GarlandB Messages: 27 Registered: July 2009 Location: Natick, Massachusetts
Chancellor
I built the Theater 4s quite awhile back and always loved them. They were very refined sounding but capable of rocking out when called apon. My favorite music to play on the Theaters however was small scale acoustic music like folk, jazz, and solo guitar. The Theaters were so good at getting the timbers and textures of acoustic music really well. Everyone who heard them marveled at the sound with low power tubed electronics. More recently I've had to face the reality that I needed more room in my small house so when Wayne redesigned the Pi 4s which uses the not too expensive Eminence Omega 15s and the DE250 compression drivers in a much smaller box, I jumped on them but workload kept them unfinished for a while. Now that they're complete, the thing I've notice primarily about the difference between the Theater 4s and the Pi 4s is that The Theater 4s (IN MY SYSTEM AND ROOM!) had a somewhat recessed midrange which made the sound somewhat laid back but very refined sounding and neutral. This is generally a good thing. The sound of the new speakers set up the same way with the speakers along the long wall about a third of the way in from the corners is considerably more punchy with a more powerful bass and more forward midrange. The new speakers are more fun to listen to and the clarity of sound and detail is still quite evident so textures and timbre are still quite well epressed. I look forward to hooking my tube amps back up after getting really absorbed into listening to my new 41HZ.com class D "Amp 6 Basic" solid state amp. Also I want to re-arrange the listening room to allow the speakers to be located in the corners of the short wall. I will report back after some more experimentation.
Hope this helps with the Theater 4 or Pi 4 decision.