Thiel 7.2 - Classe, Krell or Bryston?

Dave, I always wanted to hear a DR-9.  I have owned my CA200 for I believe 20 years or so.   I was a Classe guy because I couldn’t afford Krell at the time.  It still delivers - I may put it back in the system today for old times sake.  

Hi pops,

I bought my DR-25 new but had coveted the older DR-9 for years afterward with all of the positive press re: it being the sweet spot among all A/B amps of the time.

About 18 months ago, I saw three for sale @ $1000 each and scooped them all up. Haven’t seen another for sale since. The positive press of the day was true and a reminder that power specs don't rule in audio.

I could be accused of living in the past, but I don’t see anything significantly "new under the sun" re: SS A/B amplifier technology since.

Dave

Kevinaudio, I haven’t heard the Classe pre you are using but have read good things about it.  I also have used Thiels 3.6 and CS6 for many years.  I have always used a tube linestage which added a little midrange “heft” for Thiels.  Have you considered that?  I believe your input impedance is high enough on the Classe to make it versatile with various tube preamps.

Dave, I saw those amps!  I considered grabbing one myself!  My Classe is easier to drive in terms of gain than my Mcintosh mono’s at 10K.  I am living in the past a bit myself with CJ/Classe/Thiel/Meridian.  The only components I have kept consistently updating is my analog front end - has kept me plenty busy!  Why mess with success?

pops
I have the serious listening and home theater system combined. I used to have a nice BAT tubeamp and my theater processor hooked up together (L and R through the BAT) it created too many problems with 2 preamps and also watching tv put a lot of hours on the tubes.

I scraped that approach and researched the best I could find that would work for HT and 2 channel analog and came up with the Classe ssp-800. 

If I ever go to two separate systems I think I would use the manley steelhead as the preamp - any suggestions on reasonable priced speaker cables for the Bryston and Thiel 7.2. I bought the Bryston balanced interconnects to try instead of my RCA Nordost Quatrofils.

Speaker cables - I use Straightwire Maestro II.  I have run the gambit on speaker cables and found the SW's to be the most balanced in terms of clarity, transparency, and tone top to bottom.