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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
donzi OP
60 posts
 
Thanks.
--CD to sit and listen to.
--I'd like to stream some lossless stuff from Network attached storage.
--Apple Airplay for TIDAL streaming or the like. 
--AppleTV music Internet radio -- these two Apple choices for simply walking around the house, background music.
--Then TV's DVD function


After much thought (and guidance) I think I'm beginning to see a path forward for a Bryston amp, and even that two channel Bryston preamp. Creatively, I think I can do most everything listed above thanks to AppleTV streaming. And would envision this plugged into the preamp via some HDMI-to-RCA converter. The only challenge might be the Network attached storage, but that might be streamable via the network and Airplay. I might lose some sonic quality via those over-the-air methods (even the NAS, which otherwise would have been important), but perhaps close enough for now. --Or would that be fairly lossless transfer?

It would be nice ultimately to have multiple speakers surrounding a DVD movie, and to have the ability to select multiple rooms to port sound into other speakers. But I think I'd be fairly content with the above for years. And a good budget price point.

Thanks all for your help and counsel with all of this -- all of you. Might you have an opinion on the Mark Levinson 23, vs. Bryston 4B?
tls49's avatar
tls49
1,351 posts
 
Donzi, am I understanding correctly from your last post that you will only use the pair of Thiel speakers and no other speakers? If so, that would definitely change my recommendation. Also, what equipment do you currently have?
mesch
3,479 posts
 
I am of the opinion that, in less one has a dedicated room for establishment of a home theater, and one is primarily interested in a music system that in addition is meant to augment video, then a 2 channel system is best. Might include a subwoofer, which may be in use for video only. 

I have such a system. What I find amazing is that, when watching a movie, my 2 channel system positions some of the surround portion of the soundtrack behind my back.
donzi OP
60 posts
 
After going around on this issue, I’ve settled into simply the two-speaker solution, and going for quality. The initial interest in the more channeled amp was to be able to port separate music into my home office. So yes, only the Thiels, left and right. Even for the TV/movie option, I think I’ll simply run TV audio out into a pre-amp. Dilemma solved.

Believe it or not. I have no equipment right now. This is all first system. (Well, since teen years.) The Thiels are purchased, but are still about 900 miles north of me, in Virginia. These were "home pickup only", and I thought, hey, it’s only 14 hours. So I’m building my system around these. And down now to likely Bryston or Mark Levinson. I’ll probably finalize this around Sunday, after some preamp auctions end. --And wanted to wait for the advice of this group, which has been wonderful!

What’s a bit funny is that what started all of this is my TV speakers are blown. And my previous computer-speaker Bose setup that I was using for movies stopped working. So, for the need of a $2 speaker, I’m now significantly out of pocket for a new (great) hobby.

Mesch, that’s wild. I’m hoping for a like quality where soundstage is present.

mesch
3,479 posts
 
In as much as I think my 2-channel system has a very holographic soundstage with music.  There is however something in the coding of some movie soundtracks that expands that experience.  

For example,  I was watching a movie scene where the actors where in a large newsroom with people on phones everywhere. Some of the phones were ringing behind me.

I believe that when you pair your 3.6s with the right preamp/amp, and procure a quality source you will be happy. Given your last posting, I think you might get the most for your $$$ purchasing a quality integrated amplifier, as was suggested earlier. 


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