Todd - you are correct. My needs are somewhat different than "best sound I can get". I hope to assemble a small stable of amps that would be paired with Thiel speakers and are different from each other in sound and topology. And I have to find them at bargain prices.
My old Classe DR-6 x DR-9 pair are known entities to me, heard on lots of speakers over many years. And I've recently added bypass caps and better internal fuses. Their power is moderate and I can use them as monoblocks or in stereo, single or bi-wire to check speaker performance various ways. They function as my humble reference.
The BHKs would provide considerable "tubey" detail and delicacy for comparing the bypass caps, x-checking tonal balance, transient decay, etc. The ear-brain sometimes isolates better with differing signals.
Thiel is often paired with Bryston and I will be shopping for a mid-priced Bryston setup to round out the bipolar landscape. Additionally, I'll be able to cross-check with Rob's Krell FPB-600, MLs, etc. Again, my intent for my working rig is to find amps in the middle price, Thiel-league range which strive for neutrality, but express different strengths than each other.
General riff for weekend fun:
In speaker design, there is a trap whereby one might think one has a particular problem, but by changing amps, cables, etc. the problem goes away. To the extent the speaker can perform well, the problem actually must exist elsewhere . . . or the speaker is exacerbating some problem in the drive-train. I am looking very closely at those exacerbations, looking for ways to mitigate their deleterious effects without sacrificing any of the clarity or incision inherent in Thiel speakers.
I know this is a very tall order, and I am proceeding cautiously. So far, we have gotten worthwhile results from Mills MRA resistors for short cost increase. Foil feed coils also decrease dynamic distortion. They are quite expensive and will probably be used in an upper level upgrade in conjunction with original Thiel 4-9s wire coils, or to replace more recent Chinese coils. Stay tuned.
Caps are a very big deal. Lots of potential for lots of cost. I believe that the so-called parallel-shunt circuits are practically indistinguishable from series-feed circuits, since the circuit is AC and the driver is fed alternatively from each pole. The big electrolytic banks in the shunts are very expensive to replace, but I want these upgrades to result in "permanent" solutions, which electrolytics are definitionally not.
