Recommended amp for Thiel 3.6 -- newbie


Hello all. As a newbie to this, I’ve read a number of the forum posts, and have gotten some wonderful information and education. And, as this particulary question, Thiel 3.6 recommended amps, was pretty old, thought I’d post my own specific questions. I know so little about this, I’m sure to make some idiotic mistakes, but I’ll learn.

I just purchased a set of the Thiel 3.6s, and then read that they’re significantly hungry for both power and quality components. Although my budget is not unlimited, I have no buyer’s regret, as these seem to be a wonderful speaker set to grow into, with advancing upgrades as time goes on.

My room is about 27’x40’x9’, rug floor, combined living room, dining room; with the entertainment center in the right half of that space. My listening area is about 14’ back, and I generally expect to listen at mostly low to moderate levels. I like accurate, but I don’t like loud. I confess the system I was looking at was Denon AVR-x7200, rated at 150wpc -- but even that is confusing to me: One place says 150wpc, another 260w. The specs seem to be high at 0.05% THD, but the boards seem to reflect that many aren’t a fan of the Japanese disclosures. On all the boards I’ve read, no one recommended that system, in favor of, say, Theta, McCormack, Adcom and others. And the crickets were pretty deafening.

My prime use is for music from those speakers; but I would love to plug in HT application as well, with ultimate 4k passthrough, Network Attached Storage, Internet Radio, and Airplay and/or AppleTV -- those are the things that led me to the Denon in the first place. And even though the boards were critically silent (only one reference, and a negative one at that), I wondered if it was simply because those threads were old.

So for now, I’m kind of looking at Theta -- almost certainly in the used market. I saw a Dreadnaught unit go off recently, so perhaps with enough patience a similar thing might come around again. And see also (currently) a Casablanca unit. --But this is confusing. The Casablanca seems to return some of the HT features that I’d like, and while I’d like to think this is a solution, read the term "pre-amp", which suggests to me that this alone would never be a solution to power those Thiels. Perhaps this AND Dreadnaught. Or something similar. Or something else. --And for that matter, might the Denon 7200 itself, if not an ideal system, be used as a "starter system" -- acceptable for now -- and then morphed in pre-amp type of deal later, using it's connective controls, with some sort of quality amp downstream?

Thanks much for the consideration to this question and long post.
donzi
Thanks all! I'm getting a great understanding of all of this! And for that, I'm very grateful. And thanks, Tis, I was wondering about that 6 ohm (not 4, or even 2) 10% THD.

I'm curious for your thoughts on this: One of the possibilities is to use the Denon 7200, but employ the preamp outs on the two fronts for a more powerful, matched amp to the Thiel. (I'm looking at either a vintage Mark Levinson 23, or a current Krell KAV250a). 

I understand the weak link to the chain for ultimate quality of output would be the Denon, but perhaps with a quality secondary amp, this might be minimized. Plus it would give me the ability to at least have some music and functionality while I saved up for the rest of it (provided that underpower didn't destroy either speakers or amp in the meantime.)

And georgelofi, I've just re-read your graph from the third post at the top. And I understand it now. Wow, these things are like under 4 ohms almost the whole listening frequency! FWIW, I spoke with someone at Theta today who felt that the decision to go with such a low impedance on these was one error on Jim Thiel's part. Now, I know nothing about speaker-making, and surely defer to whatever decisions he made, which is why I got these speakers. So I would suspect that there is a quality choice in the mix there. More difficult to drive, for sure; but with that being addressed (hopefully in one of the scenarios I've described above) it's an ideal match.
Donzi, in some cases, and only a very few, with an average under powered speaker, adding an amplifier to an a/v receiver can help. However, your speakers need a quality front end driving that high current amp to the speaker. The a/v receiver will just limit the performance capability of the amp. Remember, the a/v receiver is in front of the amp, so garbage in, garbage out. As I said, you should spend the majority of your budget on a quality 2 channel integrated or preamp/power amp that has a HT pass through option. Then just add a lesser expensive a/v receiver that has front pre outs to do home theater.

Donzi, "usually" the better speakers "less coloured" are the harder ones to drive, brands like Wilson and many others even worse than Thiel. 

Cheers George 

Look at the  Sanders Sound Systems Magtech amplifier .  He makes very high current amps.  The suggestion for a Krell was good but probably better if you get an older Krell that has been restored.  Use a newer processer as a pre amp that can accept  all of those sources.  Simple answer and watts are not the issue as you have found out.  Look for a high current amp like the Magtech with a fast slew rate and stability down to 1 ohm.