Thiel Owners

Hello all!

Anyone here have any experience or thoughts on Class D amplification with our Thiels? As I continue to wait and research my eventual move to monoblocks, I must admit, the thought of something from Bel Canto, Theta Digital, Jeff Rowland, PS Audio or Audio Research’s DS450M (would mate well with the rest of my tubed ARC gear) has been gaining traction in my mind solely for the Class D’s promise of energy efficiency.

Appreciate any thoughts...

Arvin

arvincastro,

I have been very pleased with how the PS Audio Stellar M700 Monoblocks match up with my Thiel 2.2 speakers. Bass control and impact are excellent, and the mids and highs are dynamic and highly musical. Of course, the overall sound is also influenced by the Stellar Gain Cell DAC/Pre that feeds my M700s. At the same time, I have heard nothing but positive comments about how well a tube preamp can work with the M700s and with Thiels in general, so I'm sure your tube gear would mate well with class D monoblocks.

Arvincastro - my comments might be from left field, since I don't have much direct comparison to hi fi gear. For my work upgrading classic Thiels, I wanted 3 dissimilar amps for cross-checking upgrades. My main amps are Classe DR-6 pre and a pair of DR-9 power amps, which I have used for 30 years, know very well, and mate well with Thiels. In 1990 they were pretty decent entry-level high end with strong reviews. In addition I recently bought an Adcom GFA-555mkII, which to me represents a mid-fi amp with some hi-fi cred. My reference amp settled as a pair of Benchmark AHB-2s. That amp is primarily a pro amp, turns up in a lot of mixing and mastering studios, plus got Class A ratings from Stereophile, Absolute Sound, etc. Its claim to fame is absolute neutrality and vanishing distortion in a small, affordable, Class H package. I don't know what hi-fi aficionados think of it; I have asked here to no response, and I haven't seen it in the chatter. I am pleased with it as a colorless, honest straight wire with gain. FWIW.  

Tom - I've been considering an upgrade to my Classe CA-300 that powers my 3.7s, so I checked out the specs to the Benchmark amp you listed. The short question I have is: is this enough power? Obviously you consider that to be the case, but in an arena where many consider the large Krells to be normative, would the Benchmark keep up? Thanks for your thoughts.Todd

Todd - I can't answer that question due to the radical divergence of individual needs. Big room and/or loud level can magnify power requirements by large multiples.
That said, unlike other circuit topologies, the power stays absolutely clean until it quits - limited by fast protection circuitry.My situation is unusual in that my studio has 2 real, exterior walls, but the interior walls are porous, allowing few reflections or standing waves. The ceiling and floor are normally framed and therefore somewhat lossy. The studio occupies a corner of a 30'x50'x8' space which is open to similar spaces above and below it. So my listening environment is effectively quite large. My peak listening volumes never exceed 100dB, usually around 85.

In normal 100w/c stereo mode, the clip lights have rarely flickered, but have never tripped. In 400w/c bridged mode I have not reached any limit. So, the AHB-2 acts like a larger amp than it measures, probably due mostly to staying clean all the way to max, rather than gradually increasing distortion as most amps do.

Benchmark offers a generous home trial audition. I suggest you A/B it in your system with full send-back guarantee.