Thiel Owners

One of my CJ amps had to go in to the shop momentarily and an audio-pal lent me his Bryston 4B3:

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/1073-bryston-4b3-stereo-mono-amplifier

I tested it on my Spendor S3/5s and then my Joseph Audio Perspective speakers.   I had the usual reaction when I use solid state:  wow, neato grip and power, density, transient edge vividness etc.  Really fun.   But once I got my CJ amp back and compared...I was definitely still in the "tube" camp.   They sounded about as powerful, but richer, fuller, more organic and beautiful.

Next up I'll be trying the Bryston with my Thiel 2.7s.   I've never heard the 2.7s with solid state so this should be interesting. 

^The Bryston 4B3 is not spec’d into 2 Ohms, and isn’t spec’d to double down from 8 Ohms into 4 Ohms. I wouldn’t consider this amp as a testament of the full potential prowess of ss amplification with the Thiel 2.7’s.

As a point of Thiel history, Jim used very good amps to design the speakers. His attitude was that making a good amp was the ampmakers’ business, and making a good speaker was his business. We generally had on hand the best from Levinson, Krell, Audio Research and others for comparison. His workhorse for the 3.7 development was the Krell FPB-600.

But at shows, Thiel usually exhibited with amps priced commensurate with its products. No $30K amp for a $10K speaker. Bryston was often used. I found the Bryston amps rather coarse compared to the better stuff at the factory. Many reports said that all changed with Bryston’s ’cubed’ series - which are more refined. Thiel used the a cubed series amp (perhaps 4B3?) to introduce and show the 3.7. That was the combination that George Cardas dubbed the best sound he had ever heard at a show. Bryston offers trade in and upgrade packages. I suggest that the ’cubed’ Brystons come very close to supporting Jim’s design intent for the 3.7, even though it doesn't meet the double-down standards for full current delivery into low impedance loads.

I found the Bryston’s very much improved over their earlier models (which I didn’t much care for) with the ST models with the earlier 4 Ohm > and up model Thiel’s. Not comparable to the likes from Krell, Threshold, et al, but a nice viable affordable option.

My last comment on the AHB2 so I do not drone on and annoy people. I am doing acoustic measurements with REW software and Minidsp microphone. I am doing these measurements to have Accurate Sound of Canada’s Mitch Barnett analyze my room measurements and make me some Convolution files to run on my ROON server.

My first set of measurements came out with some graphs that seemed to me that the sound was bad. I though that cannot be good and decided to do some surgery to my room. Mind you I have no idea what the graphs mean. There was a lot of red colored measurements which could not be good.

I removed a side desk and some plants and moved my system even further away from the speakers.

(the last 2 photos are the result of the surgery)
https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/7605

I ran the measurements again and this time hardly any red in the graphs. Maybe good news maybe bad news, no clue. What I do know is that the sound is much improved. The room sounds bigger and the amp sounds better. I could actually live with this sound. Though I still will get that Coda #8 amp given how much money I have already saved with this system.