Opinion of Meridian 557 Amp

I would like to know what type of cables everyone is using, as well as if you are useing the balanced inputs rather than the rca's? I think the amp is great at opening up my Thiel 2.3's . Seems to fill the entire room with great sound . 508.25 /502/557 all balanced tara cables. Does anyone think the 2.3's can handle this amp bridged 1000 watts!?

Perfectimage, I agree with you Totally on the Sonus Faber Extremas. Let me ask you, Do you think the Extremas would sound good with a Rel Sub. I'v heard the Extremas can be hard to blend in with a Sub. Fleone, No, you only need one 557 Amp, to use on the Theil 2.3 speaker. I wouldn't bridge them. See the Sonus Faber Extremas need lots of power. This speaker is very deep. I heard it at the Stereophile show in the Meridian room. The System was the 557 Amps bridged, 502 preamp, 566 Dac, 518 Jitter reducer with the 500 transport. I swear, i'v never heard a system this good. It was so sweet and articulate sounding. Here's a great pic of the Sonus Faber Extremas. You see how deep they are. http://gallery.consumerreview.com/audio/gallery/files/sonus-extrema(1).asp

A Rel is a must! I use a Rel Stentor 2 sub with mine. Its a perfect match. Very seemless and it gives the Extremas a good amount of punch in the lower end using the same quality of bass. I have been debatng picking up another Rel and running stereo subs.

I really like all the older Sonus Faber models. Elaectors, Elector Amatuers. They were all very warm sounding.

Perfectimage, did you ever see this site. They got the most amazing stereo systems on here. People put there stereo systems on this site. You should put your system on here to. Here's the link http://www.arduman.com/aa/Sayfalar/friends.htm If you dont have a scanner. You can just send the owner of the site, pics of your system. His email address is adnana@turk.net

Fleone, your Thiel 2.3's can handle the 557 bridged ONLY if you don't turn the volume up TOO loud. I am currently using 1.2s which are pretty small and can certainly handle less power than the 2.3s. My wife thinks I listen to music too loud (for you Meridian folk - 65-70). I have no doubt that if I turned the volume up to deafening levels (say 85-90), the speaker cones would detach and go sailing across the room. Of course, I might also! That being said, the availability of the extra power to handle transients is just great. The speakers have really opened up. Over the 8 years I have had these speakers, I have gone from an 80 watt Denon integrated to an Acurus A250 to a single 557 to dual 557s. The most obvious improvement was the jump to the Acurus A250, but each subsequent step has yielded an improvement as well. I would not have bought the second 557 except that it was a demo and I got it from a dealer in an after Christmas clearance sale at a very attractive price. Nevertheless, I am quite happy that I did, and now know that I can upgrade to nearly any speaker on the market and have plenty of power and the options of biwiring or biamping. Seek out a used one. There is one listed here at Audiogon for $1200 (no affiliation to me). Depending on the quality of your other components, it might be the best $1200 you could spend.