Best possible separates for Thiel CS 3.7

Thieliste, 
Your wife has good ears and good taste😊. I suspect that she may notice  the intrinsic relative 'dryness' of much solid state (granted not all) components  compared to well implemented tube electronics. It's good that she's a willing partner in sharing your audio/music passion. I assume  she approves of the Thiels 😊.
Charles 

Thieliste, 
Does your wife have extensive listening experience with High End audio or a musician background? A lot of women seem to have a knack (experienced ears or not) for identifying what many would reefer to as a natural sound. Does she also prefer Aries Cerat to Ypsilon as you do? I've heard Ypsilon components and I'm really impressed with them. I haven't heard Aries Cerat. 
Charles 

Hello Al,
As always, thanks for contributing consistently intelligent and thorough technical analysis. I knew that Aries Cerat (AC) is in an unique category of tube amplification due to its near over the top approach of engineering, design and execution. As Thieliste mentioned above this is the goal of its designer/builder Stavros. 440 pounds of amplifier to yield 65 watts of SET power. As Al keenly observed,  very powerful tubes intentionally run very conservatively to keep them in their most linear operating zone. Utterly rational design decision. I have no doubt they sound sublime driving the Thiels 3.7 just as Thieliste described.

In the vast majority of cases involving these speakers I’d heed the advice of Unsound and George in terms of amplifier selection criteria. Thieliste I am admittedly curious to see how the esteemed CH Precision solid state components listening experience compares to the AC. Aries Cerat has established an  extremely high point of reference.
Charles

Hi Thieliste,
You have a very interesting thread that has generated very good replies and comments from well informed posters. From literally everything I have read or heard about Thiel speakers it is generally acepted that they are best driven by high current powerful solid-state amplifiers.

Both George and Unsound respectively make a strong case for this recommendation. The 3.7 speaker in particular has challenging speaker load impedance characteristics. This would suggest that tube amplifiers and especially SET are non-starters and should be avoided.

You on the other hand make the case that you must actually listen to a combination ( audio components ) in order to judge its performance. I happen to agree with this stance ( within reason ) as I have heard combinations of components that on paper should not work well at all. Test bench measurements and specifications versus actual listening experience.

How on earth can a 65 W SET amplifier sound superb matched to the Thiel 3.7? It certainly defies conventional wisdom. Yet you did hear this exact combination and found it to be fantastic in performance and sound quality.

What type of music genre did you use during the audition and at what listening volumes? I do know that Aries Cerat (AC) it’s far from a typical tube amplifier and that they have massive power supplies and exceptionally stout design. These are big and very heavy products for a good reason.

1 Were there any issues interns of bass performance and control?
2 how was the quality of the all important mid range? I know you are strongly considering the CH Precision which in many ways is the polar opposite of the Aries Cerat I give you much credit for actually listening to thie Thiel/AC combination as opposed to relying exclusively on numbers on paper.

The Ac products are really in my opinion an all out assault on state of the art. So it isn’t surprising that your success with them is proving to be the exception to the general rule in regard to amplification for the Thiels.
Best of luck,
Charles