Your experience with Thiel 3.6

Hello Jayarr, do you still have the Theil CS3.6? and what are driving them with? I currently have a pair and trying to match them with a nice amp. Classe, byrston 7b st, Krell KSA150 or Levonson ML23 What's your experience so far?

FWIW, I've been happy driving mine with a Parasound A-21.

I owned the 3.6 for about 8 years. They are great speakers. But they are picky as far as amp goes. I tried VTL 225, Krell KSA 100, and Classe 200. VTL 225 was the worst sounding with the 3.6. Nothing wrong with the 225, it was just that the 3.6 needed lots of current and power. The other two amps sounded fine. However, the best sounding amps in my experience was a pair of discontinued Brown Electronic Lab (BEL) MKIII. I am sure the BEL IV and V will be even better.

You need decent size room and don't put them too close to the wall. It is best to pull them away from walls; otherwise, the bass could be boomy and bloated and will muddy up the mids and highs.

The 3.6s are honest speakers that require very good source components. With the right amps and decent source components, the 3.6s are very nice.

Great speakers that with the right equipment and in the right room can be absolutely magical. But that exactly it, they are very revealing, which is good for music, but very challenging for the equipment... basically, you will need a good source, a good pre and a good amp (or a good integrated) or you will hear the flaws from upstream. I think one of the problem you'll commonly see with the 3.6's is that you can find them for quite reasonable money, and then people add the equipment that's in a similar price range and not liking what they heard. You're going to have to spend some good money on the amp (you don't need a lot of power, not SET's but also not a 1000W+ weld torch, but you will need lots of current and something that is stable into a low load)...

Then add the size demands. Thiel's design in general does require you to be the right distance away from the speaker to have all the drivers properly aligned. That's why a pair of 2.3's may sound better than a pair of 3.6's in certain smaller rooms... And then add the fact that 3.6's need room around them to properly breath and you start getting up there in room size.

I kept comming back to this pr! First, I paired them with Krell FPB600 and ML 38s preamp Sony SCD1 MIT magnum speaker cables, Transparent balanced interconnect cable. With this set up I was glad to have the oppurtunity to a have chance to listen to this wonderful pair of Thiel speakers! I just re-acquired my own CS3.6 from my previous buyer after 9 years!well this pair is now mated with Krell KSA 150 SONY XA3ES, Krell HTS pre/pro MIT cables, Balanced IC.. I am telling you this is where I have proven that any of these older model Krells KSA or FPB are the power this speakers need, they will drive he speakers with ease. 150 wpc Class A circuitry actually generating 220wpc into 8ohms and duobles into 4ohms and Thiels impedance deeps down to 2ohms! Krell amps are very stable with this impedance!