Thiel 7.2: amps suggestions please

Luke72,

I find your experience intriguing, I am not familiar with your amps. Perhaps some others can also verify your take that the 7.2's are considerable more difficult to drive, I can't speak on that as I have not owned them, yet. To my knowledge the woofer and coax are the same units but of course there is the additional midrange and very different crossovers. Do I understand that the difference you notice is very considerable? It would be my guess that the dynamics is related to damping factor of the amps, the 7.2 would probably require additional control to exhibit similar dynamics to the 6 but a significant difference is puzzling.

I know an individual who went from 6 to 7.2 with Krell 350MCX's and didn't have any issues with lack of power or dynamics. Of course it depends on your listening tastes but this individual prefers large dynamic classical passages as myself and thought the 7.2's were significantly more dramatic given the same gear.

Thiel may have experience with your amps and can suggest an alternative, the Pass Labs and Mcintosh are both reasonably priced alternatives for high power although not as articulate as the considerably higher priced amps out there.

You also mention a tube preamp which I have found certain tubes can significantly affect the soundstage, my experience was also as much as swapping amps.

Thank you Stevecham for adding your personal experience with Krell.
For Chryslers rule: I think the main problem, as you have mentioned, is the more complex crossover, there are 4 drivers instead of 3, yes the woofer (magnet and coil, not the diaphragm) is approximately the same, but the midbass is specific and the coax mid/tw are not the same of CS6. My monoblocks are pretty unknown in Usa (see www.amaudio.it , the model is the A200 Reference) and my feeling is that the amps have no sufficient juice for the 7.2, but for the 6 yes. Changing from 6 to 7.2 simply the sound is not real, solid and live any longer. Just my little experience, of course.

Looking at your question from the amp's point of view ... Musical Fidelity's representatives at the NYC HI FI show this past May were recommending pairing their amps with Thiels. They were pairing their latest KW 500 amp with Thiels 7.2. I wasn't sold on the sound, but it was set-up in a ballroom, which is not your typical set-up.

Regards, Rich

Thanks for your input Rich.

How many hours do you have on the 7.2's? The break-in period can be relatively long and the speakers will sound just as you've described if not broken in.

If break-in is not the issue, an alternative to the big amps previously suggested is the "poor man's Krell" - Bryston 14B-SST. I had one in my system with the CS6s and was very impressed. The 14B is a 600 watt dual mono in a single chassis. Very big soundstage and incredibly low noise floor. Microdynamics abound. Nice piece of gear for half the price of Krell/Levinson.