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Making a 5.1 system with Thiel speakers

hi all,

through the years I have accumulated a small collection of Thiel speakers (2.2,2.3,2.4,scs3). I have used them strictly with 2 channel amps, with great joy so far.

I am now exploring the idea of mixing some of these pairs into a home theater setup, something like a 5 channel (is there something like a 6 channel setup? ha). Not convinced that I need a sub (my TV room's acoustics and the amps I currently run already make the bass from the 2.2 or 2.3's plenty powerful, explosions and deep rumbles will vibrate though your body).

However, I have absolutely zero knowledge of the kind of amplifier to use for this. Obviously sound quality is important,  and basic Thiel requirements point towards something at with least 120 WPC +, but more is better. I would be looking probably at older second hand units (that could hopefully still manage current sound encoding schemes) with a skinny budget. Would you perheaps have some recommendations for 5.1 amps that could work, to give me some ideas of what to look for ?

 

 

nicolasm
Post removed 
nicolasm OP
6 posts
 

thank you very much Soix for your recommendations! The MC Cormac sounds like it would have the muscle to run this!

Do I understand you correctly - In a typology such as this, the sound source (optical/hdmiarc or coax off the TV) would feed into the Yamaha with the rear/surrounds, and then the Yamaha receiver would also pass through the front speaker signal (or all of it?) to the Mac Cormac for the fronts ? Sorry if the question sounds obvious ha, just wrapping my head around the idea of running several amps in unison.

Which also makes me ponder that I possibly could possibly distribute sound by gathering some of my current stereo amps and pass signal through from a surround decoder/receiver, that would act as a preamp ? 

 

soix
11,230 posts
 

Yes the front L/R and Center preouts from the Yamaha feed the McCormack that powers the front three speakers, and the Yamaha powers all the surrounds.  And sure you could use other stereo amps to do the same thing.  Hope that helps. 

unsound
7,419 posts
 

 First; do you have enough space in your room? The CS 2.2, 2.3 & 2.4 need a minimum of 8’ from the listening position for driver intergration and to preserve the time coherence that are a Thiel hallmark. The SCS are more forgiving in this regard.Idealy you would have the speakers 3 or more feet from the wall behind them and similar but not identical space from side walls, One could get away with at least one foot, but room treatment might be more critical.

As for power; the power is relative to the minimum impedance.

SCS 3 : minimum of 90 Watts into 3 Ohms* (120 into 2 Ohms)

CS 2.2: minimum of 150 Watts into 3 Ohms* (200 Watts into 2 Ohms)

CS 2.3 minimum of  300 Watts into 3 Ohms* (400 Watts into 2 Ohms)

CS 2.4 mimimum of 300 Watts into 3 Ohms* (400 Watts into nto  Ohms)

THIEL COHERENT SOURCE SCS3 TECHNICAL INFORMATION Pdf Download | ManualsLib

 Thiel CS2 2 loudspeaker Specifications | Stereophile.com

Thiel CS2.3 Loudspeaker Specifications | Stereophile.com

Thiel CS2.4 loudspeaker Specifications | Stereophile.com

Power into actual impedance is what matters. Don’t be fooled by claims from amp manufacturers claiming that thier amps are "stable into "X" impedance"; that only means that the amp won’t go into oscilation when conformted by such a load. It does not suggest how much power at what levles of distortion will be delivered in such circumstances. If an amp manufacturer truly stands behind their product they'll put the specs in writting.

*3 Ohm ratings are unsual, when amp manufactures actualy spec their amps into sub 4 Ohm loads, they typically do it into 2 Ohms.

seismicfrog
16 posts
 

Nicolasm,

If you are near NJ, I have a McCormack DNA-HT1 I recently upgraded to class D. I have no packaging, so I’m reluctant to ship. Happy to let it go for a better than TMR rate but less than market. 
frog

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