Lonnie Brownell, Robert Deutsch

In a sidebar to <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/542/">his review of the B&W DM302</A> speakers in the October 1997 issue (Vol.20 No.10), Wes Phillips mentioned a handy tool he uses for speaker setup&mdash;a laser level. The one Wes used was originally intended for construction work, not tweaking one's speaker placement, but now there's one available specifically for that purpose: The 770 SA-S Laser Sound Alignment System by Checkpoint Laser Tools.

That's right, that's no typo; the name of this speaker is the Thiel CS.5&mdash;not 1.5, not 8.5, just point five. The CS.5 is the smallest of Thiel's floorstanding CS (Coherent Source) loudspeaker family, and is likely to remain so&mdash;a name like CS.125, for example, is a bit unwieldy. If you're familiar with the rest of Thiel's CS line, then you can imagine what the CS.5 looks like: it resembles the other CS speakers, except it's smaller (footnote 1). And, being a typical smartypants 'ender (as in "high-ender"), I bet you think you know 'zactly how these <I>sound</I>, too, don't you? Well? I thought so.