Amp for Thiel 2.3s. Anyone use Classe with them?

As a Thiel owner, I can say that if you hear any brightness it is somewhere in your system and not the speaker. Could be your preamp, cables, and possibly the amp. Whatever it is, the Theils are presenting it and not causing it.

I have heard the Thiel 2 2, 3.6 and CS6 - but not the 2.3 -with the Classe CA amps and Classe preamps and they do work extremely well together. However, don't expect the brightness to disappear with the Classe - whatever is causing it will remain and the Classe will not gloss over it, even though it is a bit on the warm side of neutral. I would have, without reservation, purchased the Classe. I chose the Mark Levinson 20.6 monoblocks instead.

Thiels are bastards - you cannot skimp anywhere in your system with them. They will brutally highlight shortcomings in electronics and cabling.

Hello, I have owned the Thiel MCS 1's the 2.3's the CS 6's and the 7's. I always used Classe Amps, including the CA 300,the newer 301 ( which I liked more than the 300 as it was quieter w/ no ground loop hum)and the Omega. Krell to me sounded to dark with Thiel. I also used Audio Research pre-amps including the LS 2B Mk II and the REF II. Believe it or not for the money I used the LS 2 because it was a hybrid. The 1 tube design I thought was just right. At alot of the shows I used to see, Thiel,Classe and A.R. used alot together. Good Luck!

Classe and Thiel are a classic match. I use a CA 200 with 3.6's but also have cj tubes in the preamp. The sound is rich, revealing with no brightness unless the recording calls for it.

First off, I would think that the W-5 is going to pair up very well with your Thiels, and I would not think that a shift to Classe' would be a huge difference. More of a side-step than an upgrade, but perhaps a sonic signature that is more pleasing to you. When I went looking to upgrade amps to drive my Thiel CS3.6's, my shopping list included Classe', Moon Audio, Krell, Theta, McCormack, Bryston, Edge, Pass Labs, and a few others. I listened to as many of these as possible (though not Classe'), and to my ears, the Theta Digital amps were by far the best pairing for Thiel. Talking to Shari at Thiel, she said that for the last couple of shows, they have used Theta Digital amps, and they are thrilled with the response. Talking to Theta, they use Thiels (including 3.6's) some some of their benchmarking, so it seemed a good match. I ended up with Enterprise monoblocks for the 3.6's, and an Intrepid for the HT. A two channel Dreadnaught II is a fantastic amp for your 2.3's.

Good luck, Tom.

Thanks for all your informative replies. I have only had my Thiels a short time and each day they seem to sound better. Another factor is that I posted this message after I listened to them in my system for the first time and it was late at night and I was very tired. But now a couple of days later they do not sound nearly as bright. In fact they are quite stunning. Probably the piece that could be improved in my system is my cd player which is a Pioneer Elite PDF19 301 disc player.
I may also look at speaker cable improvements

I have had alot of speakers but now I have found the speaker family I'm sticking with. Should I ever upgrade it would be to a CS3.6, CS6 or even a 7.2.

Thanks again for your input!

Cheers
Brent