Thiel Owners

tmsrdg

I had a friend who had Spectral's amp and preamp for 10 years ,
they mandate M.I.T. cabling , every time he had an issue 
they recomended upgrading the cables !
So be preparired to spend , spend and then spend some more .                                                              

I, too, am interested to hear more about the Spectral-Thiel experience...really, more about Spectral period! Have to admit, Spectral was a brand I knew nothing about until I jumped back into the hobby full force about 4 years ago. Since then, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a brand with such reverence from both owners and non-owners. Definitely a brand I hope to audition some day...

@  tmsrdg
Hello sir, 
Yes, I have a full Spectral ensemble with all the appropriate interconnects and speaker cables. I lived overseas for a number of years and have just recently gotten back into this hobby. The house is starting to look like an audio museum. I have 2 preamps from Spectral, both of them older- a DMC20 II and DMC 30s. I also have 3 amps- the DMA 180 II and the compact amps- DMA 90 and DMA100s. I am sure they DMA180 would drive your CS3.7s- it sounds great on my 2.3s and even the CS5is. I have a Classe CA2300 and I prefer the Spectral.

I keep the the DMC20 II for its phono section. My current cartridge is .18mv output and the 202 phono board for the preamp is quiet enough to thoroughly enjoy.

Spectral strongly recommends using a Spectral amplifier with their preamplifiers but you can safely use their preamplifier with any amp. The amps are very wide-bandwidth (the DMA 180 is -3dB at 1.8 megahertz) and are said to be unstable with preamps not as wide-band and cables that do not provide a soft rolloff at extreme frequencies (MIT). This and that they are designed and voiced with MIT cables is the reason for the mandate. 

Unlike @ vair68robert's friend's experience, Spectral components, new or used, seem to me to be a particularly good value considering their build and parts quality. They tend to hold their value reasonably well and in my experience they are very reliable. I have never had to send back any of my equipment for service. I did replace the bulbs in the logo of my DMA180, but I did this at my own risk. I am not sure what issues your friend had if he had appropriate Spectral branded MIT or better, upgrading cables should not be to fix problems but to improve an already stable system. 

Thanks, regards and happy listening :)

@rasc

Thanks for the detailed and timely response. There are many reasons I'd like to try Spectral, but I've gone without a preamp for quite a while now (only way to go at least for me) and don't know if I could keep that up with only a Spectral amp in the line. The line, FYI, is Aurender N10 > Berkeley Alpha DAC > Classe 300 >Thiel 3.7. Any comments on whether I would really need the Spectral preamp are greatly appreciated!

rascs

Thank You for citing your full Spectral system. I am certain that a few queries about the brand are headed your way.

Happy Listening!