Thiel Owners

@dsper 

From 1996 to 2004 I had my .CS 5s hooked up to an ADS A2 integrated (80 watts per side into 8 ohms) and it was decent, but then in 2004 stepped it up to Bryston rig - 3BST with BP20 preamp, and it made for a big step up in SQ. Very same room and speaker location as displayed on my virtual systems page.  Not a small room, but plenty of sound. And if more bass is desired, one could always work in a subwoofer.   

To answer a direct question to me my Thiel are CS1.2, one speaker sounds great, the other one sounds blown, when I removed the grill found the tweeter was crushed, so have to replace both, not currently in a hurry for that.

To follow along with OP thread, and ideas, I went first with ProJect streambox S2, quickly returned it, ordered a ProJect Streambox Ultra, currently using it with a USB hard drive directly connected to the Ultra (which is really a raspberry pi running volumio), the audio is, so to speak crystal clear, since it is early in the morning I have not played audio too loud, don't wish to disturb neighbors, but I now have the audio quality I was seeking for a relatively low cost, well, compared to some.

A bit of an update on the ProJect Streambox S2 Ultra... I spent a good part of my morning attempting to disable the bluetooth connection as it was not secured. I eventually gave up and reflashed the Streambox with dietpi, I wouldn't recommend this task if you are not comfortable with Linux, but there's plenty of help available in various forums.

Now my custom box is running dietpi and my music collection is accessed with emby, a very slick interface. Audio quality is superb, temps of the box are lower. 

Most of my music files are flac's with some dsd thrown in as well, all sound great. Now to rip my remaining cd's.

@unsound and jazzman7

Appears that I need to find a more efficient speaker or else move on from the CJ amp.

Maybe I need to give Fritz Speakers a call and see if he still builds floor standers. Or, I could consider Spendors like in the A series as a alternative, too.

Thanks, Dsper

@dsper, If you don't expect live volume levels, it might work.