Recommended amp for Thiel 3.6 -- newbie


Hello all. As a newbie to this, I’ve read a number of the forum posts, and have gotten some wonderful information and education. And, as this particulary question, Thiel 3.6 recommended amps, was pretty old, thought I’d post my own specific questions. I know so little about this, I’m sure to make some idiotic mistakes, but I’ll learn.

I just purchased a set of the Thiel 3.6s, and then read that they’re significantly hungry for both power and quality components. Although my budget is not unlimited, I have no buyer’s regret, as these seem to be a wonderful speaker set to grow into, with advancing upgrades as time goes on.

My room is about 27’x40’x9’, rug floor, combined living room, dining room; with the entertainment center in the right half of that space. My listening area is about 14’ back, and I generally expect to listen at mostly low to moderate levels. I like accurate, but I don’t like loud. I confess the system I was looking at was Denon AVR-x7200, rated at 150wpc -- but even that is confusing to me: One place says 150wpc, another 260w. The specs seem to be high at 0.05% THD, but the boards seem to reflect that many aren’t a fan of the Japanese disclosures. On all the boards I’ve read, no one recommended that system, in favor of, say, Theta, McCormack, Adcom and others. And the crickets were pretty deafening.

My prime use is for music from those speakers; but I would love to plug in HT application as well, with ultimate 4k passthrough, Network Attached Storage, Internet Radio, and Airplay and/or AppleTV -- those are the things that led me to the Denon in the first place. And even though the boards were critically silent (only one reference, and a negative one at that), I wondered if it was simply because those threads were old.

So for now, I’m kind of looking at Theta -- almost certainly in the used market. I saw a Dreadnaught unit go off recently, so perhaps with enough patience a similar thing might come around again. And see also (currently) a Casablanca unit. --But this is confusing. The Casablanca seems to return some of the HT features that I’d like, and while I’d like to think this is a solution, read the term "pre-amp", which suggests to me that this alone would never be a solution to power those Thiels. Perhaps this AND Dreadnaught. Or something similar. Or something else. --And for that matter, might the Denon 7200 itself, if not an ideal system, be used as a "starter system" -- acceptable for now -- and then morphed in pre-amp type of deal later, using it's connective controls, with some sort of quality amp downstream?

Thanks much for the consideration to this question and long post.
donzi
donzi If I go with something of higher quality (ML, Bryston, etc.) These have no volume control, which implies to me that these are downstream from a pre-amp or controller of sorts.


Right then, sorry only read your title, if you need an integrated type amp with volume control then the same applies you need an amp that can deliver current Look at one s that can almost double their specified 8ohm wattage eg: 100w and then make sure the 4ohm wattage almost doubles (200w) and if you can get it the 2ohm should rise again.

One integrated amp I know that can come close is the Parasound Halo Integrated, this may suit your needs and has a dac inside as well.

If you need surround sound amp then you should look at Krell, ML, Theta, maybe Parasound. 


Cheers George

I concur w/ George- you will need 200W minimum to really make the Thiels sing!  Keep me posted and Happy Listening!

Sorry jafant this is no so correct either, they are 86db efficient, not so inefficient, so wattage is not the issue.

A pair of 25w (yes that’s not a misprint) Mark Levinson ML2 monoblocks will drive them nicely, though not to party levels. They can drive them nicely because they can do 25w into 8ohms, 50w into 4ohms, 100w into 2ohms and 200w into 1ohm, some say it can even do 400w into .5ohm. This is an amp that can do big current, even though it’s only rated at 25w at 8ohms. So current is what’s needed not so much wattage.

A pair of say 400w otl tubes still have no chance to drive them correctly, because they cannot do current, same goes for tube amps with transformers (unless they have a 1ohm or 2ohm transformer speaker terminals) which I’ve never seen, and Mosfet, and ClassD are in the same boat..

Cheers George

200W w/ high-current would be optimal for certain. Re-read all of my posts. Keep me posted & Happy Listening!
I agree with George, the speakers need an amp that can deliver high current into a low impedance load, and NO a/v receiver will do this, not even a flagship model. Also donzi, if you are going to look at wattage specs, make sure you consider the entire specification. You are only looking at 150w or 260w, so here are the complete specs,

150w (8 ohm, 20 Hz - 20 kHz, 0.05% 2ch Drive)
260w (6 ohm, 1 kHz, 10% 1ch Drive)

IMHO, any spec with extremely high distortion, using limited bandwidth and only one channel is meaningless.

As far as current, think about this, a 12v lantern battery will not crank your car, not enough current.

I think your best setup would be to get an 2 channel integrated or pre/power that has HT pass through. Then add a lesser expensive a/v receiver for the HT capability.