Thiel Owners

Keep me posted -oblgny.

So I swapped out the Monster Powerline 2 speaker cables, to the CS2.4SE, for a shorter pair of Kimber 8TC; more out of curiosity than anything.

First impression: everything sounded the same tonally. No difference in the soundstage either. It was the system that I’ve listened to for years.

Then I noticed something: I heard the precise words in some background vocals on an Indigo Girls’ track. I never knew exactly what the lyrics were before; just that the harmonies were nice. Then I was surprised at some rightish-channel strumming that kicked in part-way through another song. I never noticed it before, despite the years of listening to the piece.

All-in-all I’d say that the 8TC has added a level of detail that I hadn’t observed before. Not a huge difference, but enough to sit up and take notice.  And be delighted...

Cheers,
Warren

P.S. I’ve also added a short run of 8TC to the MCS1 centre channel too.

Saff/warren...nice post...though I'm not familiar with the products mentioned...I enjoyed your account. ..very nicely described/written!

Nice! saffron-

this is the excellent aspect about cables/cords. There will always be some passage in the recording that will shine w/ the right cable! 

Jafant...
Right now I'm listening to Mose Allison and everything is spot on.  The B. A. T. VK3i is one of the best preamps I've owned. True to my intent and hoped for in my expectations is it's definition; the "reigned in" impression I previously mentioned remains, but this is not necessarily a negative aspect with the Thiels.  (As some listeners find them a bit too "bright.") I never have and never will.  Does it mate well with Thiel?  Yes.  

The Primare A34.2 is the first decent class D amp I've tried, "decent" meaning somewhat audiophile - my first toe-in-the-water with class D amplification was via a pair of Musical Fidelity M1PWR mono blocks which was a fairly cheap way to investigate the category. 

I think I was pretty fortunate to get the B. A. T.  for $1k used. It's a bargain.  Considering that it's a 20+ year old piece I can only imagine how good the current models perform.  As is my usual path in this hobby, moving up the food chain is definitely in the cards sometime this year.