Thiel Owners

@jazzman7 "I'd be curious to know if you ever tried using your Hegel H190 to drive your Thiels ... and if so what you thought of the pairing.Hegel specs say their integrated amps are stable down to 2 ohms.So if so, all that is left is if it's a good sonic match."

No have never used the Hegel on the 3.7s.  The main system is in a larger room (16x18 with 10 foot ceilings and a tray ceiling on top of that and open into other spaces bigger than the 16x18).  I was using a Modwright KWA150SE (along with a Modwright LS26.5DM preamp) to drive them and tried a Class D (Mivera), and was shocked that it bested the Modwright.  I now use the EVS 1200 amp (same module as the Mivera except dual mono and with mods) to drive them and it's plenty of power and sounds great.  I traded the Modwright amp straight up to a dealer for the Hegel and sold off my preamp, DAC and amp I was using in the secondary system.  Am quite pleased with the Hegel.  I'm using a small PC music server with JRiver since the USB DAC in the Hegel 190 is limited and it can't do DSD (I use JRiver to play it back at 176.4 along with a USB to coax converter).  If I were to use a Hegel (integrated) in the main system, I'd go with one of two models above it (I'll probably at some point convert the DSD files and have them somewhere on the network so I can just play them back over ethernet (the Hegel can use UPnP) and do away with the PC - just have other things I'm working on for now and don't use the secondary systems all that often).

@cascadephil  

Thanks.

Bryston 3BST / Bryston BP20 has been my amp / preamp combo since 2004.   Been driving CS 2.4s since 2011.  Before that CS .5s.    When I purchased used pair, my dealer still had brand new CS 2.4s on the floor, and was my Bryston dealer as well.  Made it much easier to audition  both the speakers and the ampflication, as well as the pairing.  Won't be so easy next time around.  And my local dealer just retired and closed his doors.  Been thinking that should I move on from the 3BST, should I entertain going with an integrated, and if so what integrated.  In that regard Hegel has been on my radar.  Hence my question.

I had a Bryston 3BST in the secondary system (along with an Odyssey Candela preamp and a Meitner MA-1 DAC) driving Ohm Microwalsh Talls (augmented by a Rel Strata III sub).  I had a friend bug me about Class D in the summer of 2017.  I had last seriously listened to them at the Capital Audiofest in 2015 and I thought they had gotten better but not quite there yet.  I told him I would look again at RMAF in 2017 and that I'd probably get one as I had multiple systems and I was sure by this point I could at a minimum replace something like the Emotiva XPA-200 I had in one system.  I ended up getting the Mivera SE amp.  I broke it in using the secondary system and just put it in place of the Bryston 3BST.  It smoked it right out of the box (was shocked by that much of a difference and surprised how much better the system sounded - always thought the speakers were more limited but was wrong).  I ended up using that (the Mivera, where it bested the Modwright amp - even more shocking and I had a Bryston 14BSST before the Modwright) in the main system.  I traded the Modwright amp for the Hegel (then sold off the amp, preamp and DAC I had in that secondary system) and then I got the EVS amp and moved the Mivera and sold off the Emotiva amp.  I still use the Mivera in the main system for HT (my main system in an integrated AV system and it is a pain to get behind it so it is easier to move the Mivera which drives the 3.7s with ease).  I wanted to get a higher end Hegel that had a less limited USB but just couldn't justify it for the secondary system.  I'm sure Hegel would drive Thiels quite nicely.

I used an Ayre AX-7 to drive my CS1.6s and now using an AX-5 with my CS2.4s. Very happy with both pairings. Measurements can give a hint but listening is only way to know.

Happy Friday! All