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

Cal3713...thanks for the update. That was my concern in my post above. I have seen X350.5 often paired with the 2.4s to good effect. I am sure the X250.5 will give you plenty of power and current delivery to drive the Thiels with ease. Good luck with the journey and enjoy it.

Cmalak, all part of the learning process for OP, and sometimes you just have to hear things for yourself to know for sure. The XA30.5 is a magical amp, but not magic, the Thiels simply need more power to play their best. It is a conondrum, I often consider 20-30 watts Class A amps since I think they sound great with the right loads (Luxman for example)but I always fear I'm forcing the power issue and I should know better, even on my easy to drive and relatively sensitive Merlins. If I owned Maggies or Thiels, I simply would not consider driving them with the undoubtedly wonderful Pass XA30.5 and other "low" wattage SS amps, as much as I would like to since those amps sound so darn good at their power rating - but for those speakers give me a 200 watt MAC!

I'm not surprised, but at least you absolutely know for yourself, nothing beats that. If you like Nelson's Class A offerings, but your power requirements and budget only allow for Nelson's Class AB amps, you might want to consider his older Threshold S series amps. They were biased to stay into Class A for the first 20% into their 8 Ohm rating before sliding into Class B, however when they double power down into lower impedance's i.e. 4 Ohms, the biased is halved as well. Still this more Class A bias than the Pass X series, and even with the cost of new caps, re-bias etc., less expensive too. Just a thought.

I have been using a Bel Canto REF1000M with my Thiel CS3.7s and the 2.4SEs before that.

I have heard the Electrocompaniet Nemos and they sound incredible with the Thiels.

I am a bit curious how the Plinius SA-Reference would sound with them. That delivers 100W of Class A into 8 ohms in stereo mode.

What do you folks think about something like a set of Aleph 2s? Quite a bit cheaper than the X250.5, not as much power, but at 200W into 4 ohms, they should be a better mate to the 2.4s than the XA-30.5...

I did mention briefly the possibility of going to something older like the Aleph 0 to the Pass folks and they pretty unequivocally said to do the 250.5... just because the older designs have so much more distortion.