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Driving a Thiel

I'm looking at purchasing some of the discontinued floorstanding Thiel Models (CS .5, 1.5 and 2.3)and was wondering whether my 120 Watt Marantz SR 8200 receiver has enough power to drive these speakers. I'm not playing anything loud but other threads about appropriate amps and so forth concerned me.

Thanks for all the help!
aniesen
cmalak
681 posts
 
Hevac 1...I am not sure where you get that the Thiel CS2.4 goes down to 1ohm...in the attached link, you will see that the speaker stays between 3 and 4 ohms from 100Hz to 50KHz and drops to 2.7ohms (min dip at 600 Hz). So a high quality 4ohm rated amp with 100wpc+ will drive the Thiel 2.4 very nicely. Here is the Impedance vs Phase vs Frequency plot from Stereophile: http://www.stereophile.com/images/archivesart/theC24FIG1.jpg
unsound
7,310 posts
 
Hevac1, there's a difference between low range and wide range.
hevac1
812 posts
 
Cmalak,
What amp was used and would it have been able to go down to 1 ohm?
3 to 4 ohm is what Theil states their speakers low ranges are, even the 7.2 is only 2.7 ohm min.
It is a conservative estimate at best I think.
I had Theils a few years ago and found, the more power you have the better they sounded and the lower ohms the amp can handle the lower the bass would go regardless of rating.
BTW, I am not saying that Theils are not an excellent speaker. I am just saying that a quality amp with lots of power is best and a receiver will not do them justice.
cmalak
681 posts
 
Hevac1...my point is the Thiels don't dip down to 1ohm. The Stereophile measurements on the Thiel 2.4 show the min dip of 2.7ohms at 600Hz and for most of the frequency spectrum the Thiels stayed in between 3 and 4 ohms. In any case, i agree with you that the Thiels do need high quality power and a lot of it and the OPs receiver will not drive them properly. By the way, every time i check out your system, I am impressed. Nicely done.
magfan
1,583 posts
 
It is NOT impedance but a combination of low impedance and a high phase angle which defines a bad load.

Even a mediocre amp will drive a resistor. Some even at 3 ohms or MAYBE even lower.
However, throw in a highly reactive load and there you go.

http://stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/243/index4.html
http://stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/1208thi/index4.html
http://stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/1105thiel/index4.html
http://stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/663/index4.html

None of the above links are to the Thiel models asked about, but certainly indicate a design philosophy which requires a first rate amp which can maintain into large phase angle loads.
Good hunting.
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