Thiel Owners

Erratum:
In my earlier post I meant to post that I ran c-j ss with Thiel CS 2s.

I have Thiel CS-6's with the SS1 and passive crossover.  Over the years I have used them with a lot of great amp. They perform best with high current SS amps.  That said, they do very nicely with high powered tube amps too.  I hooked them up last Thursday because I was considering listing them for sale.  They have been collecting dust for the last few years.  After a few hours of listening, I am reconsidering listing them.  

Good to see you- vegasears

which amps have you used over the years?

Happy Listening!

unsound...

I've stumbled across a few ads for the Thiel eq's over the last year or so but didn't bite only because,  well,  I have one already.  (Obviously not thinking that I needed another,  and as obviously not thinking to have a back up just in case...)  Suffice it to add that I am now on the hunt in order to undertake the s'periment that you outlined below regarding having them modded into monos with XLR connections.  Intrigued as hell,  I am indeed.  This will occur if and when I am able to locate another,  a relaxed "to-do" line item for me.

They go for around $100 from what I recall.  That's a cheap investment.  I do not have any reference point to guesstimate the final cost of doing so,  but if I can have the work performed on both for around $500 methinks that's a meager expenditure considering how much I enjoy these 3.5's.  My local audio store here in Lake Grove NY referred me to a tech that they use when I bought a used Conrad Johnson MF200 amp a little while back.

Wow!  I forgot that I put that in for service before the summer!  I have to go get it!  

Anyway,  a few posts below I mentioned that I purchased a Khozmo passive preamp from a fellow member here just for the absolute hell of it.  A couple of years ago I s'perimented with a Reference Line Audio Preeminence One B Series II passive preamp with a different amp and speakers and...I actually forget what I thought of it at the moment.

The Khozmo has two outputs and three inputs with no markings whatsoever.  No manual,  either.  It's actually a well constructed piece of gear.  I hooked it up with the Thiel eq in line.

I've decided that the most accurate description of my Thiel CS3.5's is "articulate".  What I imagined would happen by slotting the Khozmo in for the moment happened.  (Pass Labs X150.5,  Khozmo,  Thiel CS3.5's.)

There definitely is a more pronounced etching of the highs which the Thiels already excel in providing,  and I must confess that I favor speakers that offer such to begin with.  The "etching" I described above is  not meant to infer that I sense a harshness in those frequencies.  Perhaps the most accurate description I can relate of the Khozmo's impact is its absolute lack of adding anything of color whatsoever.  As I've said before I find Thiels to be "colorless" unforgivingly revealing loudspeakers, as well the same for the Pass Labs X150.5 amplifier.  This was a fun little s'periment.  I'll be keeping this little preamp along with the BAT VK3i.

Sometime this coming week I'll rotate the BAT back into place using the tape monitor inputs allowing me to use the balanced connects between it and the Pass.  I already tested that option before tossing the Khozmo in and it worked fine.  

Like I said,  once I locate another Thiel eq I will undertake your suggestion to have the mods performed.  Should be VERY cool,  indeed.

I forget whom the fellow member here is that prefaces his ads with the phrase,  "Get ready for hi-fi fun!", but since joining this community and more specifically this thread,  I have indeed been having hi-fi fun.

Thanks,  folks.

The following observations are based on my related equipment, room conditions and personal taste. I am not a reviewer and sure as heck don’t have golden ears.

I purchased my Thiel CS 6’s new around 2000 and used these amps over the years:

B&K M200 Sonata Mono Blocks, they were anemic.

Krell 200 FPB Stereo, lots of bass punch, accurate in the midrange but the high frequencies were bright. I added a tube pre at that point and that tamed the glare slightly. Great amp for Megadeth but only so so for Mozart.

VTL 300 Deluxe Mono Blocks, they warmed up the high frequencies and added depth to the mid range but the bass was now incidental. At first I used SED Winged C 6550 power tubes and later used GL KT-88’s. I used this configuration for a few years before adding a Thiel SS1 subwoofer with the Thiel CS-6 passive crossover.

At this point I was getting tired to the maintenance requirements and tube replacement cost associated with older tube amps and started to look at going with SS amps.

Bryston 7B SST Mono Blocks, These amps (may not be the 7B, it was a long time ago) sounded nice but lacked that WOW factor. The Bryston’s were on loan from a friend who sold them soon after I returned them. He later loaned me his next amps.

Classe CAM 350 Mono Blocks. These amp were the best SS amps I’d used with the 6’s to date. They lessened the slight high frequency glare and the midrange was very close to the VTL amps and the bass was ever so slightly laid back. I returned the loaners to my friend and purchased a pair.

I kept the CAM’s for a year or so, switching between them and the VTL’s. It’s true once you've gone tubes it’s hard to go back, so later I sold the CAM’s.

Also, I tried pro audio amps: Crown and QSC. The best I can say is, not to my taste.

Note: the pre-amps used were as follows, ADCOM GTP-400, Audio Electronic Supply AE-3, ADCOM GFP-750 preamplifier, VTL 2.5 and my current Musical Fidelity A308cr. The nice thing about the ADCOM pre’s was the benign presentation, they add little or no colorization, so you really get a feel for what your up and down stream gear is performing.

These days, I use VTL 450MKII Mono Blocks which are pretty low maintenance for high powered tube amps with my B&W 801 Series 3 speakers. So, the Thiel’s collect dust for long periods of time but when in use, they still have the magic.