Bryston, McIntosh, Krell or Mark Levinson

@w-j The 7B-SST is not the same as the 7B-SST2. In your earlier post I was under the impression that you wanted to get the 7B-SST not the Squared. The SST line is a bit harsh on top compared to the SST2 and SST3.

I find the Bryston gear, even the cubed, a little strong on top. For some speakers, that is not a problem. For your Thiel it could be. Even though my CS3.7 is not harsh on top I would not want the Bryston gear on it. I have owned a lot of Bryston back in the day. I owned 3B-ST, 4B-ST, PowerPac 300, 4B-SST, 7B-SST. I ended up with a very warm BAT VK-42SE preamp to tame the amp harshness. I used my 7B-SST with my Thiel SCS4 because that was the only amp I had left. It was previously powering Revel Salon1.

I just traded-in my less than a year old D-Sonic M3s 800s stereo amp (tons of power and good at 2 Ohm) for the Voyager. I can highly recommend the D-Sonic Class D Pascal module amp for Thiel’s. I was using it periodically with mine and it was very good. It has a bit of warmth on top. If you are interested in my old amp give Walter at UnderwoodhiFi.com a call. Brand new that amp is $1500. 

The Voyager is not harsh at all. It is rather exciting, detailed, and powerful and NON-FATIGING. It is better than my old 7B-SST in all those attributes. I do not have mine broken-in yet but at 60 hours on it I like it a lot and can see myself using it long term.

A used CODA #8 amp is another great amp for Thiel. Is is very pleasant, detailed, and powerful (I have one). An integrated amp that I have used on the Thiel that is the smoothest of all the amps I tried is the KRELL 300i. It also has the most bass with Thiel CS3.7. The first 90 watts of the KRELL is Class A. KRELL has a whole line of separate amps in the XD line that are like my integrated. You may want to consider them for your Thiel.

I get the K-300i back from KRELL on Monday, hopefully FedEx can manage to do that. If the less than 1 year old integrated is in perfect shape and performance I will sell it.

I have the Krell K300i with Monitor Audio Platinum PL300 ii and love the sound. 

Get the Bryston amp(s)

or the Sanders Magtech amp.

  Either will drive almost everything you throw at it, with great headroom, power, finesse, detailed everything, nice bass , 

 the other brands ur paying for.a name, the Mac stuff is great, but if we’re. My money, I would probably lean towards the Sanders Sound Magtech. 

Side note, no such thing as overpower.
the results are stellar, I have 650W feeding my speakers rated at 250W. The no strain, breakup of music, and wicked fast with a tube like sound.
 I’m happy. 
Power you need. Just watch the volume knob. 
Happy metal!

Out of the amps you mentioned I would go for the 352 but it depends on what kind of sound you prefer. 

First of all, thanks for your inputs.  I found and purchased a set of Bryston 7B ST's at a relatively good price.  I plan on sending them to Bryston for a checkup and/or repairs, if needed.  

I'm now looking for a preamp to go with them.  I'm also looking to get a CD player, a turntable and, maybe, a music server. My dilemma is whether to focus on my 2-channel setup, and then improve on the video portion later or to simply buy an A/V controller at the outset. 

Another thing, why are preamps so expensive?   

In short, what preamp do you recommend?