Excellent experience at Audio People Chennai

[sidvee]

I was in Chennai on a business trip recently and used the opportunity to free up some time to audition the Thiel 3.7 & 2.4 at The Audio People. Excellent experience overall. Mr. Jalal spent his time freely with me and let me explore their superb demo facilities at my pace - their HTdemo was particularly mindblowing. I was impressed by the fact that they invest in having their staff trained in professional audio/video courses such as ISF & THX. Consequently their demo facilities are as good as what I have experienced in the West and in some cases better thanks in no small part to proper & scientific acoustic treatment.
And good news to Hyderabad Audiophools:lol:, Mr. Jalal indicated that they will be setting up a facility on Rd. No. 36 in Jubilee hills soon. Can't wait.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[srinisundar]

Good news about an dealer... In the mean time kindly put your impressions about Thiel 3.7 & 2.4 and pricing too.

With regards

 

[sidvee]

Good news about an dealer... In the mean time kindly put your impressions about Thiel 3.7 & 2.4 and pricing too.

With regards

This was a very casual audition - aim was to listen to the 3.7 which has been favorably reviewed. Had heard the 2.4 before so wanted to refresh my memory as well. Also looking at upgrade paths down the road from my Harbeth Shl5. So based on apprx.30-45min review of the 2 speakers, driven by an all Bryston combo in a very properly treated room with female jazz vocals, jazz/stringed instrumentals, some blues my quick & fleeting impression was:
1. The 3.7 sounded slightly forward, with lush midrange and excellent bass. Imaging and soundstaging were top notch.
2. The 2.4 sounded relatively more recessed/back of the hall sound with other aspects similar to the 3.7. Bass was quite extended. Overall the 3.7 seemed livelier, but the 2.4 sounded very good as well. My summary - great speakers which passed my quick listening tests - will merit further listening/auditioning which I plan to do when they open the Hyd. showroom.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[BLASTO]

This was a very casual audition - aim was to listen to the 3.7 which has been favorably reviewed. Had heard the 2.4 before so wanted to refresh my memory as well. Also looking at upgrade paths down the road from my Harbeth Shl5. So based on apprx.30-45min review of the 2 speakers, driven by an all Bryston combo in a very properly treated room with female jazz vocals, jazz/stringed instrumentals, some blues my quick & fleeting impression was:
1. The 3.7 sounded slightly forward, with lush midrange and excellent bass. Imaging and soundstaging were top notch.
2. The 2.4 sounded relatively more recessed/back of the hall sound with other aspects similar to the 3.7. Bass was quite extended. Overall the 3.7 seemed livelier, but the 2.4 sounded very good as well. My summary - great speakers which passed my quick listening tests - will merit further listening/auditioning which I plan to do when they open the Hyd. showroom.
Cheers,
Sid

They have them in the dedicated stereo listening room.
We had a great demo today.
Jalal is a great person to say the least.

 

[srinisundar]

They have them in the dedicated stereo listening room.
We had a great demo today.
Jalal is a great person to say the least.

Look forward to see an detailed demo report on Thiel.

Regards

 

[COOLDUDE7808]

when i purchased my marantz ...there was some waiting time , since the piece was coming from their warehouse ...instead of just ignoring the waiting customer (which is a very Indian way ) ...he took me through the various models on dislpay and finally played a movie for me in the demo room ..gave me the remote and asked me to try it out ...all this after I had made the purchase ....

 

[BLASTO]

when i purchased my marantz ...there was some waiting time , since the piece was coming from their warehouse ...instead of just ignoring the waiting customer (which is a very Indian way ) ...he took me through the various models on dislpay and finally played a movie for me in the demo room ..gave me the remote and asked me to try it out ...all this after I had made the purchase ....

Do they deal with marantz?
I saw only pioneer, bryston and musical fidelity?

Can you confirm?
I have another round of audition to do if so.

 

[sidvee]

I made a visit to Audio People in Jubilee Hills couple of days back along with Sameer, to listen to the Thiel 2.4. First of all - it is an excellent showroom. Bobby is a very knowledgeable person and he also struck me as an avid enthusiast with very good understanding of room acoustics, speaker placement et al who freely shares his knowledge. This is a quality, very hard to find in many of the dealers I have come across - they are selling audio just to make a living without any passion - other than the obvious one to make money.
Now coming the the speaker audition which was approximately an hour with an excellent recording of a James Carter CD and a few tracks I burnt - Adele, Patricia barber, Cake, Freddie hubbard, Dave Matthews Band etc., my original impression holds good. It is an excellent speaker - superb imaging, soundstaging - high frequency was smooth and extended almost as much as my Harbeth Shl5 supertweeter and non fatiguing. Mids were lush. Trouble was the size of the room where the speaker is placed is roughly 16' x 11' and here the speaker was overpowering in mid bass. We made Bobby pull the speaker out to about 4' and then it sounded better, but still I suspect not upto its full potential. Bass extension was also quite extended. So in summary it is a great speaker but will need a larger room to demonstrate its excellence. I guess we will go back and listen the the 1.7 (i think it is a replacement to the 1.6), which will work better in a smaller room. Bobby said it would be available in 2mos.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[BLASTO]

I guess we will go back and listen the the 1.7 (i think it is a replacement to the 1.6), which will work better in a smaller room. Bobby said it would be available in 2mos.

We auditioned the Thiel 1.7 (or was it 1.6?) alongside the monitor audio GS20 with musical fidelity m3i and m6i.

The Thiel was smooth and lacking in details and hf is also not as extended compared to GS20. Nowhere close to the 2.4s in the demo room.

Now, it may be due to the pairing with the musical fidelity amps. We did not try it with bryston though. (2.4s were paored with bryston monoblocks and were distinctly different grade both in sound and price)

Audition the gold reference series of monitor audio without fail if you are looking at this range. If possible side by side with the thiels. The GS20 is under HUGE discount (~1L) and that is NOT the reason I purchased it. It sounds sublime with the MF amps.

IMO, difference between 2.4 and 1.7 goes much higher than sound/room size. 1.7 will not sound as good in a small room as the 2.4s in a larger room.

 

[captrajesh]

Bobby is a very knowledgeable person and he also struck me as an avid enthusiast with very good understanding of room acoustics, speaker placement et al who freely shares his knowledge.

We made Bobby pull the speaker out to about 4' and then it sounded better

Some food for thought, OT though.

Yet he couldn't get the speaker placement right.

This is a quality, very hard to find in many of the dealers I have come across - they are selling audio just to make a living without any passion - other than the obvious one to make money.

Selling something to make a living and making money are essentially the same thing isn't it.

 

[sidvee]

Some food for thought, OT though.

Yet he couldn't get the speaker placement right.



Selling something to make a living and making money are essentially the same thing isn't it.

Actually Capt. he mentioned that to us before the audition that the room was meant for BS speakers and since the larger audition room was getting ready, that would be more suitable for these. So at most it was temp. set up to get the showroom open. He also offered an home audition - which is a first for me, because many dealers don't even have demos of what they are dealing in at their showroom, let alone offer a home audition.
I agree making a living and making money are the same thing, but what I meant is that one should have a certain passion for what they are doing. That enthusiasm helps us as the consumer as well and the painful experience of shelling out hard earned money for audio is made bearable. Can you imagine paying money to a dealer who could care less about what he is selling and is just looking at you as a meal ticket! Anyways these are my personal opinions having visited quite a few audio dealers in India and overseas. YMMV.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[sidvee]

We auditioned the Thiel 1.7 (or was it 1.6?) alongside the monitor audio GS20 with musical fidelity m3i and m6i.

The Thiel was smooth and lacking in details and hf is also not as extended compared to GS20. Nowhere close to the 2.4s in the demo room.

Now, it may be due to the pairing with the musical fidelity amps. We did not try it with bryston though. (2.4s were paored with bryston monoblocks and were distinctly different grade both in sound and price)

Audition the gold reference series of monitor audio without fail if you are looking at this range. If possible side by side with the thiels. The GS20 is under HUGE discount (~1L) and that is NOT the reason I purchased it. It sounds sublime with the MF amps.

IMO, difference between 2.4 and 1.7 goes much higher than sound/room size. 1.7 will not sound as good in a small room as the 2.4s in a larger room.

What I undeerstand is that the 1.7 is the replacement for 1.6 which will be arriving in 2mos at Audio People, so you must have heard the 1.6. I will wait till I listen to the 1.7 to see how they perform in a smaller room.
cheers,
Sid

 

[captrajesh]

He also offered an home audition - which is a first for me, because many dealers don't even have demos of what they are dealing in at their showroom, let alone offer a home audition.

Home audition thing is fabulous. I would read 'many' as 'most'

Can you imagine paying money to a dealer who could care less about what he is selling and is just looking at you as a meal ticket!

Can't agree more. LOL for the 'meal ticket' comment.

 

[BLASTO]

Home audition thing is fabulous. I would read 'many' as 'most'

I got a home audition of the Silver Rx series (Rx6 and RS8). They came 15 mins earlier than agreed time, waited patiently for 5 hours when I did full audition, helped us A/B the speakers and even unpacked once after packing after the audition when I requested them to audtion movies dialogs this time.

Home audition could be a double edged sword. Though I was not entirely convinced after the demo on speakers, I was entirely convinced on the dealers. Ended up getting higher range from them.

 

[unleash_me]

...Also looking at upgrade paths down the road from my Harbeth Shl5....

 

[sidvee]

:lol: Actually I am not planning to get rid of my Shl5 anytime soon unleash. Just looking for an alternative set up with floor standers.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[COOLDUDE7808]

Blasto - that was 1.5 yrs back ....he had Marantz on display also ...i stay in Mumbai ..so did not go after that

 

[BLASTO]

Blasto - that was 1.5 yrs back ....he had Marantz on display also ...i stay in Mumbai ..so did not go after that

Talked to him.
He has marantz till PM7004. Anything costlier, he suggests musical fidelity is better. (MF does not have ranges in PM7004 and below.)

 

[Divakar7]

We auditioned the Thiel 1.7 (or was it 1.6?) alongside the monitor audio GS20 with musical fidelity m3i and m6i.

The Thiel was smooth and lacking in details and hf is also not as extended compared to GS20. Nowhere close to the 2.4s in the demo room.

Now, it may be due to the pairing with the musical fidelity amps. We did not try it with bryston though. (2.4s were paored with bryston monoblocks and were distinctly different grade both in sound and price)

Audition the gold reference series of monitor audio without fail if you are looking at this range. If possible side by side with the thiels. The GS20 is under HUGE discount (~1L) and that is NOT the reason I purchased it. It sounds sublime with the MF amps.

IMO, difference between 2.4 and 1.7 goes much higher than sound/room size. 1.7 will not sound as good in a small room as the 2.4s in a larger room.

Hi Blasto,

I am planning to upgrade my speakers in a couple of months. I was quite impressed with the MA silver line bookshelf (RX6). I am not sure how much of an upgrade it is from my Quad 11L. But the RX6 are affordable at 50K. Do you think the GS20 are a significant jump in terms of sonic improvement from the RX6?

I have always read great things about the Thiels. However, they seem to be out of my budget --the lowest end floorstander is about 3.2Lakhs. So I am surprised that performance wise they fell short of Monitor Audio.

Any other speaker brands I should audition in the 1lakh region? I listen to Indian/Western classical, Jazz and Latin at low volumes (never beyond "9 O'clock position)

 

[krishpiscean]

Hi Blasto,

IBut the RX6 are affordable at 50K.

RX6 @ 50K ? Did they offer u this price, that wud be awesome. Pls confirm, I will run to take such offer. I think mrp is 85k and they offer some 20% discount max.