Thiel Owners

Great feedback. Some updates.

1) Rory at Benchmark forwarded my email to John Siau, the amp designer. He has the Thiel CS3.7 specs from Stereophile measurements linked in the email. He is out now but I hope to hear from him once he gets back.

2) I am trying to get my speaker measured again today to send to the Audio Engineer in Canada for the DRC. A lot of crazy stuff happening in the home front (like flooding, no babysitter, etc..) so I need to sneak in some time.

I will work with a dealer if I get the CODA as an alternative second amp. This dealer also has Krell. He said the new Krell XD is somewhat like the CODA but even warmer. Though for the cost differential it is a no brainer to get the CODA. As I mentioned before the power specs on the specific model I am referencing #8 is perfect for the CS3.7. There are 3 versions to choose from. This is set at the factory.

• 150 watt @ 8 Ohm (first 18 in Class A) | 300 @ 4  | 600 @ 2
• 250 watt @ 8 Ohm (first 12 in Class A) | 500 @ 4 | 1000 @ 2
  
• 350 watt @ 8 Ohm (first 8 in Class A) | 700 @ 4 | 1400 @ 2
  

The cost is under $6K with 10 year warranty. Another great American company like Benchmark and Thiel. CODA can also customize the speaker outputs for me, to use SpeakON so that flipping my SpeakON ended speaker cables would be a breeze. I would never need to unplug from the speaker end.

@tmsrdg Thanks for the follow-up. I thought of your earlier posts on the AHB2 with the CS3.7 and did decided not sell to fund a new CODA #8 because how much you liked it. I figured something was not right on my side and wanted to wait until at least the DRC work. Now it is really a great sound even without DRC. It is shocking actually the difference since the wring was fixed. I now know I have 1 of the 2 best speakers I have ever heard.

@thieliste
There is the meat to the sound of the all Benchmark stack. It is not the warmish meaty+ Luxman sound but a great sound nevertheless. Not saying one is better than the other. I love both.

I have been in the demo rooms of many show with Philip Hanlon of Luxman and now Gryphon fame. I do not think I need to spend at his cost of gear to get the best out of the CS3.7 but until I demo the Gryphon this is an assumption. I must say that I am not a fan of "fat on the meat" sound, just "lean meat on the bone" is fine. Luxman was one of the few that I liked that was tubey and warm sounding, but I did not want to cross that limit of meaty sound. Different strokes for different folks.

BTW - In December The Absolute Sound will do a review of the gear I have, maybe minus the AHB2. Which will be good for me to read how other amps work with my stack. 

@yyzsantabarbara, The latest Krell’s unlike most of the earlier Dan D’Agostino era separates models are no longer spec’d into 2 Ohms. The newest Krell’s like the original models have returned to forced fan cooling. Something I personally don’t care for. I’ll hazard an assumption that at 2 Ohms those Coda Class A specs can be reduced to 25% of their 8 Ohm Class A rating.

@yyzsantabarbara  I completely agree about Luxman being kind of too warmish and meaty.I 've heard the the M900-C900 combo several times and was never blowned away.Gryphon integrated are much more fun, it's very dynamic, transparent, fast, huge slam and still organic and never muddy.It will not cost you anything to just go for an audition and see if you like the house sound and compare to the gear you already know.

@thieliste I appreciate your feedback. I will give it a try since it is so easy for me being local. I do not want an integrated since my system positioning is setup for separates. I wanted a cleared path from my speakers to my ears. I am very happy with what I have done to facilitate this in a small room. I will check out their dedicated amps instead.

I just did some quick looking at the Gryphon amps and they seem like competitors to the USA made CODA #16.

I am currently listening to Santana’s - The Woodstock Experience and while it sounds very good and I am bopping along. I would like more power to really feel that percussion.

@unsound you are correct about the 25% reduction at 2 Ohms. I asked them since you mentioned it before. I am not a big Class A guy. Whatever gets me to great sound will work, Class A, AB, D, etc..

@yyzsantabarbara  Ok well if you are not considering integrated forget about Gryphon, the separates are too expensive for Thiel owners IMO.Only Diablo 120 or 300 is worth considering for CS 3.7s owners.