Thiel 1.5s and a monster receiver..?

Gdriver99

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Hello all. Newbie here. Thanks to anybody who has a second to chime in.
I'm a record listener and just love to listen to vinyl in my small living room- 10'x15' and 8ft ceilings.
I was bestowed the gift of some Thiel cs1.5 speakers.
I'm currently using a Sony str-7800sd receiver. It's a beast of a receiver and offers 125watts per channel into 8 ohms I believe..
Will this old monster get along with the Thiels?
Might they hurt each other?
Would anyone recommend an amp that would help my current system reach its potential?
Any advice would be appreciated!
 
Welcome to AK!

The only thing I would recommend is check the receiver and make sure it can handle a 4 ohm load. Usually it's printed on the back of the unit near the speaker outputs. It should say something like "Use only 8-16 ohm speakers", "4-8 ohm ONLY", etc.

The Thiels are 4 ohm speakers, with a dip to 3 ohms, which means they are somewhat hard to drive. Most capable amps should be able to drive them, but some older ones have a hard time with low impedance speakers.
 
Nice gift! You may find them lacking deep bass, which has always been my issue with most Thiels, but others will have the opposite opinion. Like many other Higher End speakers, the more good power you feed them, the better they will sound. Just make sure as stated above that the amp can handle 4ohm loads.

A quick search on your Sony manual shows it will handle between 4 and 16ohm loads

Specifications
Tuning range: FM, MW

Power output: 125 watts per channel into 8Ω (stereo)

Frequency response: 10Hz to 30kHz

Total harmonic distortion: 0.07%

Damping factor: 40

Input sensitivity: 2.5mV (MM), 250mV (line)

Signal to noise ratio: 72dB (MM), 90dB (line)

Output: 250mV (line)

Speaker load impedance: 4Ω to 16Ω

Dimensions: 490 x 170 x 515mm

Weight: 22.8kg
 
One pair of 4 ohm should be fine. This means one pair of speakers only - not one pair at 4 ohm and a second pair at 8 ohm. Two sets of speakers need to be 8 ohms each minimum if they are running all at once. Of course you could have set "A" at 4 ohms and set "B" at 8 ohms or what ever AS LONG AS YOU ARE ONLY RUNNING ONE PAIR OR THE OTHER BUT NOT BOTH "A" AND "B" TOGETHER.
Oh and another thing - we want pics_we want pics_we want pics_:D
 
IMG_0492.JPG IMG_0496.JPG
Well that's the best I could do for now. Maybe not every audiophile's dream but it fills the room with some very nice sound :)
And as you can see in the last image, my new landlord was nice enough to put 13" shelves in the closet for me.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0498.JPG
    IMG_0498.JPG
    51.1 KB · Views: 29
They sound great! Beautiful and exceptionally clear on the high end.
I'm listening to one of my favorite live albums and hearing some little details I haven't noticed before.
Maybe not the richest bass I've heard but I'm still fiddling with settings.

I see a couple people in prior threads mentioned ideally keeping these speakers away from the back wall.
Is this true? It's not really practical in my space.
 
Not according to an old Stereophile Review


Soundstage width and depth are magnificent. Following the advice of Thiel's David Gordon, I placed the speakers about 9' apart, and found his suggestion spot on. Start with the speakers far apart, and see if you're unsatisfied with the soundstage width and the center fill. My advice is to place these speakers reasonably close to the back wall and as far apart as you can get them (without the distances from the side and rear walls being exactly the same). Toe them in about 10-15 degrees.
Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/thiel-cs15-loudspeaker-page-4#WD33gZJIUdqFgMtO.99"
 
Back
Top Bottom