Thiel Owners

@sdecker, 

thanks for the specifics. It's helpful.

 Checking the c-j website:

https://conradjohnson.com/vintage-conrad-johnson-products/

It turns out that the output impedances aren't quite as severe as I thought. I might have been confusing the Audible Illusion pres with them. In any event, unless one is using some weird esoteric cables I doubt there should be many issues with that. On the other hand, the gain and output voltages can be even higher than I thought. 

Let me compliment you on your choice of the Sonic Frontiers pre. I am  a huge fan. I typically fall in the ss camp, but the SF models are exceptional. A dear friend had an SFL 3 that I heard quite often. Despite rumors of troublesome volume controls; count me as mightily impressed. One of my all time favorites.

tomthiel

Yes- I remember reading about the Mod Squad in magazines back then. 
I had forgotten that aspect of Steve. Thank You for the audio history refresh.

Happy Listening!

unsound, thanks for the compliment.  I'm hardly a 'vintage' guy, but my late-production (2001) Line1 SE has been *completely* reliable over nearly twenty years of often daily use.  Of course, I can't leave well enough alone, and it too has been substantially upgraded over the years, to the point where last year it bettered 4 modern $5-15k preamps, though did get 'beat' all-around by a wild-card Plinius solid-state unit.  If our house burns to the ground, the insurance 'replacement' cost for my stereo is going to be far more than what I paid, starting with those CS2.4s...

sdecker

Thank You for the clarification.  I have considered a Plinius amp except for the fact that the specs report it does not double power from 8 into 4 ohms? 2 ohm not avail/tested.

Happy Listening!

jafant, these were separate amp and preamp shootouts.  The Plinius power amp compared to my McCormack was a class-A SA-103 (125wpc 8ohms, 220wpc 4ohms), that had comparatively unremarkable sound.  The Plinius Kaitaki preamp vs my Sonic Frontiers was remarkably good-sounding across the board, the only preamp in the shootout to better my preamp in its current configuration.

Just to stay on topic to your thread, the most recent in-house speaker comparison was my 2.4 vs the Dynaudio Confidence C1, a modern, large-for-a-stand-mounted $7500 2-way.  To my great surprise, the Thiels crushed them in every possible aspect.  Even their vaunted Esotar tweeter had no discernible improvement in natural accuracy, smoothness, or micro-dynamics over the 2.4 simple aluminum dome constrained within a jiggly midrange cone.  And the Thiels smoked them in every form of soundstaging, imaging, center focus, wide speaker spacing without loss of center-fill, etc.  Nobody was more surprised than me that such a highly-regarded monitor had nothing - *nothing* - on my 'old' Thiels...