Thiel Owners

Tomthiel,
My experience is exactly as you say; Thiels need high current power. My 2.4’s woke up when I hooked up an fpb 300 Krell. I had 2.2’s for years, then 2.3’s and finally 2.4’s. I am convinced that I under powered them all, even with the PM 2000 EAD, which was not a high current amp. I used Krell 250 monos with CS6’s which worked well, 
I think I just talked myself out of a pair of 3.5’s, as I realized I need to get a high current amp, despite the good price for the 3.5’s.

michaeljbrown

Good to see you. Thank You for sharing your story w the Krell power amp.  Hope you are enjoying the CS 2.4 loudspeaker. It is very fine indeed.  Happy Listening!

Todd - Hard to imagine, indeed. The x.7 drivers are really something special, plus all the accumulated knowledge / growth in the functionality of the enclosure.

michael - very true. The power hunger is, in my opinion, the primary limiting factor to musical performance for Thiel speakers. I was very surprised how much better the Krell FPB-600 performed than the 300. If a new entity emerges to take Thiel designs into the future, I would explore replacing the voice coils for 4-ohm minimum impedance in the extant motor structures and crossover topologies. I believe the trade-offs would be solidly net-gain. Presently, only a few very expensive amps do a good job. All the complaints like "wimpy mid-bass, unauthoritative deep bass, congested crescendos", etc. are symptoms of inadequate current delivery. Buy the high-current amp. What are you considering? I am considering the PSaudio BHK-300 pair to contrast my Class´DR-9 pair. 

Continued thanks for all the help, here’s another possibility, Sunfire 300, recently serviced and recapped.  Not thrilled about build quality or age but based on specs and reviews this should do well?  Not looking for an end state by any means, just a low cost improvement over what I have (Krell kav 350iL) and something that will keep me happily listening for a year or two.  

thosb

I originally heard this power amp when new back in 1995, 1996 on Vandersteen 2 series speakers of the same time period. An AMC cd player was connected to it and Audioquest cabling rounded out this system.  The Sunfire had plenty of power to drive the Vandy speakers on Rock music playing as loud as I could tolerate without an degradation in presentation.   It would be interesting to re-visit this beast from Bob Carver to determine if it still holds up well.

Happy Listening!