Pre-amp suggestions for Thiel 2.4/Pass Labs XA30.5

"some successful preamp pairing suggestions would still be useful."

I see your thread has splintered in many ways. I'm shocked :-).

I have the 30.5 and 100.5's and paired them with Conrad Johnson tube preamps (ART and ACT 2.2). I am very happy with the sound. Of their preamps I'd recommend at least the 16 or 17 or you may find another brand that suits you better. Good luck.

There is no way your Pass can drive the Thiel. Suggest you remedy this first.

Shsohis, despite it's (confusing?) nomenclature and marketed specs, the Pass Labs XA30.5 behaves more like a very high biased 100 Watt high current Class AB amp than a 30 Watt limited Class A amp. While perhaps at minimum power needs of the Thiels, it should be adequate in a smaller room and/or with less ultimate volume requirements, and sound quite nice indeed. Others might feel the need for more power with these speakers.
Cal3713, sorry this has gone so off topic, but I hope you can understand that on some level it was bound to happen, and with the best of intentions.

Ha! It is funny to see people's reactions. The amp does, for example, easily best the Classe, as it should given the quality and price difference. Also, unless I'm mistaken, simply watching the front current meter should provide a pretty good indicator of how much difficulty the 30.5 is having driving the speakers. As I've said repeatedly, I only leave class A for 5 - 10 % of my listening.

I don't take that much stock in the meters. In fact, I wish they would do away with them, and lower the prices accordingly. Keep in mind when you start to go out of Class A, and the volume demands more power, the power needs tends to increase exponentially, and rather fast too.