Tubes with Thiel CS-3.6's? has anyone had success?

I recently got a VAC PA100/100 tube amp and was hoping to be able to run Thiel 3.6's with it. But hearing everybody here recommend high current SS, I was nervous this combo wouldn't work well. So I talked to VAC's resident expert Kevin Hayes. Here's what he said.

"The CS3.6 is the speaker on which every VAC amp is auditioned before it is approved for shipment. In addition, it's the speaker that I'm using at home with my VAC Avatar Super. (I just bought another pair from Thiel
in January.)

Even the Renaissance 30/30 and the little Auricle can drive it; it's one of my benchmark requirements! The 3.6 is a fabulous match with our electronics, and I recommend it very highly. I prefer it slightly over their larger CS6, although that it also a good match with VAC.

I don't think I can say it any more strongly!"

That's interesting to know, Tmoran. I just got back from the Thiel factory where I took the tour, and it turns out that Thiel has, in the past, set up various models of their speakers in their own listening room with the same tube amps I use with my 2.2's, the VTL MB-185 Signatures. Shari (a 2.2 owner herself) thought the combination of this amp and their speakers was particularly outstanding among the many amps they've tried there (though she also thought the more expensive and powerful MB-450's did even better), a comforting report for me. She also plans to get herself a pair of 2.4's as soon as the factory can catch up with dealer demand, something she managed to resist doing with the 2.3's FWIW...

Tom_munro,

Thiel measures driver diameter by the size of the cage, not the cone. I am sure the cone is no larger that 6.5". I wouldn't be concerned, the woofer cones on the 2.3 are less than 6" and it has the best bass I've ever heard from a cone so small.

Jazzdude, Thiel's 8" woofer cone is on the smallish side. I have no worries though. I've auditioned the CS2.4s three times now, and the quality and quantity of bass produced is impressive for the CS2.4's size. Anybody considering these for a small room should try them first. My CS2.4s will be arriving late this week or early next week.

About the 2.4 woofer, I did learn that is does not feature the oversized 3" voice coil introduced on the 1.6, although the cone is still larger than the net cone size of the nominal 6 1/2" driver used in the smaller model. (A measured cone size smaller than the nominal quoted driver size is typical of most manufacturers' drivers, with woofers usually being the most divergent due to their thicker suspension surrounds.) When I saw a 2.4 being tested for final assembly QC, they hit it with high-level low frequency signals that produced prodigous visible woofer excursion, I would guess on the order of about 3/4" foward-travel projection. Unfortunately for me, heavy demand resulting in back-orders kept me from being able to audition a pair of 2.4's in Thiel's listening room when I was there - they had to ship out the last set they'd had in there a couple of days before I arrived, and this despite the fact that almost all the current production at that juncture was devoted to that one model.