Tube Amplifier for Thiel

+2 on CJ 2500. This is a good match for your Thiel 3.6. I used to own this combo. Love them.

Unjc, how big is your room? Is it lively or more dead? That will say a lot about what you can get away with.

I had Thiel 3.6 speakers for a number of years and used them mostly with a Classe CA-300. I found the combination generally unsatisfying and kept wanting to try tubes with the Thiels. I managed to audition some custom PP 300B monoblocks that sounded really good. In retrospect, I should have bought them when I had the chance but at the time I focused on how they didn't have quite enough power or bass control. A few years later I bought an old Dyna ST70 on a lark and, lo and behold, I preferred its sound on the Thiels to the Classe. The Dyna was again limited in maximum loudness and bass control, but the sound in all other respects was much more "real." That experience convinced me that tubes were the way to go. I ended up selling the Thiels and getting more tube-friendly speakers. However, for a happy owner of Thiels, I would say this---try a push-pull EL34 amp like a ST70 and see what you think. It will hardly cost you anything and you may just find that it really delivers what you're looking for.

Thanks for the comments. My room is about 12'W x 15'D.

I also enjoy listening to tube sound. Does anyone find using tube pre-amp would help introduce the tube "sweetness" into the system, even through SS power amp?

Salectric, I am curious to know what pre amp you used when you still had Thiel CS3.6.

I read this online "If the amp clip, the AC current become DC current and the voice coil of the speakers burn out super fast with DC". Does it not even worth to try some less-powerful power amplifier (like many tube ones) on Thiel CS3.6? Please advise.

Using a tube preamp with ss power amps does give you some sense of "tube sound" but the amps are even more important in that respect. Most of the time I had the Classe amp, I used an ARC LS-2. Probably not the best match but that's what it was.