Dan - following up on the power part of your amp query. It has always fascinated me that Thiel speakers seem to bring out the worst in many amps. This weekend I interacted with a very knowledgeable long-term Thiel user who stated he had amps that worked with every other speaker, except his Thiel CS2.4s. That rings a bell - it echoes the experience of thousands of users, reviewers, fans and detractors. Why is that? Thiel impedance is low, but it is also highly resistive, which amps love. There are speakers with far more brutal load characteristics, which don’t have Thiel's ’hard to drive’ reputation. Go figure.
I have been figuring for decades and have an idea that makes sense to me. Back to some context. I was the set-up guy for many shows. Most of that electricity sucked, and sometimes we even changed rooms to be away from elevators, etc. with very dirty power. Pin that. In the late 80s Thiel built a dedicated music room of some renown with lots of care to proportions, materials, treatment, etc. It had fluorescent lights, air-conditioning and office computers all on the same service, since its footprint was in a 40’ wide industrial space that all shared a single service. Even though we isolated the hi-fi gear on one leg, there were still many reactivities on the line. Our electrical engineer said that the problem was intractable - just live with it. Long story ensues. The solution came via borrowing hi-fi circuits from the next bay, which was used almost exclusively for finished goods storage. That power was cleaner and we hung a sub panel with short runs to the hi-fi system. The system performance was improved more than normal people would imagine.
I am presently studying the mechanisms that might cause such mischief. My working hypothesis is that various design(er)s manage the various line distortions more or less effectively than others. Those design(er)s who understand the effects of dirty power can minimize the problems within their chassis. It seems a major component of the problem includes the differences between the high (+) leg and the neutral leg at or near ground potential; but it rarely actually is at zero due to losses and interactions in the feed wires.
I have always been puzzled by how some / most equipment sounds so much better when run from 240 volts rather than 120. One explanation is that 240 volt is a real balanced feed with each leg running 180° out of polarity and the ground centered between them. Circuits see symmetrical power. Some snooping has led me to investigate recording studio power. High end venues often mix, master, etc. on the graveyard shift. Audibly better recordings result. As I rebuild my studio in a new location, I intend to run a sub-panel with both 240 volt and 120 volt outlets. Performance can be easily compared by swapping the IEC cord for 120 or 240 volt feeds. Can’t wait to learn.
A seemingly optimal 120 volt solution is to use balanced power as is used in many labs and studios. An isolation transformer is tapped for 60 volts plus and minus rather than the usual 120+ and zero. I like the concept, have heard good reports, and would like to have that solution in my bailiwick - but it seems quite expensive.
One bottom line from these musings is that buying an amp that can be tapped for 240 balanced power input might give you a leg up in bypassing a lot of power problems and getting good sound more reliably. These explorations feel right to me; they address many unsolved mysteries about why or how Thiel can sound bad when other speakers sound good.
The other half of this equation is my personal belief that Phase Coherent transducers invite the audio cortex to scrutinize sound as though it is real, rather than an electronic facsimile. Our felt judgement is far more acute for ’real’ sounds than manufactured ones. My first exposure to this phenomenon was in developing the 03 in 1978 - we wrestled with this phenomenon for a year and a half and learned that we had to "fix" problems for coherent presentation that weren’t even on the radar when a higher order crossover was substituted. I know I’ve addressed this idea before, but I’m repeating for those new to the forum or to raise some issues that might connect some dots for folks beyond myself.
