I have bought 7 Thäters in 2012, and now own 5 - sold 2 of the 7.
As a face lather guy with very hard water in my area, I prefer a softer brush with some backbone.
Thäters IMHO is like a soft sponge on your skin, for my personal preference it's too soft and mushy.
I can imagine it being better suited for bowl/scuttle latherers.
If you face lather, you ned soft water to make a Thäter work.
I own both their 2-bands and 3-bands and in bulb and fan shapes.
The fan shaped Thäters, even in 2-band splays and blooms like no tomorrow - even a 26 mm fan 2-band splays more than my Rooney Heritage 3XL 30 mm fan did, in my view an absurde soft splay. I sold the brush.
I'm not a big Thäter fan - i love their handles, but to me honestly my MÜHLE 3-band Silvertips are a little bit better than any of my 7 Thäters. And people often call MÜHLE 3-band Silvertip floppy. But once the talk starts on Thäters, they are all of a sudden called luxurious velvet soft with lots of backbone.
I have bought 2 Thäters from German vendors, and 5 Thäters from US vendors - so all over the map and sizes ranging from 23 mm to 28 mm in 2-band, 3-band, bulb and fan shape. Wood handle, plexiglas handle, faux ivory, Black and imitation horn.
They all lack backbone - not saying they are bad brushes, they are probably and obviously excellent for some - but I don't see what they have over my MÜHLE 3-band Silvertip Sophist White Porcelaine brush to be quite honest......I just can't see it.
I prefer my MÜHLE slightly over any of me Thäters - and MÜHLE brushes are never talked about on the forums as anything special, just an ordinary floppy brush that comes with from a suppliers of razors and synthetic brushes :dodgy:
The Thäter 2-band is softer than most other 3-band, and their 3-band is almost ridiculously soft, and not suited for face lathering unless your water is extremely soft.
I will not be buying more Thäters - not my cup of tea.
I spend $1.500 to find that out, lesson learned I guess :icon_razz: