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

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.

In checking with Shari about impedance curves on the 2.3, 2.4 and 3.6, I found out some good data that I thought I'd post. It covers where in the freq. spectrum each model dips down and how far it goes....

"The CS2.4 speakers are the easiest to drive, with the CS2.3s being next, and the CS3.6 speakers being the most difficult load.

The CS3.6's impedance is at 4 ohms at 25Hz and then again at 55Hz. From there it drops to 3 ohms at 70Hz and on down to 2.5 ohms at 100Hz. It remains at 2.5 ohms until around 10KHz where it gradually rises to 4 ohms at around 36KHz.

The CS2.3's impedance is about 16 ohms at around 14Hz. It gradually drops to 4 ohms at around 100Hz. It continues dropping to slightly below 3 ohms at 500Hz, and the begins to rise back up to 4 ohms at 1000Hz and gradually increases to 8 ohms at 45KHz.

The CS2.4's impedance is at 14ohms at 20Hz. It drops to 5 ohms at 35Hz and rises back up to 12ohms at 50Hz. From there it gradually drops to 4 ohms at 100Hz and gradually drops down to a little above 3ohms at 700Hz. It gradually rises to 4 ohms at around 20KHz."