Tube Amp recommendation for Thiel CS1.6 under $2k


Noticed a lot of tube amps have low wattage ratings and my Thiels say 50-300W.

Have a 24’ x 18’ and looking for a recommendations or thoughts on best integrated or power amp (ideally vintage) to drive them nicely.

 

uthlidian

I highly doubt your going to find a tube amp that can drive your speakers and be under your budget. There is not many hi(ish) powered tube amps out there let alone vintage ones below your budget.

Then there is the re-tubing your going to need to do with used tube amps. I say that after buying dozens of used tube amps over the years and almost always you need to re-tube, specially in this budget range. And to get a tube amp with the power you need is not going to be cheap to re-tube. probably half your budget alone. 

If I was you I'd save for a while if your hell bent on tube amps and then consider, optionally is something like the wilsenton amps from China not a bad amp I have owned one.

Second find a quality SS amp and drive it with a tube preamp. hybrid set up would give you the best of both worlds as they say. something like a Schiit Audio Freya+(tube) as a preamp and a used SS amp would be close to your budget. 

@5751 

Great tubes ( especially RCA Blacks from the 50"s ) , I use 3 of them in my phono preamp .

You're not the only person with redundancy issues , every now and then my responses are double sent , it seems to come and go .

What speakers and system equipment do you have now ? 

jazzaudiophilewannabe

Feel free to join us on Thiel Owners thread. The MF M6si is an excellent match for CS 1.5, CS 1.6 and CS 2.4 loudspeakers.

 

Happy Listening!