Thiel CS 2 2 or something else?

Having recently moved, I finally had space for a real listening room and made my first few purchases, which included a pair of Thiel CS 2 2s in excellent condition from a friend. While I enjoy the sound of these speakers, they have been a nightmare to drive.

After trying them with my vintage receiver, I knew immediately they would need a more powerful amp, so I found a nice Adcom GFA-555 on here for a decent price. Hooked it all up and was very disappointed. Volume level was very low and could only reach normal listening levels with the preamp turned almost all the way up (in comparison, I could reach the same volume levels with my little Cambridge S30s powered by a Kenwood KR-7200 with the volume at about 10 o clock). Finally borrowed my QSC PLX 3402 PA amp which puts out 1100 wpc @ 4ohms and the speakers finally sounded fantastic. I was really very impressed. However, the QSC has a rather loud fan and I don't really wish to modify it as it may need to end up back in my PA rack.

So now I am thinking about amplification for my Thiel CS 2 2s that can reach above 500 watts and the inexpensive options are very limited, Emotiva being one of the few. However I keep being naughty and looking at other, more efficient speakers and thinking about putting my money towards them and maybe letting the Thiels go. There are some Klipsch La Scalas available locally that I keep looking at on CL...

My room is about 15 x 20 with a vaulted ceiling starting at 8 feet at the wall and rising to around 12 feet. My listening position sits under the highest point in the room and can be about 10 -12 feet back from the wall my stereo system is on (which is the 20' wall side).

I really appreciate any help. My price range for either amp or speakers is up to about $1000 and less is definitely preferable.

I'm confused by your conundrum. The Thiels are 86db rated (W/M). The GFA555 does 325W into a 4 ohm load so that at bit more than 1/3 power you should be getting around 106db. 106db is LOUD. I really don't understand how you find it difficult to get loud enough unless something is broken somewhere. Are you certain that all is well?

All is well, Thiels present a tremendously difficult impedance load to drive. A Threshold or Bryston amp would squeeze under your budget and also prove adept at driving them well.

I've heard the 2.2's sound excellent when driven by a Hafler amp. Can't remember the model of the Hafler but it was a late 80's early 90's model.

eddantes said:

I'm confused by your conundrum. The Thiels are 86db rated (W/M). The GFA555 does 325W into a 4 ohm load so that at bit more than 1/3 power you should be getting around 106db. 106db is LOUD. I really don't understand how you find it difficult to get loud enough unless something is broken somewhere. Are you certain that all is well?

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Good point. It is getting nowhere near 106db with my preamp cranked all the way. I generally don't like to listen to music very loud and it's still not reaching the levels I do like.

Perhaps some more testing is in order to see if there is an issue with the amp or something else. Using my Maverick pre with the same source into my QSC sounds great and seems to be reaching appropriate output levels.

The GFA-555 is an older one, though in very good condition for its age. Is there any reason why it wouldn't pair well with the Maverick D1?

Crown XLS 2000/2500 will work perfectly. They have a fan but I've never even heard it come on since it runs so cool. Works very well with reactive loads:thmbsp: I imagine you could order one from someplace with a good return policy and try it out.

Try your Emotiva with the 555. Stick a cd player in the aux and see what you get.

Just a hunch.. but are you using any other source other than the Budgie? Just a basic CD player is a very good test. There's a chance your source (Budgie) isn't putting out enough.

Took me a while to get to sorting out this problem. It's definitely not the amp. Have the amp hooked up to the speakers with my iPad feeding it directly just with Pandora and it sounds fantastic (especially with my new Morrow Audio SP3 speaker cables).

That leaves the Maverick D1 preamp as the culprit. After testing it a few times, it seems to have intermittent low volume more on the right channel than the left. I opened a ticket with them and we'll see what they do. I may be in the market to upgrade my preamp.