Thiel Owners

oblgny - there is a set of CS3.5 with the eq at College Hifi in Chattanooga. I listened to them last week with a Mac amp, the eq was not hooked up but I will try go try to hear them again with the eq just out of curiosity. They sounded great, very neutral and clean across the entire sound spectrum.

Jazzman7 - I am using the Legacy Audio High Current Amplifier by Coda. It is 220wpc @ 8ohm and 380 wpc @ 4ohm. Coda branded amps don't show up very often and are pricey. They show up on ebay sometimes for $800-900. Other amps I tried with the 1.6 were the bryston 4b, butler, classe dr-9, musical fidelity a3cr, jaton operetta and conrad johnson mf2300A. The conrad and coda were my favorites.

Here is an interior shot of the coda

https://imgur.com/B1gj0LTl.jpg

I opened up the 2.4 speaker to remove the tweeter/midrange which I though was broken. It turns out the white lead was disconnected. I tested with a multimeter across the terminals and it got a 2.8-3 ohm reading, which seemed good so I resoldered it and also used a q-tip to push out a divot in in the tweeter dome. The speaker sounds great now, I am pretty exited and I will post some more comments this evening, I did notice you can tell when one speaker has the grill on and the other doesn’t.

I was reading through the tread and there are a lot of posts on upgraded crossovers, is there any particular post which has a summary of which parts need to be upgraded due to age and which parts are the best for sq? Are there completed crossovers or kits that can be purchased?

halifax

Do you live in the Chattanooga area? Very cool that you found the culprit (white lead disconnected).

That is quite a list of Power amps tested against your speakers. All solid performers. 2nd- Conrad Johnson.  We have quite a few DIY'ers here that upgraded the XO for model CS 2.4. Take your time to read through the material. Feel free to contact these guys for further inquiry. Have fun massaging those 2.4 speakers into your room and system.

Happy Listening!

@halifax:  Thank you for the heads up on the 3.5’s. At this moment in time I am simply making adjustments to improve my current setup, which only today scored a Mytek Liberty DAC to replace a Jolida FX Glass Tube unit. The Belles 250i Integrated 250i that I’ve been digging has a tubed (1) preamp section, and I kinda feel like I’m over-tubing myself with the aging Jolida. My Pro-ject turntable also uses a tubed phonostage. The Mytek is way more up to date, including MQA support. 
 

It is my humble opinion that Thiel, as well as Maggies, benefit from solid state amplification. In the past I stuck to this, more often than not incorporating tubed preamps in the mix to good effect. Unless I’m mistaken or misinformed by info obtained from the interweb, Coda was founded by a bunch of guys who once worked with Nelson Pass?  That association alone would give me reason to buy one. 
 

My current setup is: Belles 250i Mosftet Integrated Amplifier, Magnepan MMG, Musical Fidelity A35 disc player, REL T5i subwoofer, Pro-ject Debut Carbon EVO turntable, Pro-ject DS tube phonostage, Aurender N100H  2TB music server, and lastly the newly acquired Mytek Liberty DAC, and a Furutech power conditioner. The most expensive component to date has been the Aurender, which I bought in lieu of TMR’s refusal to accept my offer on a Pass Labs X150 Integrated. 
 

The next addition will in all likelihood be a Pass Labs integrated. Like that, my eventual re-association with a pair of CS 3.5’s is fairly far down the proverbial road. Being financially capable of obtaining either is the crux of the matter. In any case, such will be my “final” system. I am more than willing to wait for the upgraded versions of the CS 3.5’s which, I know, will cost substantially more than the pairs I have already had.  
 

PS: I always employed the CS 3.5 equalizer in my listening. To my ears the sonics were dull without it. 
 

Cheers, folks! 

oblgny

Always good to see you here. Thank You for the System update. Yes! too many tubed gear is too much of a good thing. The Musical Fidelity A35 is a fine player.

I believe that you are the only Panel member whom endorses Belles amplifier.

Do you miss B.A.T. integrated amp?

Happy Listening!

Jafant - yes I am in Chattanooga, if you are nearby you are welcome to come hear my setup

oblgny - the setup you have now seems like it should be pretty fun, i see why you are not in a hurry to upgrade, i used to use a rel storm III with the cs1.6 it was awesome sub for its time, they got really nice. My first encounter with big bass was a REL stadium, it literally made the couch I was sitting on vibrate enough to move, It made me laugh at loud at the sheer amount of bass energy it put into the room.  Maggies with one of those and a belles amp seems like it would be a fun match, I think you could probably try a cs1.6 with that amp and sub and have a really interesting alternate setup, if the Belles is running the maggies well it can certainly put out the power for the cs1.6 also.  The liberty DAC looks super awesome, definitely a piece I would like to try