Hi, y'all. Been away from the thread for awhile, but not from the subject. I'll explain in a minute.
About a year ago, warjarrett ("Sandy") wrote back to Tom and myself about both the Amber amp I had suggested for Thiels, and on the subject of tubes vs transistors in general. Sandy said as the conclusion of the note: " So my advice is that just about any stereo tube amp, with at least 60 wpc, into the CS3.5 is pure heaven. With solid state, you need to be more careful to audition in advance, and don’t go lower than 100 wpc in power." I now find myself concurring completely.
At the time of Sandy's note I had been thinking about returning to tubes. I had previously driven my first pair of 3.5's with an ARC D90 and later a VTL ST-85. But after many changes to the system I ended up with solid state, and still later substitued the Amber Series 70 amplifiers that both Sandy and I think are well suited for Thiels.
Just after the first of this year, a pristine ST-85 came on the market at a good price and I snapped it up. It sounded great (again) with the 3.5's, but even better with my 2.2's. So eventually the 85 ended up with the 2.2's in my second system, and I started looking for ST-150's, which are VTL's "Big Brother" to the ST-85s. The 150 is a brute-force amp powered by two quad's of 6550 or KT88 tubes and massive VTL transformers. The thing weighs over 65 pounds out of the box and puts out 150wpc into 5 ohms, which happens to be the Thiel 3.5's actual impedance for a perfect match. But the aspect that really enticed me is it's ability to be switched to Triode mode, where it puts out 65wpc of pure tube bliss. My system has now reached a state of musical finesse never before experienced. So Sandy was right in claiming that his Triode tube amp used with the 3.5's took him to a new place.
The moral: if you want to try tubes with Thiels, don't be shy .... but make sure you have 60 or 90wpc, and if it is triode, even better. And I can highly recommend these two VTL amps for the purpose.
About a year ago, warjarrett ("Sandy") wrote back to Tom and myself about both the Amber amp I had suggested for Thiels, and on the subject of tubes vs transistors in general. Sandy said as the conclusion of the note: " So my advice is that just about any stereo tube amp, with at least 60 wpc, into the CS3.5 is pure heaven. With solid state, you need to be more careful to audition in advance, and don’t go lower than 100 wpc in power." I now find myself concurring completely.
At the time of Sandy's note I had been thinking about returning to tubes. I had previously driven my first pair of 3.5's with an ARC D90 and later a VTL ST-85. But after many changes to the system I ended up with solid state, and still later substitued the Amber Series 70 amplifiers that both Sandy and I think are well suited for Thiels.
Just after the first of this year, a pristine ST-85 came on the market at a good price and I snapped it up. It sounded great (again) with the 3.5's, but even better with my 2.2's. So eventually the 85 ended up with the 2.2's in my second system, and I started looking for ST-150's, which are VTL's "Big Brother" to the ST-85s. The 150 is a brute-force amp powered by two quad's of 6550 or KT88 tubes and massive VTL transformers. The thing weighs over 65 pounds out of the box and puts out 150wpc into 5 ohms, which happens to be the Thiel 3.5's actual impedance for a perfect match. But the aspect that really enticed me is it's ability to be switched to Triode mode, where it puts out 65wpc of pure tube bliss. My system has now reached a state of musical finesse never before experienced. So Sandy was right in claiming that his Triode tube amp used with the 3.5's took him to a new place.
The moral: if you want to try tubes with Thiels, don't be shy .... but make sure you have 60 or 90wpc, and if it is triode, even better. And I can highly recommend these two VTL amps for the purpose.