^A worthy consideration.
Amp recommendation to drive Thiel 3.6 speakers
Hello everyone,
My first post here. I''l get right to the point.
I am looking for recommendations for suitable power amp monoblocks to drive a pair of Thiel 3.6 that I have had for 20 years, and which I intend to keep. Let me describe my current system.
Speakers: Thiel; 3.6
Power amps: Manley 250 classic monoblocks (tube)
Pre-amp: Audio Research Reference (tube)
Phono-pre: Audio Research Reference 2 SE (tube)
Turntable: VPI/SME, and Linn LP12
Digital: Audio Research CD3
I am looking for recommendations to replace the Manleys. From what I know, the Thiels are a difficult load.
Thanks in advance
My first post here. I''l get right to the point.
I am looking for recommendations for suitable power amp monoblocks to drive a pair of Thiel 3.6 that I have had for 20 years, and which I intend to keep. Let me describe my current system.
Speakers: Thiel; 3.6
Power amps: Manley 250 classic monoblocks (tube)
Pre-amp: Audio Research Reference (tube)
Phono-pre: Audio Research Reference 2 SE (tube)
Turntable: VPI/SME, and Linn LP12
Digital: Audio Research CD3
I am looking for recommendations to replace the Manleys. From what I know, the Thiels are a difficult load.
Thanks in advance
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- 42 posts total
Not sure I’d spend upwards of $10k to power 3.6es (and I do think they’re great speakers), but what do I know? The Clayton Audio M200s will drive the hell out of ’em but not sure how they’d fare on the WAF scale. The S100 might be a little more palatable. Thiel used to show with McCormack a lot back in the day, and there’s a DNA-500 listed on US Audio Mart for $3300. Or, somebody just listed a pair of DNA-1 monoblocks up on eBay you could buy and have Steve do full upgrades and still be closer to $5k all in. Personally I’d do the latter. FWIW, and best of luck. |
Update: First off, thanks for all the suggestions, thoughts, discussion. It was helpful. I ended up buying a used pair (recent build, 2 years ago) of Parasound Halo JC1's, which are on the way. I hope I made the right decision. According to specs, they have enough power to drive anything down to 2 Ohms, but keeping fingers crossed that they will sound good. In addition I upgraded my pre to an ARC Ref 5SE. So hoping that the Thiels will finally sing. Now, I have for sale the Manley 250 monoblocks (I checked tube bias yesterday and they are all on), the ARC Ref 2MkII pre, the ARC PH3 Phono, and a Transparent Ultra RCA 1m interconnect cable. |
pyma6 OPGood choice for these speakers, have the JC1’s in high Class-A bias mode at your initiation listen. And your PH3 has 71db!! of gain, so you could combined with the JC1’s very high gain and 100kohm input impedance, use a just a simple Passive Pre amp, as you have all the gain you’ll need even from the PH3 let alone even more from digital sources. Cheers George |
- 42 posts total