Thiel Owners

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!

Thiel's first stable of amps included the Phase Linear 400, designed by Bob Carver. I am interested in how the Sunfire 300 holds up. The design orientation and specs certainly fit Thiel speakers' demands.

Next amp was Nelson Pass' Stasis 500 with world-first (to my knowledge) dynamic bias. Those amps do the trick.

Tom,
You wrote,"I was very surprised how much better the Krell FPB-600 performed than the 300." But you are considering the PSaudio BHK-300 pair. Isn't that pretty much in the same, or even slightly less league, as the FPB 300 in terms of power? How about one of the bigger Classemonoblock pairs?
Todd