SF Power 1s with Thiel CS 2.3s Enuf Pwr?

I have a pair of Thiel 2.3's. They love alot of power. The only tube amp that sounded good was Audio Research Ref stuff about 200 wpc. I ended up buying new pass labs gear x-150 and x-1. They sound awesome. I read an old sterophile article stating that tubes; in theory, double the wattage to the speaker. Not sure which issue will email you if I find it. You can also use a good tube pre-amp with a solid state amp (great combo).

Im feeding my 2.3's with 400 wpc into 4 ohms from a Bryston 4b-st, no looking back. While I was waiting for the Bryston to arrive, I briefly (VERY briefly) tried running the Thiels off of a 60wpc Yamaha. It was a real bad idea. Not only did it sound awful, but I was terrified that someone was going to get hurt. Your best source of advice, however, will be Thiel itself. You can get the e-mail from their website and they are very good about getting back to you with great advice in a couple of days. There is a good chance that they have had some experience with exactly the combination you are asking about and will be happy to share. I do know, however, that when they recommend 100wpc, they mean into 8ohms--so, for all intents and purposes, their recomendation is for an amp that will present 200wpc into a 4 ohm load (which essentially all the their speakers are). In effect, the Thiels thrive off of high current amps, something for which pure wats is sometimes only a rough surrogate. Tubes, I think, can somehow change the equation and shouldn't be ruled out just because you're considering Thiels. (Ok, I am now hypothesising beyond my means, shoot Thiel an e-mail, they'll give it to you straight). Best of luck.

i agree mostly w/mezmo - especially to ask thiel. but thiel's recommendation of a 100 wpc min amp doesn't necessarily mean one that puts out 200 watts into 4 ohms, as not all amps are class-a, that essentially double their power as the ohms halve. i tink thiel means that *at least* 100wpc into 4 ohms is the way to go. but, i do agree that a hi-current class-a amp would be all the better for the thiels than a class ab design

all that said, time for another shameless plug. :>) i *know* the electrocompaniet aw100 that i have adwertised here on audiogon, will do fine w/the thiels - i've had it & its smaller brother, the aw75, driving my thiel 3.5's, which are *really power-hungry, & they do fine. the aw100, class-a, 100wpc, 190 into 4 ohms, stable down to 0.5 ohms, >80amps current, can really handle the thiels, even in a large room.

regards, doug

Ok, I admit, but this one puzzles me. Back when I was wondering if anything was actually going to explode if I tried to make the Thiels go with a 60wpc receiver, I sent an e-mail to Thiel asking essentially the same question. Their reply was that, as long as the receiver was built to handle a 4 ohm load, it should be fine to use it temporarily as long as it was kept at relatively low volumes. If if it wasn't designed to handle to load, however, using it could be a genuinely poor idea. It was in this same e-mail that they (Shari, so she, actually) explained the business about their 100-300wpc guideline for the 2.3's being intended for an 8 ohm load, and that what they really intended to convey was that the speakers would thrive most on 200-600wpc from an amp driving a 4 ohm load (which the speakers are). (Puzzlement...then why not say that?!?). That said, she did admit that this was only a guideline and that the good folks of Thiel had had a lot of great results with tubed amps putting out significantly fewer wpc. She then explained that this was all very logical because of something to do with current that the double whammie of imperfect understanding and imperfect memory has completely done away with. Hence, this is the bit that has me confused, so if someone who understands this electricity thing could set me straight, it would be swell. (And yes, I looked for said e-mail. No luck.)