I have really enjoyed reviewing the posts in this great thread. It occurs to me that I have a few observations about my long association with these great speakers. The first is that quality power is the most important ingredient in the enjoyment of Thiels ; I say this after realizing that much of the time I was not supplying enough power. When I finally purchased an EAD pm 2000, a 5 channel beast with 400 wpc, I saw what I had been missing. I used the EAD with my 2.4's until I was able to have a separate 2 channel system. Even then, I was underpowered with a Boulder 350 (a budget Boulder)..but when I finally hooked up the fpb 300 Krell...Bam. Magic. I then twisted off and bought a pair of CS 5's, which I found to require an enormous amount of power. I talked to Rob at Thiel, who told me they had an FPB 600 with the CS5i's in the sound room at the factory in Kentucky. I was never able to adequately power the 5's, and I would strongly suggest to anyone tempted to buy these at 2000 bucks or so should factor in the cost of a quality (very)high powered amp: I think the Krell 300 would have been better than what I used to replace it: a CAT 500 wpc amp. This was power, but not quality power, and it had a noisy fan, which bugged me. I am now without Thiel 2 channel speakers for the first time since I started this hobby in 1984. I have an all Thiel HT system, as previously mentioned, but now am listening to some big Altec horns atop big Onken cabinets with Altec woofers. I can power these with 25wpc Quicksilver monos, and I do enjoy them. But....that detailed articulate Thiel sound is missing... and I guess I miss it. So I am looking to maybe get some Thiels, and maybe start the arms race again....
