Best possible separates for Thiel CS 3.7

Hi thieliste,
I just wanted to chime in as I just started a thread asking for advice for amplification for Thiel 3.7’s- you can see it under pgastone as:
Still looking for an amplifier upgrade- but with a new twist.....

And here’s the twist:
To make a long story short, before I owned the Magcio's I had bought a pair Thiel 3.7's. I got a very good deal on them and took a chance hoping they wouldn't look too imposing in my room and for the overall decor. Unfortunately they did look a bit too outsized which is why I got the much more room friendly Magico's.  After a long time that the Thiel's were just sitting there gathering dust I finally got ready to sell them. But for fun I decided to give them a last run in my system before I boxed them up and listed them. Well, I thought they sounded so good, with improved resolution, body, air and texture than the Magico's, which themselves are really engineering marvels considering what they can do for their size, that I decided to throw caution to the wind and just live with size.

Anyway, I am looking at equipment at a completely different price point than yours- right now I am using an Mcintosh Ma 7000 integrated where I have bypassed the presupposes section with Primaluna Dialogue Premium preamp- just adding this preamp was an enormous jump in quality so now I want to keep on going.   My budget for a new amp is about usd5k but I am starting to consider upgrading pre and amp.

Right now leaning towards a BHK or Aesthetix combination but there are other excellent single choice alternatives like pass 250.8 etc.   But as I explAined in my thread I would really like to try tubes- I think that with the 3.7’s it would be magical but tough to find an alternative with enough power and current and stay within budget- but that is What I would love to try if I had the means.

In the meantime I would be very interested in any thoughts you and the other participants here might have.

Anyway, it is great to meet you and all the other forum members!!

Hi pgastone nice to meet another Thiel CS 3.7 enthusiast!I have been a Thiel fan for the past 22 years starting with the CS 1.5 and working my way up to the 3.7s in 2014.For the past 4 years i have been working and searching for my crazy project : building the most high end Thiel system that has ever been built.People might think i'm crazy but hey when you know you will have the budget why not try it, when you are an enthusiast you want to push things to the limits.If you want tube amps that can really drive the 3.7s to their max unfortunately you will not find anythink in the 5K price range.To max them out you need Aries Cerat Concero 65 monos, KR Audio Kronzilla DX monos or VAC Signature 200iq monos.But if you listen at moderate volume you should look at VAC Renaissance 30/30 or PureSound A30 both very musical with the 3.7s and within your budget.BHK 300, Aesthetix Atlas monos, Modwright KWA 150 Sig monos and Hegel H30 are all great choices for the 3.7s but more expensive.If you can find a used Hegel H30 paired with tube preamp you wouldn't be disappointed
Hope this helps.

@pgastone i forgot one other great combo to drive the CS 3.7s is Nagra Classic preamp paired with Luxman M-900u if ever you have the bugdet one day.

Hi Thieliste,
You have a very interesting thread that has generated very good replies and comments from well informed posters. From literally everything I have read or heard about Thiel speakers it is generally acepted that they are best driven by high current powerful solid-state amplifiers.

Both George and Unsound respectively make a strong case for this recommendation. The 3.7 speaker in particular has challenging speaker load impedance characteristics. This would suggest that tube amplifiers and especially SET are non-starters and should be avoided.

You on the other hand make the case that you must actually listen to a combination ( audio components ) in order to judge its performance. I happen to agree with this stance ( within reason ) as I have heard combinations of components that on paper should not work well at all. Test bench measurements and specifications versus actual listening experience.

How on earth can a 65 W SET amplifier sound superb matched to the Thiel 3.7? It certainly defies conventional wisdom. Yet you did hear this exact combination and found it to be fantastic in performance and sound quality.

What type of music genre did you use during the audition and at what listening volumes? I do know that Aries Cerat (AC) it’s far from a typical tube amplifier and that they have massive power supplies and exceptionally stout design. These are big and very heavy products for a good reason.

1 Were there any issues interns of bass performance and control?
2 how was the quality of the all important mid range? I know you are strongly considering the CH Precision which in many ways is the polar opposite of the Aries Cerat I give you much credit for actually listening to thie Thiel/AC combination as opposed to relying exclusively on numbers on paper.

The Ac products are really in my opinion an all out assault on state of the art. So it isn’t surprising that your success with them is proving to be the exception to the general rule in regard to amplification for the Thiels.
Best of luck,
Charles

Charles thanks for supporting my findings.There was obviously a reason for me to drive all the way to Zürich, the only place in Europe where it was possible to demo the Aries Cerat separates with Thiel CS 3.7s just because the Swiss Aries Cerat distributor happened to own a pair of 3.7s.
This demo wouldn't have been possible in France.To answer your questions we have used many genres of music from pop rock to electronica, alternative, jazz and classical.We were amazed how the AC amps handled many genres of music and at prettry loud level.I was really shocked at how the AC amps had an iron hand grip on the Thiels just like a big V12 engine but with dynamics and speed.
The bass was uber stable, deep and highly resolving not to mention the unmatched musicality and richness of the mids and treble, just world class.At €46K for the AC separates i hardly think the €88K CH Precision combo will do much better.The CH amps are the most liquid sounding amps i have ever heard at any price even compared to d'Agostino M400 but it won't have the meat of Aries Cerat IMO.
The AC separates already beat the Ypsilon separates to my ears.IMO Stavros Danos is the real deal in tube amplification now days period!The last step for me would be to demo CH L1+X1+M1stereo on the 3.7s but that's going to be pretty difficult to arrange.One last word, tubes is so magical on Thiel speakers!