Intregrated Amp for Thiel 2.4 s

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.

Hi Jazzdude. Sure I see this thread. And I bought W5 thanks to you. It is a one heck of an amplifier. Tells my Thiels what to do in a way no other amp I tried did.

I wouldn't recomend any integrated to drive Thiels. I tried this with MAc 6900 and was totally unimpressed. I also had MF A308 integrated and that was even worse.

Seems like you can't avoid muscle poweramp to have your Thiels sound right.

I decided I had to have the Thiels 2.4 after I heard them on the MF KW500. I don't have enought experience to tell you what is better that what other than to say I gained new respect for the 2.4 when I heard them thru that amp. The B&W equipment in the room at 2x the price was still not matching the 2.4 which will be bested by the new 3.6 replacement design early '06.

The KW500 simply has the fine details in the uppers and resonances and balance the Thiels will give you for the music you've listed above. My custom amp has the power to run the 2.4s all day, but not the details. It's better than the intergrated Mackies they had... KW500 all the way IMHO.

Give us an update as I see it's been a while since this thread was started.

I've been accused of coming into the store just to hear my music on that amp as I'm scrounging the money for the kW500 in such a way the wife won't complain. The accusations are correct and the thiels are still waiting for there master (amp) at home.