Opinion of Meridian 557 Amp

I have had a 557 for about 2 years and have loved it. It replaced an Acurus A250 and was definitely a step up. I bought another 557 this weekend and am running the pair as bridged monoblocks. I haven't had a chance to do a serious audition, but they obviously have near limitless reserves. I currently have Thiel speakers which do not have a bi-wire option. I think the real question is how do they sound bridged vs. how do they sound run in stereo mode to vertically bi-amp a speaker with bi-wire capability.

Redkiwi, what is "welly"?

Fleone, your Thiel 2.3's can handle the 557 bridged ONLY if you don't turn the volume up TOO loud. I am currently using 1.2s which are pretty small and can certainly handle less power than the 2.3s. My wife thinks I listen to music too loud (for you Meridian folk - 65-70). I have no doubt that if I turned the volume up to deafening levels (say 85-90), the speaker cones would detach and go sailing across the room. Of course, I might also! That being said, the availability of the extra power to handle transients is just great. The speakers have really opened up. Over the 8 years I have had these speakers, I have gone from an 80 watt Denon integrated to an Acurus A250 to a single 557 to dual 557s. The most obvious improvement was the jump to the Acurus A250, but each subsequent step has yielded an improvement as well. I would not have bought the second 557 except that it was a demo and I got it from a dealer in an after Christmas clearance sale at a very attractive price. Nevertheless, I am quite happy that I did, and now know that I can upgrade to nearly any speaker on the market and have plenty of power and the options of biwiring or biamping. Seek out a used one. There is one listed here at Audiogon for $1200 (no affiliation to me). Depending on the quality of your other components, it might be the best $1200 you could spend.