2. amps-preamps
  3. 1352437950

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
newbee
4,767 posts
 
With the budget you are working I think your money would be far better spend if you focused on getting a good integrated amp. Probably a SS one.

The problem is with Thiel speakers in general, and certainly the ones I drove (not your), SS amps can make a bright sound which can be unbearable to some listeners. Class A amps can sound excellent but you can't buy good Class A amps withing you budget. I found Threshold's SA3, a 50Wt amp, outstanding with my stuff, but that was $3000 new 15 years ago and they still sell used if you can find them for $1000+.

I would try to find an integrated amp which doubles down from say 100wts per channel in 8 ohms to 200 wts per channel in 4ohms (indicates high(er) current delivery, and which has a reputation for having a tone on the warm side of neutral. If I had to compromise on that I would give up a little on the current demand but not much. With any luck you might find one within your bugdet and then be able to find a good CDP.

You are, in a way sadly, coming up against making some serious compromises with speakers that don't like compromises. Good luck............
unsound
7,329 posts
 
Some good thougts from Newbee.
bighead63
53 posts
 
I have these speakers and picked them up off craigslist for not a lot and use them for a 2nd system.

They are very coherent which is a huge plus on them. The down side is they don't dig as deep as other speakers but they image very well.

I have them in a 12X14X8 room and it works well. Running it off a simple integrated amp that pushes 100 watts and a CDP and it works well.

They do have some top end sizzle and I did run them in my main system (VTL tube monos and BAT tube pre amp) which helped a little bit but still had the high end in tact. Room treatments also does help. I was planning on doing a restore on an old tube integrated I own and run it off around 80 watts tube power from 6550s.
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