Thiel and Jeff Rowland

At different times, but not together, I have owned both the 3.6s and the Concentra Integrated Model 1 (not the newly released Model II) and I have some reservations about how well that combination may work together electronically. The Thiel 3.6 is a truly excellent speaker, and I made a huge mistake in selling it (i.e. sometimes an upgrade turns out to be a downgrade). However, because the impedance is often well below 4 ohms, it can present a very difficult load for an amplifier, depending partially of course upon how loud you play your system. The Concentra I ( as incidentally is also the case with the Levinson 383) does not always like to see lower impedance loads, and thus the combination of the two may be questionable in terms of extracting the maximum performance benefits. The Concentra is beautifully built, and its ergonomic feel is the best I have ever experienced in my 36 years as an audio hobbyist. Under more normal conditions, it sounds superb and I would absolutely agree with all of the positive comments I have read.

I don't know if your going to spend what the Rowland 8Ti goes for but that was the amp I borrowed to audition...WOW!!
Smooth as butter on almost all recordings,from old to new.
Look for a Rowland from '91 to '96 with 150 wpc minimum.That
is going to be my next move in the spring just for arguments
sake. Not many Rowlands make it to the used market,but the ones that do keep a fairly high resale value.--------After listening to Krell KSA-150/250's there was a warmer sound from the Rowland but the sheer control over the 3.6's was had by the KSA-250, "GOOD" MIT cables started to bring back the warmth to the Thiels and left me feeling that I was not missing anything. The boys @ Thiel even agree that the older
KSA-150/250 amps with MIT Highline series wires sound very,very good....as do Goertz wires.(haven't tried them yet)...BRYhifi

http://gonmain.iserver.net/cgi-bin/cl.pl?ampstran&985292394
Don't know if you saw these yet ???May be worth looking into?

thanks again for the feedback, the good kind. i wrote a note to thiel asking this question. if i hear anything ill let you know.

I wholeheartedly agree with others who recommended the Krell KSA-150 (which I have) and the 250 amp with the 3.6s. Great presence and soundstage with that combination. Now I'm looking for the right preamp to run the Krell in balanced mode. Any suggestions would be appreciated.