What McIntosh Amp With Thiel 3.6 Speakers?

I own a pair of Thiel CS 2.3's, and drive them with Mac's MA 6900 integrated amp. It has autoformers. I support the above suggestion to use one of the Mac amps that has autoformes with the bigger Thiel's -- In general, I find the Thiel - Mac combo very satisfying.

OK, here's my totally wit-less response. ;^)

First of all, we both spelled the word 'erratic' incorrectly, which Symphony Sound did not. My apologies if I caused you any erraticism in this regard.

Secondly, there is a 'standard' impedance? Hey, everything's nominal, as they say, but you are correct inasmuch that Thiels are lower than most, and that the same may have been Symphony's point. (And, of course, you are right concerning my brilliant public service.)

P.S. - Try for another repeat, however, and you will be duly skewered. :-)

Zaikesman...

Erratic was a poor word choice - thank you for correcting me. I tend to use that word to describe impedance curves that are difficult to drive because more often than not the _are_ erratic in that they fluctuate like a roller coaster, but in the case of the Thiel's the problem is not with the variation.

The Thiel's impedance is consistently low, and relatively flat. It has a reasonably benign phase angle although once you get down to the range where the Thiel's impedance lies for the vast majority of the frequency range, even a slightly capacitant phase angle is going to complicate matters somewhat.

The point that I was trying to make was two fold: one the nominal impedance rating on the Thiel is virtually meaningless and certainly misleading. Second, because the impedance dips down so low, you really need a lot of current, and hence the bigger the amp the better. Err on the side of too much power.

Hackmaster, I don't think Thiel's nominal impedance rating is any more "virtually meaningless and certainly misleading" than most other speakers nominal impedance rating. In fact it's probably more meaningful and less misleading than most other speakers nominal impedance ratings for the very reasons you posted. Thiel readibly offers quite a bit of detail regarding the specs of their products including the minimum impedance loads.

I'm not trying to beat up on Thiel - in fact you are quite right that they are very good about providing information on the minimum impedance of their speakers, etc. I wish more speaker manufacturers would provide this kind of information and would be as upfront about the requirements of the amplifier driving them.

My point was not really Thiel specific - but that in _general_ when you look at the nominal impedance it doesn't tell you anything, and many people will use that figure as a criteria in choosing an amplifier. You really can't do that... you need more information.