Intregrated Amp for Thiel 2.4 s

Thank you for your advices, guys. Jassdude, would you please explain more on damping factor and interaction with speakers. I have taken some EE in college but I love to learn more. Vgrubb, sorry for late feedback. Krellman, how do the 308 separates compare to trivista and kw500.?

I thought damping factor is increased by having negative feedback, which is view by some to have bad sonic implications. Increased damping factor means the fluctuation in speaker impedance would introduce less variation in the amp's performance. Therefore, sonic gain in lowfeedback amp needs to be weighted against the stability of output into varying impedance.

Please correct me if i am wrong. I cannot be offended.

Glai,

I don't know how the A308cr pre-amp and amp compare to the Tri-Vista or KW500 integrated's.

I'm sure a MF dealer or the US distributer, Signal Path, 'http://www.signalpathint.com/', could give you an honest evaluation. They've always emailed me right back on any questions I've had.

Before they were discontinued (just recently) their price was $2800.00 for the pre-amp and $4000.00 for the amp. They were made in England and have the Choke-Regulated power supplies. From what I understand, they are heads and tails above the A3.2 cr pre-amp and amp.

To give you an idea of how good the amp is supposed to be, I called Sound By Singer to see about trading in the amp for a conrad-johnson Premier 350, $8,000.00, and the salesman told me to keep the amp, that I didn't know how good it was. If the salesman gave up the commission on an $8000.00 purchase in telling me that, what do you think?

There are reviews on the internet that rave about it. It's supposed to one of the most neutral amps on the market. Like I said, after hearing them while waiting for my Tri-Vista 21 DAC to arrive, I traded my Krell pre-amp and amp in the next week on them.

Chuck

Check out the new Blue Circle integrated. 110wpc solid state, very tube-like in sound. Would be a great match with Thiels. Heard it at HE2005 and thought it was one of the best sounds in show (paired with Focus Audio FS78 speakers)

Glai - damping factor is determined by dividing the load resistance by the output resistance of the amp. The W5's output resistance is 0.01 ohms at the low end but increases slightly in the upper frequencies. The W5 has zero global negative feedback. The tonal balance is neutral. The control is visceral but it also has a touch of sweetness which allows it to convey delicate passages with the proper neuance. The gain is 33db which means it can be used without a preamp providing you have some means of volume control in the source. But IMO it sounds its best with a tube linestage.

There is no perfect or best amp. Power amps should always be considered based upon the speaker they will be driving. For speakers like thiels the w5 deserves very serious consideration.

There is another audiogon member, bunkeromantik who has thiel cs2.3 and purchased the w5 based partly on my recommendation. You might contact him or maybe he'll see this thread and chime in.