@thoft. FWIW I used an Adcom 555II on the 3.5's for years. I installed a high quality passive stepped attenuator in it and ran my DAC directly into the amp. I now use an old Superphon preamp into a Classe C300.
I'd say the Adcom set up gave me about 70% of what I'm hearing now.
Unfortunately I never did run the Superphon with the Adcom, but if experience with the Classe is any indication, the Superfon makes for a big improvement over going directly in. I had bought into the 'less is more' philosophy on line level inputs and now believe that was a mistake.
All my non audiophile buddies where always very impressed with the old set up and I enjoyed it, but knew the Thiel's where cable of reaching another level.
A word of warning -I've owned a bunch of 555II's and destroyed the woofers on a pair of Infinity Kappa's when one amp went bad. After that I had that I had the amp driving the 3.5's check and serviced - but was always a bit nervous.
With current used prices on 3.5's being as cheap as they are, the irony is that to really hear what they can do, you need to spend a lot more on what you feed them than you did on the speakers themselves to really hear their potential.
I'd say the Adcom set up gave me about 70% of what I'm hearing now.
Unfortunately I never did run the Superphon with the Adcom, but if experience with the Classe is any indication, the Superfon makes for a big improvement over going directly in. I had bought into the 'less is more' philosophy on line level inputs and now believe that was a mistake.
All my non audiophile buddies where always very impressed with the old set up and I enjoyed it, but knew the Thiel's where cable of reaching another level.
A word of warning -I've owned a bunch of 555II's and destroyed the woofers on a pair of Infinity Kappa's when one amp went bad. After that I had that I had the amp driving the 3.5's check and serviced - but was always a bit nervous.
With current used prices on 3.5's being as cheap as they are, the irony is that to really hear what they can do, you need to spend a lot more on what you feed them than you did on the speakers themselves to really hear their potential.