Pre-amp suggestions for Thiel 2.4/Pass Labs XA30.5

I totally agree with Unsound
I have the Thiel 2.4's and they need lotsa amperes to start to sing .. in fact I dive them with two Parasound JC1's
Forget the ridiculous power of the Pass Labs XA-30.5 .. kinda splendid amp for Harbeth C7ES or Super HL5 but totally useless on the Thiel 2.4.

Have you looked at the Thor ta2000 listed right now? I think he has it at around 2900 but you may be able to get it at close to your budget. I just bought the ta1000 and it is great. Great new owners of Thor to take care of any maintenance or upgrades you may be interested in.

Modwright LS 100 with built-in phono stage would be a possibility. It is a true value, as are all of Dan Wright's designs.

The Atma-sphere MP3 would match up very well with the XA30.5, although it also worked very well single-ended with the Joule LA-150 MKII and Signature edition, both of which can be set to a lower output impedance. If the 2.4 is anything like the 2.3 and 3.6s I think the combination of the rich tones of the Joule would do wonders with a speaker as neutral as the Thiel, a little warmth would not be a bad thing. The combo sounded pretty darn good with my Merlin VSMs which are also not particularly forgiving speakers. You would not have suckage with either the Atma-sphere or Joule preamp mated to your Pass amp.

This thread's been dead for a while, but I thought I would chime in with some conclusions now that I've lived with the XA-30.5 and Thiel 2.4s for a while. Anyway, on these speakers the amp is spectacular, beautiful, quiet, delicate, with great imaging... on quiet, delicate music. As the music gets more complex and ads greater bass requirements, it just can't keep up. Certain disks and movies with that complexity (e.g., rap & hip-hop) just sound flat and uninteresting.

I've discussed the issues with some professionals... Reno-Hifi suggested that the XA-60.5 might ameliorate the problem, Pass themselves suggested (in this order) the XA-100.5, X350.5, and then X250.5. In talking to Pass I even mentioned selling the speakers and getting another well imaging speaker that mated better with the XA-30.5. They said to keep the Thiels... even with the implicit understanding that that might mean going with a different companies' amps.

In any case, I think I will probably try a 250.5 next (the only suggestion within my budget) and see what happens from their. Unfortunately the first pre-amp solution I tried was using an INT-30A, which is a nice one-box solution to my prior pre-amp issues (and cost efficient... just $1200 more than the 30.5). I just added an external phono... the Chinese Jasmine LP2 MKII (after trying a pretty poor sounding PS Audio GCPH). Anyway, I'd like to have done it right the first time, but the journey's been educational. And I guess shortly I'll still be looking for a pre to match to a Pass amp. Keep your eyes open for a mint INT-30A going up in the next couple months.