Some love for the Benchmark HPA4/LA4

@mrdecibel I always ways wanted to buy a Thiel CS3.7 from a decade ago. However moving to Santa Barbara into a small beach apartment and then having a baby 4 years ago pushed audio to the backburner. Now that I am "settled" somewhat I have the opportunity to buy some speakers for my office system. My 3 favorite speakers are the KEF Blade, Yamaha NS5000, and Thiel CS3.7.  I also like Vivid .

My acoustically treated home office is small, see my virtual system page, and the Thiel is the speaker with the least amount of bass of the 3, which is good for my room. I was reluctant to purchase Thiel because they are out of business. However, with the help of the long running Thiel thread on Audiogon I learned that there is actually some support in terms of service for old Thiel's. The used unit I bought also had some new OEM drivers put in so it become more attractive.

I am liking the sound of the CS3.7 so far not loving it yet. It could be the lack of amp power. I hope to start the process of applying DRC to my room tonight.  So my Thiel system is evolving. I want it to sound like what I demoed a decade ago. My room could also be a little dead (not sure yet) though I think it is the amp.

@glissando My reference to the Thiel CS3.7 + 2 AHB2's in mono comment came from this post. The poster is Tom Thiel, brother of the speaker designer, Jim Thiel. I also believe Tom was one of the 3 founders of Thiel Audio. 

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/thiel-owners-2/post?postid=2040594#2040594

I was going to get the Focal Utopia but the dealer I bought the HPA4 (also a Focal dealer) told me to try the Meze Empy first. He said it was a great match with the HPA4. I have been told that the Meze is a little darker than many other top quality HPs so it works well with the HPA4. I had to get an after-market cable to get more details out of the sound, a WyWire Platinum XLR.

One of the things I love about this Benchmark stack is that I am loving more music. Old music that I may not have liked as much I love now, such as the first 6 Van Halen records. I grew up with the group so I have heard this stuff a lot before, but now with this gear I love it. Lot of old music has been like a new discovery.

My last big speaker before these Thiel CS3.7's was the first iteration of the Revel Salons (the R2D2 speaker). You must have the Salon2's. My understanding is that Revel has now discontinued the Salons. A real shame if that is true.

Agreed. Usually mono operation increases current capacity into low loads. Curious what's going on with the benchmark that's different.

Well, this is a timely thread for me as I currently have the Benchmark stack with their AHB2 and DAC3L. I am on the fence about the LA4 as I wanted to minimize boxes and cables. I got the DAC3L in order to have hardware volume control but now I have read in multiple places about how adding the preamp actually makes it sound better. I was totally happy with my Benchmark duo and was in the "no preamp" camp but I am afraid I might have to make it a trio. It never ends.

UPDATE:  Just ordered :O

I’m interested in how dac3 HDC sounds different  with and without the separate Benchmark pre.