Thiel Owners

johnhh - I concur with Scott and can add some tangentially-related personal experience. Not Sansui, but Yamaha of the same period. Our non-profit performance venue here in NH was given a Yamaha P2200 @250 w/c and the workhorse darling of its mid-70s era. I wanted it to somehow become a great sound-quality amp for our Thiel 1.5 small venue system. We had caps upgraded, replaced fuses, modified its output impedance, and generally souped it up as best we could. It sounded fine . . . until I substituted my Classé DR-9s or even the Adcom GFA-555II or 5300. These hi-fi amps 20-25 years more recent and designed with sound quality as a goal were in a far higher league.

I'll add that my experience with Japanese design(ers) of the 70s oozed conventionality. Japanese culture does not permit innovation. If any design element could be scrutinized, even by a high-school textbook, then the designer would risk his reputation by promoting it. I have some actual stories of Japanese companies buying avant-garde American designs and then subverting/ diluting them until they were "normalized", and thereby losing their specialness. It's no accident that Japan did not break into the high end in the 20th century.  

johnhh

" what I wanted back then "
When getting back into listening to vinyl I tried to go back and build my dream system from the 80's  all Carver electronics and all American
where posible .  I had re-capped both the amp and pre-amp ,
installed new RCA connectors and speaker posts and yes they sounded better BUT they were still did not sound as good as I had dreamed of ,
or should I say they still were not up to modern sounding equipment .
I know there are now 199 pages in this thread but you'll find many good suggestions on amps that match well with Thiel speakers ,
good luck .

Gentlemen,
Thank you the thoughts and comments. It's tough to give up on a long held dream but it seems this is not one to hang on to. I will chase down the Classe CAP101.
Thanks again for the input. 
John Hejmanowski

John - there's a parallel phenomenon happening in the pro world around tape recorders. A great recorder can be a holy grail for a recordist, especially one with analog vinyl as their target playback medium. Recordists post their epitome tapes for comparison against modern signal chains, often to significant embarrassment of sloppy performance. In 1980 the tape machine might have been king. But it can really suffer in comparison to best of form contemporary technologies.

Some folks here have studied integrated amps and have good advice to give.

Professional tape machines suffer in modern comparisons because they're all at least 25 years old, with technology and electronics that are even older.  Whether multi-track or 2-track mixdown, most of the mechanical parts are worn-out and unavailable, the electronics are also worn-out and old-school parts and circuit designs.  Few remember how to maintain and calibrate (daily) the studio decks.  Finding decent tape is a challenge.  I'm sure only a handful of studios worldwide have an analog recording chain that's working as well as it was in 1980.  And what artist wants to pay the far greater price to record true analog?

I sure wish it were otherwise, as I'm sure if analog studio gear had kept pace with everything else the past few decades, the choice of all-digital for ease of recording, near-zero cost, and improving-yearly sonics wouldn't be quite as stark.  Ironically, when I see a current album was recorded AAA, I'm concerned about the health of the entire analog signal chain and their intentions when the best digital gear can make recordings that will exceed worn-out analog recorders and signal chains :-(

I've seen the recent revival of prosumer (and pro) 2-track R2R for the ultimate in home playback, but most of them are fully redesigned (playback) electronics and rebuilt or remachined mechanicals.  And I'm never sure how and from where they're sourcing their not-inexpensive tapes...