Recommended amp for Thiel 3.6 -- newbie


Hello all. As a newbie to this, I’ve read a number of the forum posts, and have gotten some wonderful information and education. And, as this particulary question, Thiel 3.6 recommended amps, was pretty old, thought I’d post my own specific questions. I know so little about this, I’m sure to make some idiotic mistakes, but I’ll learn.

I just purchased a set of the Thiel 3.6s, and then read that they’re significantly hungry for both power and quality components. Although my budget is not unlimited, I have no buyer’s regret, as these seem to be a wonderful speaker set to grow into, with advancing upgrades as time goes on.

My room is about 27’x40’x9’, rug floor, combined living room, dining room; with the entertainment center in the right half of that space. My listening area is about 14’ back, and I generally expect to listen at mostly low to moderate levels. I like accurate, but I don’t like loud. I confess the system I was looking at was Denon AVR-x7200, rated at 150wpc -- but even that is confusing to me: One place says 150wpc, another 260w. The specs seem to be high at 0.05% THD, but the boards seem to reflect that many aren’t a fan of the Japanese disclosures. On all the boards I’ve read, no one recommended that system, in favor of, say, Theta, McCormack, Adcom and others. And the crickets were pretty deafening.

My prime use is for music from those speakers; but I would love to plug in HT application as well, with ultimate 4k passthrough, Network Attached Storage, Internet Radio, and Airplay and/or AppleTV -- those are the things that led me to the Denon in the first place. And even though the boards were critically silent (only one reference, and a negative one at that), I wondered if it was simply because those threads were old.

So for now, I’m kind of looking at Theta -- almost certainly in the used market. I saw a Dreadnaught unit go off recently, so perhaps with enough patience a similar thing might come around again. And see also (currently) a Casablanca unit. --But this is confusing. The Casablanca seems to return some of the HT features that I’d like, and while I’d like to think this is a solution, read the term "pre-amp", which suggests to me that this alone would never be a solution to power those Thiels. Perhaps this AND Dreadnaught. Or something similar. Or something else. --And for that matter, might the Denon 7200 itself, if not an ideal system, be used as a "starter system" -- acceptable for now -- and then morphed in pre-amp type of deal later, using it's connective controls, with some sort of quality amp downstream?

Thanks much for the consideration to this question and long post.
donzi

Showing 5 responses by tls49

I agree with George, the speakers need an amp that can deliver high current into a low impedance load, and NO a/v receiver will do this, not even a flagship model. Also donzi, if you are going to look at wattage specs, make sure you consider the entire specification. You are only looking at 150w or 260w, so here are the complete specs,

150w (8 ohm, 20 Hz - 20 kHz, 0.05% 2ch Drive)
260w (6 ohm, 1 kHz, 10% 1ch Drive)

IMHO, any spec with extremely high distortion, using limited bandwidth and only one channel is meaningless.

As far as current, think about this, a 12v lantern battery will not crank your car, not enough current.

I think your best setup would be to get an 2 channel integrated or pre/power that has HT pass through. Then add a lesser expensive a/v receiver for the HT capability.
Donzi, in some cases, and only a very few, with an average under powered speaker, adding an amplifier to an a/v receiver can help. However, your speakers need a quality front end driving that high current amp to the speaker. The a/v receiver will just limit the performance capability of the amp. Remember, the a/v receiver is in front of the amp, so garbage in, garbage out. As I said, you should spend the majority of your budget on a quality 2 channel integrated or preamp/power amp that has a HT pass through option. Then just add a lesser expensive a/v receiver that has front pre outs to do home theater.
Right Donzi, and to use your words, you might say my suggestion sort of shoehorns the HT part into the quality part. This feature called HT pass through, HT bypass, or HT direct has been added to integrateds and preamps for the purpose to add HT to a 2 channel system without compromising the 2 channel quality. Here is a simple diagram showing how it’s done,

http://s894.photobucket.com/user/Trolley_bucket/media/XDA1_Schematics/XDA-1_wBypass.jpg.html

This is using a preamp (XDA-1) and a power amp. When using an integrated amp, a single box replaces those two. The front pre outs of the AVR connect to the HT bypass input on the preamp or integrated. When selected, the preamp or integrated volume control is bypassed and volume is controlled by the AVR. Also, depending on the capabilities of preamp or integrated, input from CD could be either digital or analog.

It’s like having 2 separate systems that just share the main amp and speakers.
The Bryston is a 2 channel preamp, but it does not have a HT bypass input. It could work in a setup like the diagram, however, with no HT bypass input it will be awkward to use.

The Marantz would be good if your main use was home theater with an occasional casual use for music, however you originally said, "My prime use is for music from those speakers." With music being the main goal, IMHO, I would not use that Marantz piece. It's difficult to put a number on it like you are asking, but I would think it could be quiet high.

Sorry, but I must stay with my original recommendation.

What sources will you use for music? and for home theater?
Donzi, am I understanding correctly from your last post that you will only use the pair of Thiel speakers and no other speakers? If so, that would definitely change my recommendation. Also, what equipment do you currently have?