Thiel Owners

tomthiel brings up a good point about "sweet spot" or best value. For instance my previous declaration in favor of the Bryston 3B (within appropriate matching with older Thiels) was based upon such a criterion. It's not necessarily one the best sounding amps, but at it's price point it performed quite admirably for the task at hand at the time. Which is quite an accomplishment! It's a lot easier to make a cost no object good sounding (and unfortunately enough examples of the over priced / under performers exist as well) kit, than one that performs nearly as well for quite a bit less.

Since we're talking about amps again: some time ago I posted a plea for a list, however small, of amps that by spec would be completely capable of matching the low impedance needs of the Thiels. Has anything materialized? I mean, besides the Krell FPB 600. Seems like we are stuck in "I like the sound of it, but..." land.

Thanks for any input.

Tms - I would love to see that list materialize. A good handful of offerings have been made. It takes someone to pull it together off this forum. Perhaps you?

My own personal experience suggests:
Bryston 4B3 (cubed) most recent and most refined of their series
Classé DR-9 in any configuration, stereo or mono
Threshold S-500 (Thiel lab amp, updatable) {showing my age}

And my present research suggests:
Benchmark AHB-2 specifically vetted by Benchmark, not heard yet
PS Audio BHK-300
300 specifically vetted by PS, 250 questionable at high gain.

My needs are clean, neutral, capable and affordable rather than 'good-sounding to me'. But then I actually enjoy hearing what was recorded as honestly as possible. I cross-check neutrality with Sennheiser HD800S closed cans and co-play with Beyerdynamic ref 240 ohm.
And 50+ years in hi-fi manufacturing, recording and mastering-consulting have supplied some helpful experience. That's my short-list for my own purposes with my own constraints.

I am looking forward to the new xo's when ready. Thanks Beetlemania and Tom for you efforts.

As far as amps go I ran a sumo polaris amp (100 watts into 8ohms and I think it doubled or close into 4ohms) and audio research ls1 pre that sounded fantastic with my 1.2's.
Now for my 2.4's I run a Belles 150 Reference V2 (125 watts into 8ohms and 250 watts into 4ohms) with a lightspeed passive and burson buffer and it sounds really good, a good step up from my other system. Both amps sounded solid as far as I could tell and I would recommend them in the same application.
I did work for a couple of high end shops. Nothing to do with audio equipment but I got to listen to a lot of stuff. And my system's however modest the midrange sounded as good or better on the average with anything that they could put together. That was my priority, the midrange and have the extremes blend in nicely.