Thiel Owners

Keep that Classe, kdross.  I've run a Thiel/Classe pairing for over two decades now.  And you cannot better it.  Believe me, I've tried.  The electrical and timbral match is perfect.   The closest on tone was a big Threshold, but it lacked the dynamic headroom and full resolution of the Classe that these Thiels often demand.  The Krells are a little too iron-fisted with Thiels, which thrive on the finer tonal nuances of any good amp.  The legacy Classe amps present a slightly finer tonal palette on a Thiel than the Krells as you climb the octaves.  

One tip on the older legacy Classe amps:  Once you get about 20-25 years out, they really do benefit from a full recap.  After extended conversations with their service techs and customer service department, and upon their recommendation, I recently recapped my old CA series.  

Classe designers used exclusively Nichicons during that era, and all the capacitor families they specified in the early models have since been superseded by Nichicon with improved audio-grade versions.

It was about a 75 capacitor job.  I do my own work, so the total cost was only about $250 for the parts.  But once given about 100 hours to settle in, the older Classe is even better than new.  Everything improves up a notch, and absolutely nothing is lost.  It revived into a real sonic tiger, and a perfect pairing with the Thiels.  Jaw-dropping, actually.  Dynamics through the roof with spectacular tonal nuance.  Now it's good for another two decades . . . and I probably won't care by then.  Highly recommended.

Thanks guys.  Sounds like I will keep my Classe amps.  I really do enjoy them and they do sound really good.  Just wish I had the DR-9 amps with more power.  

@sgmlaw,
Which CA series Classe do you use? I'm using a CA-300 with the 3.7s, but have been wondering for a while if that is enough. I'm interested in and concerned about recapping at this point. Classical solo/chamber/orchestral only (with maybe a hint of vintage 60s-70s rock if truth be told).
Todd

Got your pm.  Recapping won’t add watts, per se.  But it will stiffen up the power supply rails back to specifications so that they won’t sag as much under a heavy or sustained load.  Capacitance on the filters can start to fade a little after a couple decades.  Most of the time, with most speaker pairings, it won’t be noticed, because these instruments were so overdesigned to begin with.

But with a heavy sustained load, the quality of an older supply output can start to falter at the margins.  And as we all know, Thiels are all about plenty of sustained, very high quality current.  Not watts.  Current.  I’ve known this since the first day I owned a pair of these.  Your DR8 running bridged has more than enough high quality current reserve to drive a 3 Series Thiel.  But your Thiels will tell you without fail, every time, when its amp is starting to miss a beat here and there.  They are that relentlessly revealing of anything substandard, IMO.

Since they have emerged from their own recent reorganization, I found the people at Classe to be more than helpful with us old owners.

They would have no problems supplying a replacement jack set or screw, I’m sure.  And if not, an RCA jack on these is a generic part.   The originals are nothing fancy.  A basic Vampire or similar grade is probably an upgrade on it.

The current design team was fairly busy with some new product work, and they were not able to get back to me with some rather esoteric capacitor performance and specification questions.  But the tech and CS people were more than helpful and gave me detailed bench data to do the job I wanted.  I stayed as close to the original Nichicon parts selections of the original designers as they would have done.  No mods, no hot rodding.  All at original values.  A classic recap job.  Just a little better due to improvements with the latest electrolytic technology.  And they were rather impressed with the results, too!

The other thing you can do to keep your Classe (or any higher power amp) from straining, and your Thiels sounding their best, is a dedicated circuit and a high current power cord.  I run my Classe straight into a hospital grade dedicated outlet (20 amps via 10/2 Romex straight to the service panel) with an ancient Tice Infinite Speed cable that only provides some transient protection.  No other power conditioning.  The only ‘conditioning’ is a $99 iFi AC Purifier in the same duplex outlet, which does not impede raw AC delivery in the least.  And it sounds terrific, better than ever after two decades.

Todd, I run the CA-301.  Running unbridged, it is plenty enough for a 3 Series as long as you don’t try to fill a stadium with it.  Mine only have to fill a 600 sq ft listening room, and they can go as loud as I can tolerate.  And then some more.

Thiels are more about quality than quantity anyway.  If I wanted my neighbors a quarter mile away to hear Sinatra, I’d be running horns.

I’m winding down at this point, so this will probably be my last high quality system heading into retirement.