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Tubes with Thiel CS-3.6's? has anyone had success?

I did a preliminary search of threads but did not find much of anything with regards to this specific question.

I have the CS-3.6's and love them very much. My listening habits have changed lately and want to try a tubed integrated for a while before jumping into the big $ tube amps. My room is 16x23x8 and is fairly well treated. I don't listen to high volumes anymore so huge power is not needed like it was with my Krell MDA-500 mono's. Seriously, the volumes are kept very low now and really want to try out some tube power for the glory of harmonics and richness.

I have been looking at the following integrated tube amps all in the 50 watt range:

Jolida SB-302b
Manley Stingray
C-J CAV-50
Rogue Tempest

Any experience with this type of combo is appreciated, and other choices for integrated amp is welcome.
128x128bryhifi
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Unsound, as Drubin emailed me today, Thiel is listing the 2.4 on their website as being 87dB sensitive (the correct term for almost any measurement like this you'll encounter, though since almost all the measurements tend to be fudged a bit anyway, it doesn't really matter!), but they're also advertising it as being a stable resistive load, implying the impedance doesn't dip as low or the phase angle swing quite so much as on the 2.3, I suppose. My 2.2's are pretty decent in these regards, but I think we'll have to wait for some outside tests to know if anything's changed for sure, and I'm not sure Stereophile for instance will be reviewing a design that looks a lot more like an intermediate holding action than a completely new exercise.
gs5556
1,218 posts
 
If anyone's still interested, playing a Rudolph Serkin Beethoven piano sonata CD, the average SPL at the listening position (9 feet away, 13ft x 25ft x 9ft room) with the preamp pot at 12'oclock (50%) was 65 db with 71 db peak ("C" weighted scale, fast response). Not bad for a wimpy 2A3 with the Thiel 3.6.
gregm
3,396 posts
 
Gs556 -- that's a nice performance of the Sonata (Serkin)! Sorry, off topic.
unsound
7,315 posts
 
Zaikesman, "stable resistive load" is a bit vague. I would assume that it just means that the impedance doesn't vary much. Typical Thiel. I think they do this to maintain "amplitude coherence", IMHO a good idea. It still doesn't suggest current needs. I hope Thiel comes forward with the straightforward specs that they usually and responsibly do.
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Unsound, the precise ad copy reads "Uniform, resistive load works well with lower power amplifiers". I think Thiel's trying to tell us something - namely, that the 2.4 won't suck current like a Shop-Vac. So I will assume for the time being that they present a load not dipping much below 4 ohms and not having any high capacitive phase angle magnitudes. Like I said, we shall see.
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