Thiel Owners

That is quite a list, zero relationship between price and distortion.  There's some seriously expensive stuff way down at the bottom.  

That Benchmark system in TAS is my system, except I sold the DAC3B last week. I will buy it back later in 2021 since I already miss it.

I also did a test with a single AHB2 and turned on mono operation to get more power. I then ran it on 1 CS3.7 speaker. I liked it a lot more since I got more bass and things seemed more energized. So I bought a second AHB2 that should arrive in a few weeks.

@tomthiel The Benchmark preamp, preferably the HPA4 over the LA4 because of the bonus headphone amp. I hated headphones prior to getting the HPA4. The Benchmark preamps also make their DACs sound better because the volume control on the preamp is much better. The preamps are quieter than the DAC3.

I am now thinking of trying out the RAAL SR1a ribbon headphone driven by 1 or 2 AHB2 amps (not the HPA4). RAAL used the AHB2 to develop the SR1a.

BTW - I have at one time owned, DAC1, DAC2 HGC, DAC3 HGC, DAC3B, AHB2, HPA4 and all Benchmark interconnects and now speaker cables. I love this gear.

The reason I sold the DAC3B was to check out the Halo May KTE DAC and also the AudioByte VOX | ZAP | HUB. Both of these DACs are supposed to be better than the DAC3. I am hoping to try both and see for myself. However, they cost 3x more but do measure better.

Thank you all for the responses and especially for the link to the google doc.  It gave me a lot to think about.  Tom's point hits a little close to home ("fullness, richness, lushness, warmth").  The pursuit of such "ideals" has led me to consider B.A.T. and PS Audio for their promised "tube input stage".  But is distortion really the goal?  And how do I know I'm getting the "right distortion", haha.

The consistent message I've seen is that Thiels (including my OG 2.3s) like current, so I've been looking in the 400+ wpc @ 4 ohms range.  But the rears (OG PowerPoints), while still rated @ 4 ohm, have recommended specs more in the 100 wpc range.

So maybe the most cost-effective (but kludgy and/or boring) option for me is to replace my pre-pro with a good AV receiver (Looking at Denon, possibly Anthem), use the onboard amps for the rears and possibly height channels in the future, and then just use the three still-working Krell amps from my old Home Theater Standard as the front three.

Just as a note of caution, the direct correlation between SINAD and overall sound quality for amps and DACs has not been established, and I would be careful not to believe everything that Audio Science Review says or implies. Over-interpreting small differences in distortion at levels well below 1% may not be the best way to choose an amp.

Fortunately, the sound quality of audio gear has improved significantly in recent decades compared to the typical amps produced in the 1970's and 80's when Stereo Review's worship of ever lower levels of distortion prompted many audio engineers to design circuits that measured well (at least on standard measurements) but sounded bad. I certainly hope that we don't embrace a future that forgets what we learned in the past.

Measurements of audio gear are important as part of the design process, but designing gear that actually sounds like real music to the human ear/brain should be the ultimate goal.