Thiel Owners

@catalysis The reason the AHB2 is a keeper is because it is an outstanding amp. In the top 3 of amps I have heard, I like silence. The fact that it works for me so well with the KEF LS50 is reason alone to keep it since I am not getting rid of the LS50.

My office is small, so some subs are physically not possible. I have heard the CS3.7 sound great with a different amp so I will do some investigation and get it right for me. 

I forgot to mention that there maybe a new Purifi Class D amp (hear me out) with much bigger specs than the first iteration could be coming out soon. Now a few folks are raving about the Purifi modules like that review on SoundStageGlobal.com, comparing it  with $40K amps. These Purifi amps are in the AHB2 price range and are also almost as silent. They however, have more power where the Thiel CS3.7 could use.

I just read a post by someone from Brazil with a CS3.7 that is expecting a future Purifi amp with 1200 watts at 2 Ohms. He was saying that would be great for his speaker. I think I really need to investigate these new Purifi modules before I go down the road of a Class A or AB amp.

There was some info by TomThiel a few days ago mentioning the AHB2's designers analysis of the various Thiel models and the suitability to the AHB2 or 2 AHB2 in mono. You maybe able to figure out the suitability of the CS3.5 from that post. 

BTW - I had the DAC2 HGC into the AHB2 long ago and sold both. When I bought the HPA4 (or LA4) the DAC went up in quality a lot as compared to direct to amp. The Benchmark preamp is incredible, my favourite component from them. I have the DAC3B now but the DAC2 is just as good.

@catalysis, The Benchmark ABH2 doesn’t have RCA inputs to accommodate the RCA only outputs of the Thiel CS 3.5 ELECTRONIC BASS EQUALIZER.

I would be interested in comparing the Benchmark ABH2 to the Bel Canto Ref600M's.  Checking around to see if someone has one in the area.

Some interesting changes with the AHB2 and the CS3.7 after some playing last night and repositioning. I did the following for todays listen.

1) I moved the speakers closer to the side wall, 26 inches from the center of the tweeter to the side wall. Much closer than the manual recommends.

2) I moved the speaker back closer to the front wall, now 20 inches from the wall.  Much closer than the manual recommends.

3) I moved the GIK Acoustic panel that absorbs the first reflection further up away from the speaker by about 6 inches.

4) I lowered the balance adjustment on my preamp from 2 units favoring the right speaker down to 0. I used 2 for the KEF LS50's in a slightly different placement. I am slight off-center in my desk sitting position so this balance adjust was needed. I listen with my back to the speakers. Not as bad as it seems, it is actually pretty amazing given what I have work with. 

5) I moved some of my funky audio rack so that there was less surface area of the rack for the sound waves to hit. I hid some of this inside main rack. 

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Even though this speaker is 8 years old, I think this speaker needed some warmup from not being used for a while. What I am hearing now sounds like a speaker breaking in, but doing it very fast. The seller had a new speaker setup so the CS3.7 was likely not  used for a while, not sure about this.

This is the sound I am hearing tonight with the same tracks as last night. The Van Halen debut sounds explosive today, just as it is supposed to. It sounds much more alive and large. I can hear the performers with more detail and separation. The bass is still lean but more present, I can hear it better. The great attribute of the AHB2 is the ability to feel like the performers are in the room with you, this is starting to happen.

I also played Bob Marley Exodus tonight, which has a lot of bass in the recording and it sounded very good. In my scale from 1 to 100. Right now the AHB2 + CS3.7 is like a 85. This may get to a level of excellence with more break-in or adjustments.

I think I will need to give the speaker a few more days of playing to see if it gets broken in more and then do another round of repositioning. My placement from yesterday may have been better.

So at the moment. I have much more bass with some room reinforcement and the speaker waking up from storage. Though it is a lean sounding bass and not fat, I like the lean sound. The treble sounds a little harder than the LS50. Not bad but a softening or warming up of the sound would be idea. 

I am starting to feel good about this setup.

^There might be some advantages of close wall placement when using DSP.