What amp for Thiel cs3.5's?

It sounds like you're out of your league with these babies. The plain ole truth (again) is that $500 is not going to buy you much in the way of power and quality; which these babies require. The 3.5s are killer speakers and deserve better than what $500 will buy....peace, warren

I do think that you have at least one viable option in that price range. I would suggest that you pick up an Adcom GFA-555II. It is 325w per side into the 3.5's 4 ohm load, and should power your Thiels quite well. Some folks don't care for Adcoms, but to my ears, their older bi-polar designs are really great amps for the money. Check out the archived reviews on Stereophile.com. Another advantage of the GFA-555II is that if you pick up a second one, you can run them each in bridged mono mode, putting out 850w into each Thiel. This is exactly the configuration that I use with my CS3.6's, and I find it to be quite satisfying.

Hope this helps, Tom.

A fine neutral or slightly warm sounding amp should do the trick. Stay away from bright or sterile sounding amps. . .you would not be happy with these.

Ketchup, I had the 3.5s and couldn't get them to sound anything less than very bright. I tried Transparent cables to tune down the treble with only limited success. I tried the following SS amps with them. A B&K ST140, which didn't have enough power (about 105 watts). They need power in the 4 ohm and below range. A Musical Design 150-D (150 watts)and an Adcom 5500 (200 watts). Both of these amps had the power but still sounded bright. I was surprised because all these amps use Mofets, which are supposed to sound more like tubes. In addition, my pre-amp is a tubed model. Thiel was/is aware of this problem. I think that I remember hearing about a crossover mod/change that Thiel was offering on these 3.5s. You might want to check on that. Jim

I have a Conrad Johnson MF2500A driving my Thiel 3.6's and feel it does a great job. This amp is about 1800 to 2200 used which is out of your price range. I agree with warrenh in that you need good clean power to drive the Thiels and get the most out of them. And believe me they have alot to offer if driven correctly.You might get away with a CJ MF2250A which is about 1200 to 1500 used and puts out 125wpc.