Thiel Owners

I found a 555 and a 545 already updated that I am looking at. I prefer to not hassle with shipping such a heavy amp for the mods. Do you feel that the 545 is enough, I checked my db meter and 75 to 85 with 95 db peaks is what I measured. I like the trigger on-off of newer amps. I found the Parasound 2125 v2 with 235 watts into 4 ohms and 35 amps current delivery on-sale for $829 which buyers compared to the older Adcom, but said they preferred the Parasound. Only problem is no one was using them with Thiel speakers. Any thoughts on getting new Parasound instead of 35 year old Adcom? I will check with my electrician about a dedicated line or 2 since I think my utility room, porch outlets and part of kitchen share same breaker. Thanks for looking at this on a late Saturday night and getting back to me.

I can't comment on which amp would best fit your circumstances and orientation. And I don't know the Parasound. I would always go for the larger Adcom. I will have two 555s, they bridge nicely. You do want a dedicated Audio circuit, and upsize the feed wire while you're at it.

tomthiel

Sound advice as always. Thank you for fielding these queries.

Happy Listening!

Thank you for the info Tom! I measured the room and have corrected values: 15' 10.5" wide by 19' 8" long plus another 6.25" on all sides above the treatment. Ceiling is 10' 8" and the treatment on the walls stops 30" below the ceiling.

I typically listen at low levels, have not detected the bass splat, but I can't speak for the room's more youthful customers. I'm not sure what's required to setup the outboard crossover or what benefits I could expect besides better behaved speakers at high levels.

As for the subwoofer question, it sounds like the biggest issue will be room modes requiring tunable treatment to address? I might try it since I can either return the subs or locate them to other places if it's not an improvement here.

These dimensions are actually better. Your Bonello modes / third ascendency is now full (rather than missing one step) and now most of your bass modes fall squarely between notes with fewer needing attention.

Outboard crossovers will be available as plans or kits or finished products - in due time. Not yet. We'll also be offering an internal (significant) upgrade where the XO remains inboard but moves from behind the woofer to the cabinet bottom. Not yet ready for prime time.

Yes, tunable traps will address your bass mode issues. But I have a bigger problem with subwoofers, which was shared by Jim, but practically unavoidable in the Home Theater milieu. Short rant:

The ear-brain does a fine job of providing phantom fundamentals. When the harmonic structure suggests missing lower partials, we just make them up. Of course it's better to get them actually heard. However, when a subwoofer supplies the fundamentals, they are typically a full cycle behind the upper partials of the sound package. Depending on the cross-point, let's say it's like the lowest portion of the sound emanates from 20 to 50' behind the sonic image. I surmise that a larger than average segment of the Thiel population is tuned into the time element of music. As such, we, and I speak for myself, can find this delayed bass less than satisfying. The 2.2 is reflex bass, which does that bass delay crossover at 45Hz. Subwoofer crosspoint might be tried there for no further time-domain harm.  A sealed sub (such as Thiel's own) reproduces all the way down with no additional phase rotation in the deep bass.