do tubes rock ??

try a melos music director or ma333 preamp - the gain outta this thing is amazing - my amps, while never lacking for power before, drive my speakers w/a lot more authority w/this nice tube preamp. outstanding dynamics. doug

I agree with Carl. First of all, your room is pretty large. Second of all, your speakers are lower impedance. On top of that, they aren't SUPER efficient. You will need a very rugged tube amp with a lot of "guts" to do the job. I would also suggest something on the warm side of neutral if mating them with Thiele's. While some of the big VTL's might do it, the first amp that comes to mind would be the Mesa Baron. If your into rock and roll, you know what a Mesa / Boogie amp is. It's the same company, just a different point of view when making guitar vs. audiophile amps. Otherwise, i would look into a BIG, high current SS amp and possibly a tube preamp. From what i hear through the grapevine, the CTC modified Parasound HCA-3500 will supposedly stand toe to toe with ANY amplifier on the market. These run $5000, which includes the purchase of the amp. My source tells me that they have "embarrased" amps costing $40,000 in direct comparisons. If you've got the cash, i'm sure that they would be well worth checking into. Sean >

The main reason I switched to SS. I like a wide variety of music and SS is better especially rock or fusion.The wolcott's can play loud but I coudn't get the ultimate in bass control

Of course tubes rock!!! Why else would they be in the serious rock 'n roll equipment? But, for Thiel 7's they are not a good match. Not unless you want to get a beast with 16, 24, or 32 output tubes(probably wouldn't have the right tone anyway, and you'll go broke feeding those dinosaurs during retube). Go with solid state for this speaker. One more thing, THE tube for rock is NOT the EL34/6CA7 or 6550/KT88/KT90. It is the 6L6/5881/KT66.

agreed w/ plugged & sean. your speakers need lots of power, which would require something like the Wolcotts (tube) or the CTC BBQ. (btw: i've heard the BBQ, and i didn't know it was 'only' $5k. sounds much much better than that--krell's $5k stuff cannot touch it.)