I've been gifted a pair of Thiel CS2s


So, I'm starting with the speakers first. :D

They'll more than likely be sitting in an 10' x 8' x 9' (height) room, which hopefully is big enough for them.

Since, as I understand Thiels crave a lot of power,
I'm looking at amps that will double down to 4ohms.

My budget is probably about $1000 for both the amp (or integrated amp and a pre-amp.

I'm currently looking at Aragon 4004.
I'm wondering if this will be "too much" power,
as I live in a condo and it seems a number of sellers are selling the high power amps because they are downsizing.

Anyhow, what would be a good matching pre-amp for the Aragon 4004, in the $500 range?

I've also considered:
< $500 amps: Acurus, Anthem MCA2.

$500-$750:
Rotel RB-1080, PS Audio HCA2, McCormack DNA 0.5, Anthem MCA2 (here as well)

$750-$1000:
Bryston 4B (but it sounds like the ST or SST would be better, but more costly), Conrad Johnson MF-2200, McCormack DNA-125.

I've been reading a lot and learning some.

All opinions welcome.

Thanks,
Mike
mrfarnham
You can also add Emo's USP-1 preamp and the whole schmeer will be less than $1,000...

-RW-
Don;t worry about too much power. I have used Bel Canto REF1000Ms (1000W into 4 ohms) and Electrocompaniet Nemos (1200W) with my Thiels before.

The higher power gives it the headroom to handle fast dyamics where Thiels excel in.

I believe Thiel uses a lot of Bryston gear when doing internal tests
Thiel isn't a light 'trailer to your truck' so I'd second to Belcanto Ref1000. Wyred4Sound or Sunfire 2ch amps may be even more budget oriented choices.
I guarantee you'll hate this response. Getting those, or any for that matter, speakers set up in a room that is 10x8x9 is a major undertaking if you expect to obtain high(er) quality sound, especially a full range speaker not intended for such small space. Room acoustic's and speaker set up will be a bitch. I would think that your choice of an amp will be the least of your problems, and considering the room's size even a small amp will allow you to overdrive the room easily.

Assuming that you do not have an amp yet why not just buy a smaller integrated amp (tube or SS) which has high resale potential and play with set up and room acoustical treatments to see if the room can be used at all with these speakers. The are fine speakers but I don't think they were really intended to be used as nearfield monitors and that is what would work best in a room that size.

FWIW.

Mike,

I agree with Newbee. I wanted the 2.4's but the specs and the dealers said that you need to be 8'-10' away from them so that the drivers will be able to integrate properly to your ears.

Your room is too small for these or Magnepan 1.7 or 3.7.

Chuck