Thiel Owners

@anthonymoody I’ve got a couple of HT receivers that I’ve used to drive various speakers with and I thought they did fine. One is a Yamaha, one a Pioneer Elite. Both had list prices around $900. Receivers, at least some of them, have come a long way and many sound very good and do a pretty good job of delivering adequate power. I have my Thiel 2 2s hooked up to the Yamaha and I think that system sounds great. It’s in the living room and mostly used for kid’s shows these days but before kids I used it in my old living room and it was a great little system. I worry that people starting out would get the impression that you can’t get a passable system for less than 10k when I think you can do pretty darn well for a lot less. I got the Thiels used in 2010 for $1,000 and the receiver off the return/open box rack at Best Buy for $300. It’s amazing to me how well you can do for little money.

jon_5912
Absolutely! it is all about shopping around to find the best gear that suits your taste. I was thinking that you are one of our CS 2.2 owners, thanks for the confirmation. Yamaha is still a top Audio competitor. Pioneer and Sony are not quite what they used to be as a force.  Denon has a hit-or-miss record as well. Not sure if JVC is still in the game? Not sure if Marantz is making their receivers in Japan?  Happy Listening!

I have come to agree that quality can easily trump quantity. In my 2 channel set up, I drive KEF Reference 3's with a Pass Labs INT-60 which is "only" 60W into 8-ohms, the first 30 of which are Class A. Lemme tell you, the sound is extraordinary, and capable of volume far beyond levels I enjoy listening!

Absolutely! I don't think you can well predict the sonics of an amp/speaker without listening to it, although many Thiel models should probably be mated with 4 ohm rated amps (or lower for something like the CS5). And personal preferences as simple as desired SPLs are not accounted for when amps are dismissed out of hand for being "too low powered".

From the CS2.4 owner's manual:

It is important to have enough power to play at the level you desire without distortion. If high sound levels are desired, the CS2.4’s are designed to be used with amplifiers rated up to 400 watts per channel (into 4 ohms). If you play the speakers more loudly than the volume the amplifier can cleanly produce, the amplifier will produce overload (clipping) distortion.
. . .

Keep in mind that sound quality is usually much more important than sound quantity. There can be large differences in the sonic performance of two amplifiers of equal power, and this is more important than large differences in power. Most everyone will be happier with a 100 watt amplifier of high sonic quality than a 200 watt amplifier of mediocre sonic quality. For this reason, we feel there is no substitute for listening in making your amplifier decision.

Charles Hansen (RIP; Ayre):

At some point, you just have to let go of the specs and trust your ears. It's the only way to get something that sounds good.

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