Best electronics for Thiel CS3.6 ?

A question a little off the topic but .... I have a 12 year old pair of thiel scs's - smaller bookshelf style speaker, but have never heard another pair of speakers by thiel. Are all thiel's prone to brightness and hard to drive? Any information out there about my speakers? Thanks

Davidspeed, The Theil 1.6 is a real departure from typical Thiel brightness - even with Krell. Unfortunately, maybe too little, too late from the way local dealers are dropping the Thiel line.

Davidspeed, Thiels are not rolled off at the top like some other speakers, as such, with bright associated equipment they will sound bright. As for "hard to drive" that depends. Thiels usually don't vary much with regard to impedance load, so in tht regard they are not hard to drive. Most newer Thiels drop below 4 Ohms for a good part of the time, and will require an amp that provides ample current. Older Thiels like the CS-2's (6 Ohm nominal/ 5 Ohm minimum) and 3.5's (4 Ohm nominal/ 4 Ohm minimum) were more forgiving in that regard.

> Thiel says that the classic combos with thiel are Conrad > Johnson, Audio Research and McIntosh.

I'm an owner of Thiels 3.6. Unfortunately with my amp MF A300 (150W) I cannot get decent bass from them. I had much better bass with older version 3.5. Somebody said that new Thiels would work with Conrad Johnson, Audio Research and McIntosh. Will Thiel work with Cary 805C (only 50W), work I mean decent bass, etc. Do someone have any experience with such combo?

If you want to get the most of Thiel CS3.6. Buy an amp whose manufacturer lists a 2 ohm power rating. The higher the rating the better, I would pick an amp rated at about 800 wpc into 2 ohms.

Blue Circle BC26 and Sim Audio Moon W-5 are perfect examples and you should be able to find either one for
2500-3000 used. The Blue Circle BC26 will be more musical and Sim Audio W-5 will exert more control over the speaker but the Moon isn't a slouch in the musicality department either.

Take note of the impedence curver in the stereophile review to understand why this is so important.

http://www.stereophile.com/printarchives.cgi?225

Preamps are another issue altogether. I would pick the power amp first and let the input impedence, gain, and voltage sensitivity of the power amp guide your selection of a preamp.