notes or fast-tempo chord
patterns. During “Wrapped Around
Your Finger” [Synchronicity; A&M,
SACD] the marriage of Sting’s melodic
bass line steered cleanly free of Stewart
Copeland’s inventive kick drum
rhythms, the textural quality of each
unfudged by the other. And during
“Murder By Numbers,” I could hear the
complete kick drum—from the foot
pedal impacting the skin from behind to
the depth charge assault out the front.
Speaking of murder, there was
Copeland’s ripping snare drum being
murdered beat by beat, each thwack
conveying its own transient signature.
It’s a tribute to Thiel’s cabinet rigidi-
ty and baffle design that this relatively
large speaker is able to soundstage and
image as tightly as a mini-monitor.
Orchestral soundstage reproduction was
as wide and as deep as I’ve encountered in
my listening room. And the CS2.4
achieved these results honestly without
recessing the tonal balance or sucking out
the upper mids. The speaker also delights
in properly scaling orchestral images,
especially cello and bass sections and the
immediate ambient envelope around
them; the quality of the midbass plays a
large role in recreating the hall acoustic.
This was where the CS2.4 was at its most
satisfying: not merely imaging in the
sterile vacuum of a recording studio but
suggesting the reverberant “life” of the
ambient space surrounding the direct
sound of a player’s instrument.
If there’s a single speed bump that
listeners should note prior to dashing off
a check, it’s a trait in the lower treble
region that some will find persuasive
and others bothersome. On a naturalistic
recording of solo violin like Arturo
Delmoni’s Bach, Kreisler, Ysaÿe [Water
Lily Records], it can heard as a silvery
additive—a narrow spot-light illumi-
nating the fiddle’s upper harmonics. A
vocal example of this trait can be heard
with former Police frontman Sting. He
has an upper register that sounds slight-
ly hoarse, like air rushing past an alto
saxophone reed. On a song like the
aforementioned “Murder By Numbers,”
where he gives his upper range a work-
out, the Thiels make it easier to key on
this throaty detail, at times almost to
the point of distraction. The retrieval of
this embroidered harmonic and tran-
sient information is interesting in and of
itself, but more than what one would
likely hear in an unamplified venue.
Like a little extra vanilla icing on a
chocolate cake it doesn’t upend the over-
all balance of the speaker. But it’s there.
For the past quarter century Thiel
Audio’s high-end credentials have
become near legendary. The CS2.4 is
such a sonically satisfying loudspeaker,
nearly faultless in so many parameters,
that I almost feel a little greedy for
wishing for less—as in a bit less treble
energy. But that’s the very personal
nature of the pursuit of the absolute
sound. Near perfection is always elu-
sive, perfection itself an unattainable
grail. On a quest for a loudspeaker?
Any audiophile worthy of the name
needs to hear the CS2.4. &
equipment report
SPECIFICATIONS
Type: Three-way, reflex type
Drivers: 1" dome tweeter/3.5" coincident mid-
range, 8" woofer, 7.5" x 11" passive radiator
Frequency Response: 36Hz–25kHz ±2dB
Sensitivity: 87dB
Impedance: 4 ohms (3 ohms minimum)
Dimensions: 11" x 14" x 41.5"
Weight: 70 lbs.
ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT
Sota Cosmos Series III turntable; SME V
pick-up arm; Shure V15VxMR cartridge; Sony
C222ES SACD multichannel, Sony DVP-
9000ES; Plinius 8200 Mk2 integrated amp;
Placette Volume Control preamp; Nordost
Valhalla and Blue Heaven cabling; Kimber
Kable BiFocal XL, Wireworld Equinox III,
Wireworld Silver Electra & Kimber Palladian
power cords; Richard Gray line conditioners
MANUFACTURER INFORMATION
THIEL AUDIO
1026 Nandino Blvd.
Lexington, Kentucky 40511
(859) 254-9427
www.thielaudio.com
Price: $3900 (Optional outriggers: $250)
3 •THE ABSOLUTE SOUND • ISSUE 144
