Thiel Owners

@halifax:  Thank you for the heads up on the 3.5’s. At this moment in time I am simply making adjustments to improve my current setup, which only today scored a Mytek Liberty DAC to replace a Jolida FX Glass Tube unit. The Belles 250i Integrated 250i that I’ve been digging has a tubed (1) preamp section, and I kinda feel like I’m over-tubing myself with the aging Jolida. My Pro-ject turntable also uses a tubed phonostage. The Mytek is way more up to date, including MQA support. 
 

It is my humble opinion that Thiel, as well as Maggies, benefit from solid state amplification. In the past I stuck to this, more often than not incorporating tubed preamps in the mix to good effect. Unless I’m mistaken or misinformed by info obtained from the interweb, Coda was founded by a bunch of guys who once worked with Nelson Pass?  That association alone would give me reason to buy one. 
 

My current setup is: Belles 250i Mosftet Integrated Amplifier, Magnepan MMG, Musical Fidelity A35 disc player, REL T5i subwoofer, Pro-ject Debut Carbon EVO turntable, Pro-ject DS tube phonostage, Aurender N100H  2TB music server, and lastly the newly acquired Mytek Liberty DAC, and a Furutech power conditioner. The most expensive component to date has been the Aurender, which I bought in lieu of TMR’s refusal to accept my offer on a Pass Labs X150 Integrated. 
 

The next addition will in all likelihood be a Pass Labs integrated. Like that, my eventual re-association with a pair of CS 3.5’s is fairly far down the proverbial road. Being financially capable of obtaining either is the crux of the matter. In any case, such will be my “final” system. I am more than willing to wait for the upgraded versions of the CS 3.5’s which, I know, will cost substantially more than the pairs I have already had.  
 

PS: I always employed the CS 3.5 equalizer in my listening. To my ears the sonics were dull without it. 
 

Cheers, folks! 

oblgny

Always good to see you here. Thank You for the System update. Yes! too many tubed gear is too much of a good thing. The Musical Fidelity A35 is a fine player.

I believe that you are the only Panel member whom endorses Belles amplifier.

Do you miss B.A.T. integrated amp?

Happy Listening!

Jafant - yes I am in Chattanooga, if you are nearby you are welcome to come hear my setup

oblgny - the setup you have now seems like it should be pretty fun, i see why you are not in a hurry to upgrade, i used to use a rel storm III with the cs1.6 it was awesome sub for its time, they got really nice. My first encounter with big bass was a REL stadium, it literally made the couch I was sitting on vibrate enough to move, It made me laugh at loud at the sheer amount of bass energy it put into the room.  Maggies with one of those and a belles amp seems like it would be a fun match, I think you could probably try a cs1.6 with that amp and sub and have a really interesting alternate setup, if the Belles is running the maggies well it can certainly put out the power for the cs1.6 also.  The liberty DAC looks super awesome, definitely a piece I would like to try

halifax

Thank You. I work in Nashville. Perhaps we can meet-and-greet soon. Pretty cool to have an Audio shop locally.  I hope that you are enjoying the CS 2.4 upgrade. It is quite a special Loudspeaker, IMO.

Happy Listening!

Jafant…

My appreciation for the Belles 250i Integrated has as much to do with its outstanding sonics as it does, as such things develop over time, with its owner David Belles. There is little, make that zero, information available on this integrated anywhere to be had; even the far reaching and intrusive interweb fails to produce so much as sales brochure reproduction. Emails sent to Power Modules, his current company, have also failed to produce a reply. C’est la vie. 

During my wayward youth I, like so many others, sought after the most popular brands of the era -Marantz, Sansui, Pioneer, etc. In fact, until I stumbled upon Audiogon as I was internetting to replace a stereo receiver I was still in possession of one of those brands. When I first moved into this house in 1994 my first addition to my “collection” was a pair of Klipsch CF 3’s. Apart from the Klipsch and to some extent Marantz, there was no name behind the brand. There was Saul of course, and there was Paul. They had stories. There was nothing backing up the Pioneers, the Sansui’s, the Nakamichis, the most popular, consumer commercial brands back in the day. 
 

Not long after buying my first pair of Thiel - CS2.2 - I began reading about Jim Thiel. Nothing I had previously owned came close to producing the sound I was hearing and my curiosity grew. Unlike Belles, there is a TON of information regarding Jim Thiel’s history. I became attached. Personally. I believe that I’ve read everything there is available to read about Thiel the man, and Thiel the company. As I related to Tom Thiel during our all too brief personal introduction last week as he picked up my CS 2.4’s, there are only two brands of loudspeakers that have delivered an “aha!”  moment to my ears, Thiel and Magnepan. Suffice it to say the the CS3.5’s delivered this atomically. 
 

Just the construction of the Belles 250i alone is reason enough to appreciate it. The power supply is encased in a separate enclosure attached to the amp itself by an umbilical cord. Inside that box is a pretty damn big toroidal transformer. My uneducated assumption reasons that this was designed to reduce noise. I could be wrong - after all, I’ve previously stated that I don’t know a mosfet from a misfit, but I know what I like. (The Belles long form name is Belles 250i Mosfet Integrated Hybrid.) 

I am also assuming that the output rating for this may be 125 W into 8 ohms, 250 W into 4 ohms. (Given the absence of any officially disclaimed information.)  It seems right to me. The B. A. T. Integrated, as well as the Pass Labs X150.5 amplifier I previously owned were rated slightly higher @ 150 W 8 ohms, 300 W into 4 ohms. I’ve never had any amplification higher than those - and I don’t believe I will never have the need for it. 
 

The Belles is closer sonically to the Pass than I can say it is for the B. A. T.  I have always operated within the constrictions of my personal financial weather map. Sometimes it’s sunny and seventy degrees, sometimes it’s not. When the weather develops into the nasty and cold the first thing to suffer is my audio equipment. Fortunately equipment is merely a possession that can be substituted or eventually replaced. With even better stuff! 
 

At this moment I have a pretty darn good cheap-seats setup. A quick, unscientific or mathematically precise summation lands this at around…$4K give or take. Not too shabby. 
 

I guess this means that I don’t miss the B. A. T. 

Cheers!