Thiel Owners

Dsper...what was your experience with Hegal amplification?  To ameliorate your excess high energy at high volumes have you experimented with sitting a little bit farther out from your speakers? In doing so you may want to eliminate any toe in which should help some with the brightness at high volumes. I’ve been using an Aesthetix Atlas for the past six years on my 2.4’s -- the Atlas has a beautifully sweet top end. I also have tubes on the front end - an Aesthetix Janus preamp. Have you considered class D? The last generation Bel Cantos (the Ref500Ms and the Ref1000Ms) sound great on our speakers with absolutely no harsh top end at high volumes. I do NOT recommend the new Bel Canto Ref 600s which sounded very recessed in the upper midrange to me. I’ve heard the Bryston 4b3 which is good but also a bit harsh in the highs at high volumes. I’ll be trying (should receive it tomorrow...color me excited!) a Pass X150.8 and will report my results here. If its harsh at high volumes I may try tubes as well, more specifically ARC and VAC and may try Ayre as well. I’ll report all my findings. My room is pretty well damped so the room is NOT adding to the problem of too much high end energy and frankly I notice it only at high volumes (on the Bryston 4b3 for instance). Keep us all posted on what you try and find out. As far as cables go I’m using Synergistic Research Element Series Cooper and Tungsten throughout and find them a stunning match.

Happy Friday - All.

Have to agree with tomthiel.

(f you can place the amplifier somewhere between or very near the speakers, do so. Run short 12 or 10 gauge equivalent cables to the speakers. Run either balanced or unbalanced lines from the preamp to the amplifier. (Balance preferred over long distances).

Works great for my 2.7s. I have a 25-foot run between preamp and amplifier. 

Note: I'm not specifying any particular cable manufacturer. The trick is to get large diameter copper cabling. 16 gauge cables are a No-No, as you'l be putting several hundred watts through to the Thiels.  

Just my experience  YMMV

Thanks for the good ideas. 

I do not think the length of my hookups is an issue. My speaker cables (thicker than lamp cord) are only about seven feet on a side. All of my interconnects are three or four feet long.

Tomtheil and Brayeagle's interconnect advice is worth exploring as I have not paid attention to interconnects at all. My component upgrades have been large positives so I have not gotten into the nuances of interconnects. Maybe I am getting to that point. I guess I will have to dig into the Cable Company website after all!?

Pwhinson, I am pretty happy with the Coda CS amp because it has the current to supply the CS5's; although, my local stereo store has a Hegel H30 that can be run in stereo mode! Also, I am itching to try a McCormack DNA 500.  Can anyone comment on McCormack with Thiels?

I had been thinking about checking out different preamps, as my PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium is in for repair for the second time. The first time was when it was new and had a bad capacitor. Upscale Audio took care of it and says they will cover any required repair and shipping back to me for this second time, so they are standing behind the unit. The problems are starting to kinda bug though.

Anyway, back to the treble concern. I pulled the trigger on a Conrad-Johnson Premier 17LS-2 preamp. My thinking is that CJ is supposed to be on the bit darker and warmer side of things, and I am hallucinating this might help. There are good reviews on the unit and the 17LS was the only CJ or ARC preamp to receive all five star reviews on "Audioreview", FWIW. I have not tried that many preamps so I may have made a mistake here; I should know the answer to that question by the end of next week.

I appreciate the advice. keep it coming!

Dsper