Thiel Owners

I once used a Placette passive preamp with my 3.5’s and found that the bottom end pretty much dropped out.  Figuring I’d remove as much as I could between the speakers and the amp I assumed I’d squeeze just a tad more “everything” I got from the speakers...

What I got was a very bright, harsh top end and a virtual removal of the bottom end - something the 3.5’s excelled in providing.  No knock against the Placette - it would probably have seen better synergy with a more colored amp then my Pass X150.5 was, so I just popped my ARC preamp back in the chain and resumed chasing the audio dragon. 

PS:  I am currently in the agonizing process of rebuilding my two channel setup after having a spectacularly sh*tty run of bad luck this summer past. Fortunately, owning relatively expensive stuff does allow for one to raise cash when such happenstances as mine drop in for a visit. Were it not for this “hobby” of chasing the audio dragon my situation would have been considerably worse. What I sold off covered my attorney fees!

At the moment the best equipment I have is a pair of Meadowlark Kestrel loudspeakers - a very worthy substitute/stopgap for Thiel - that I recaptured from my girlfriend. (I’d given them to her a few years back)
Those, along with a Marantz 2250b receiver and an Oppo disc player, now comprise my “audiophile” setup. *Sigh*

I’m awaiting the arrival of a Bluesound Powernode 2 which will become the temporary heart of my system for the time being.  While the Marantz/Meadowlark thing worked well in her house, it simply didn’t in mine.  

Anyway...this thread continues to set the proverbial bar for the manner in which threads are sustained over time.  My journey here and the info received from unsound, jafant, and many others has been immensely enjoyable.  Tom Thiel - your expertise and technical proficiency leave me absolutely agog in wonder - I hope you don’t mind the humble opinions from someone who doesn’t know a mosfet from a misfit.  But I know what I like...

Hoy hoy!  Keep it up!

On the current topic of amps, I’ve been running my 3.5s for the past year on my VPI 299D tube amp, sometimes with EL34s, but mostly with KT150s. The results have been astonishingly good and there’s tons of power to drive them, though I’d judge I’m a pretty modest user of gain. There were only 100 of these VPI amps made, but I understand they have a lot of Primaluna parts in them, inc the same excellent toroidal transformers, so anyone using, say, a Primaluna Dialogue should get similarly impressive results.

oblgny

Good to see you again. As luck would have it, there are plenty of Thiel loudspeakers in heavy rotation on the secondary market. You will know when it is time to obtain your next pair. Hope you are well and enjoying this Fall season in NY.  I look forward to your next excellent system.

Happy Listening!

Happy Friday- ALL.

Oblgny so sorry to learn about your run of bad luck. I had to offload my very nice old gear about 10 years ago when I moved continents. Never an easy thing to do but what I can tell you is that it at least gave me a chance to reassess what I had before and very gradually build a much more effective system from the ground up. It took some time, but I’m very happy with where I’m at. I really hope the same for you. Starting afresh at least enables you to apply acquired knowledge and to learn from the equipment purchasing mistakes we’ve all made in the past.

The best discovery was the Thiel 3.5s that have gone on to become the fulcrum of my system.