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Give up on Thiel 3.6 or try another amp again ?

These speakers sound amazing sometimes, especially on small-scale, well recorded material (regardless of genre).

I tried a PS Audio HCA-2 and an Aragon 8002, neither of which sounded particularly good. I'm now driving them with a pair of 90 wpc Quicksilver mono tube amps. I know this is against conventional wisdom, but I like them more than the previous amps as long as I keep the volume moderate.

The problem is that the speakers don't open up and bloom as I turn them up for either large-scale classical or rock music, but rather get hard sounding. It could be the small room overloading, but I suspect it's the amps running out of steam.

Ideally, I would have an unlimited budget to power these speakers with a huge, clean solid state amp. Sadly, I have pretty much no budget at all, so I'd have to sell the Quicksilvers to finance a new amp. This would leave me with $1200 or so for a good, high current, high wattage amp.

I was thinking a used Parasound A21 might fit the bill, but there aren't a whole lot of other options in this price range that seem optimum.

Truthfully, I am starting to think it would more make sense to explore other used speaker options; as nice as the Thiels sound at times, they may simply be too impractical given my financial constraints. Perhaps a pair of Vandersteen 3A signatures or a new pair of 2ce Signature Mk. II? Perhaps the Gallo 3.1s?

What would you do if you were me?

btw, the rest of the system consists of a Quicksilver linestage and a Rega Saturn CD player. Thanks!
jonathan1257

Showing 3 responses by jonathan1257

jonathan1257 OP
82 posts
 
Admittedly, the room is a bit weird--it's 13' x 13', but there is only a partial wall behind me (the hi-fi room opens up into a much larger room with a grand piano and some furniture). The speakers are around 3' out from the wall behind them, and probably a couple of feet from the side walls. I sit around 8' away. (The close proximity tends to minimize the room effects, such as they are.)

I also have a couple of framed and covered eggcrate foam panels in the room--one on the wall behind the speakers, and one on the right wall at the first reflection point. The "wall" on the other side is actually glass French doors that open onto a porch (they're covered with a sheer fabric).

All of that said, it may well be that the Thiels are not a great match for the space (as suggested by Pops, they do much better in a big room). I'm still convinced that the amps are less-than-ideally matched to the speakers, too.

So, for the sake of this discussion, I'd love some suggestions for full-range speakers that work well in smallish rooms and sound good with 90 tubed watts. I'm really not into the subwoofer and stand mount speakers thing--I've never been able to get well integrated bottom end this way (I'm also spoiled by the Thiel's bottom end, which is very nice). Budget should be under $2000 new or used.
jonathan1257 OP
82 posts
 
Drubin is right. I never did say I wanted a warmer sound. Actually, I don't find the Thiels to be overly bright at all; they are revealing of the recording, though, warm, bright or otherwise.
jonathan1257 OP
82 posts
 
This has been an interesting thread, and I thank you guys for participating. I'm still in a quandary, mostly because I feel like the same $2000 (or so) that I'd have to spend out of pocket for new speakers could get me much closer to an appropriate power amp for the Thiels as well. Unfortunately, as a soon to be graduating student, it'll be a while before I can put together that kind of spending cash.

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