Thiel Owners

@lars888888 

I've been very happy driving my CS 2.4 speakers with a Coda CSiB v1 integrated amp. The Coda doubles down as you halve the impedance.  The CSiB is for all intents and purposes a CODA 8 basic amp with an integrated line stage.  Prior to the Coda I had a Bryston 3Bst. The 3Bst together with a Bryston preamp did a nice job of it, but the Coda was a big step up. As per my handle, I'm a jazz guy, but an audiophile buddy who is into Classical gave my rig a test run and was very impressed with it.

@dickieboy , Ah, that's a bit different. And with that I agree. Even here on Audiogon it's often over generalized that all Thiels are demanding of amplifiers. The CS 1's 1.2's, 2's, 3's and 3.5's all had impedances over 4 Ohms (though the CS 3's and 3.5's did have the eq demands as well). Look at this rather benign impedance plot:

Thiel CS2 loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com

@lars888888 , I suggest limiting your search for amps that are actually spec'd to 2 Ohm loads. If an amp is truly capable, the manufactures are likey to brag about it. I'd avoid amps from manufactures that rely on ancedotal marketing. If the amp is truly up to the task, let them put it in writting. Some (but not all !) amps from Krell, Levinson, and Threshold amongst a handful of others could qualify. If looking at some older models; I'd look for amplifiers that have been recently recapped by the manufacturer or manufacturer endorsed tech. These amps are typically heavy and costly to ship so having had this done recently could be prudent. Power amps tend to work better than integrateds for speakers such as the CS 2.4's, . As Intergrateds often are less adept at lower impedances and/or are less richly biased than the power amp offerings

Regarding amps: In addditon to my hotrodded learning labs of Classé DR9s and Adcom GFA555s, my reference amp is the Benchmark AHB2. A single stereo amp may not have the oomph you need/want, but in bridged mono a pair might. Power aside, the distortion and noise characteristics of this amp is extraordinary and its unique feed-forward topology pegs the output signal profile as nearly identical whether stereo or mono. The only difference is that the damping factor goes to half in mono, but chopping your speaker cables to half length corrects that. They maintain their operating characteristics to below 1.5 ohms.

It took me awhile to get comfortable with their operation and differences from 'normal' amps. I'm hooked. You can read all about it at

@tomthiel 

That's good to hear because I can't see Adcom amps as being used as a reference when you're designing or refining previous speaker designs. From my own experience with an Adcom amp many years ago, they just aren't that good.