Thule Audio "Spirit" IA-60B integrated amplifier and CD-150B CD player. (Equipment).

Manufacturer Thule Audio ApS, Horkaer 14, 2730 Herlev, Denmark

Distributor: Trian Electronics, Inc., 5816 Highway K, Waunakee, WI 53597; 608/850-3600; www.triancorp.com

Price: IA-60B, $1,195; CD-150B, $1,495

Source: Distributor loan

Reviewer: Thom Moon

To most non-Danes, "Thule" refers to a very cold place in Greenland. But in Danish audio, "Thule" is a man: Anders Thule, who's been producing stereo equipment under his name since 1991. Thule Audio produces three lines of gear: the "Space" series for home theatre/surround; the "Spirit" unbalanced for stereo and the high-line "Spirit" balanced stereo series. The subjects of this review are members of that last group.

Danish style has always been about simple, uncluttered lines, and Thule takes this almost to an extreme. The front of the IA-60B amp has one large central knob and one small button off to the right--both in silver--against a stark black background. The CD-150B player has one small button and the CD drawer in silver. Each unit has an LED readout on its front panel, but that and the knob/drawer/buttons are it for trim. Both units are 16.5" wide and 3.75" high, with depths of 11.4" for the amp and 11.6" for the CD player. The cases have thick, slightly curved (top-to-bottom) aluminum front panel; the cases themselves appear to be heavy steel. The amp weighs in at 20 lbs, while the CD player is about 15 lbs.

On the amplifier, the big central knob controls, as one might imagine, volume, while the button is multi-functioned. If the unit is in standby, pressing the knob "wakes" the amp and allows you to step through the five line-level, unbalanced inputs plus the one that's balanced. When the amp is in operation, pressing the small button for two seconds will place the unit in standby. All other control functions are found on the system remote. The LED readout shows the input selected and the volume level (0-79, in 1 dB increments) when the unit is on, and has a small light to indicate when it is in standby.

The small button on the front of the CD-150B will rouse the player from standby, open the drawer, then close it and put the unit into "Play." If you press and hold the button for two seconds while the unit is operating, the CD tray will open. The player's LED readout shows the usual track and time indications. When in standby, it, too, has a small light to indicate that status.

I preferred giving operating commands from the system remote, although it, too, holds a few surprises. It's a fairly simple unit as remotes go, with only 24 buttons, divided into four sections. The top two buttons (left-to-right) put the units into standby and dim the amplifier's readout. The next section of seven buttons control the amplifier volume, balance, bass and treble (more on those last two features later), and allow one to step through the inputs (there's no direct input access as on the Linn Majik's remote). In the middle of the remote are three buttons designed to operate the primary functions of the TU100 tuner (not reviewed here). And the bottom twelve buttons operate the CD player. One feature I've not encountered before involves the remote's "Play" button. Press it when a CD is playing and the player goes into "Pause"; press "Play" again from pause, and the unit resumes playing the track. There are the usual buttons to go to the next or preceding track and skip ahead or back within the track that's playing. Another button will cycle the CD player's LED readout through elapsed time, time to end of the track and time to the end of the CD. There's a button marked "+10" that will forward the machine ten tracks. And there are Memory, A/B repeat and Repeat disc buttons.

Much of this I had to learn by trial and error as the operation manuals are, shall we say, terse. Each unit's has two pages of text (the left column, in English; the right, in Danish) and two pages of illustrations of the unit's front and back panels and a remote that is similar to, but not a duplicate of, the remote shipped with the units. That's it. There's no mention of the dual function of the "Play" button for the CD player, and none of the bass and treble boost/cut specs (see below), among other omissions. I'd recommend Trian and Thule examine the simple, comprehensive and effective user's guides offered by McIntosh, Linn and the late Carver Corporation, and follow their lead. Thule Audio may be hewing to the supposition that real men don't read instructions, but equipment of this quality and price deserves better manuals.

The back of the CD-150B holds a pair of male XLR connectors for the balanced output, a pair of RCA jacks for the unbalanced output and a lone RCA jack for the 75 ohm coax digital out. The back panel also hosts the main power switch and three-prong IEC AC jack. Thule says the mains switches of its equipment should be left on at all times, and the units put into standby when not in use. They claim that optimum sound from a cold start will take 2-3 hours, but only 15 minutes if from standby.

The CD-150B's major feature inside the box is the Sony Europe CD mechanism. The general build quality of the player is simply topnotch, with heavy circuit boards and minimal point-to-point wiring. This is a beautifully constructed piece of equipment.

I'm of the opinion that CD players sound pretty much the same if they're well designed. My Sony CDP-X303ES and the CD-150B sound very similar (i.e., very good) when run through the IA-60B in unbalanced mode (the only choice for the Sony) or the Majik. However, the CD-150B sounds slightly better in balanced mode, working with the IA-60B. The CD-150B provided excellent sound no matter what kind of music I threw at it. It operates smoothly and action of the CD tray is positive (it opens and closes at a good clip). It has all the features I use on a CD player but none of the more arcane. Granted, it's pricey, but the sound it serves up through its balanced output makes the unit an absolute treat to listen to. The Thule Audio CD-150B is a CD player I can recommend heartily, especially when paired with a matching balanced-input Thule amp.

Returning to the IA-60B, its back panel holds the female XLR connectors for the balanced input, four pairs of gold-plated RCA jacks for the primary high-level inputs (Aux, CD, Tuner & Tape 1) as well as in/ out pairs for Tape 2 and pre-out jacks. There is one pair of very heavy, gold plated five-way binding posts for the speakers, which makes bi-wiring slightly challenging but not impossible. And at the right of the back panel, there's the main power switch and a three-prong IEC AC jack. As with the CD-150B, it's recommended that power be applied at all times to the IA-60B and that the amp be left in standby when idle. Personally, I didn't detect any real difference in sound from either unit from a "warm" vs. a "cold" start, but left the unit in standby through nearly the entire review period.

The interior of the IA-60B contains a hefty toroidal power transformer and beefy PC boards, replete with high-quality surface-mount components, as well as a generous heat sink for the output section. There's no skimping at all in construction.

One unique aspect of the IA-60B is its very unusual bass and treble controls. Usually, bass and treble are variable in dB of boost or cut centered on fixed frequencies. Thule's controls pretty much turn that tradition inside out. Bass boost or cut is only 1.5 dB, at either 150 Hz or 300 Hz, while treble boost or cut is also 1.5 dB, centered on either 3 kHz or 1.5 kHz. The effect of these controls is very gentle--almost too gentle--but could be useful in certain situations. I found using either unnecessary.

The amplifier is rated at 60 watts per channel at 8 ohms or 90 watts per at 4 ohms. These output powers were more than adequate to drive either the 6-ohm NEAR 50 Mes or the 4-ohm ELAC 209-Jets to excruciating sound levels with no sense of strain or stress, except to my eardrums.

The IA-60B is a fully balanced design when the balanced input is in use. In other words, there's no comingling of signal reference and ground. This, Thule claims, decreases noise in the signal path. I did a lot of critical listening to the IA-60B driven by the CD-150B in unbalanced and balanced operation, and noted a slight difference in the sound between the two modes. The fully-balanced mode opened up the soundstage a little and provided more bottom-end punch. The units sounded really good together in either operating mode, but superior in balanced operation.

The amplifier also features a unique amplifier design that, according to Thule, effectively eliminates switching distortion, the kind that occurs in push-pull amplifiers when then sine wave crosses from positive to negative. It's Thule's attitude that this creates a "hard" sounding amp, especially in those with heavy global feedback. The Spirit line of amplifiers includes a proprietary error correction circuit that not only takes care of switching distortion, but also, improves the amplifier's damping factor by lowering its internal output impedance.

Compared to the Linn Majik, when the Thule IA-60B in balanced mode drives my NEAR 50 Me IIs, the midrange is similar--very sweet--but the bass is tighter and the highs, more open and crystalline. The sound of the two amps is more similar when driving the ELAC 209-Jets I recently reviewed. Overall, the IA-60B's overall sound is well balanced and very enjoyable.

I have a few quibbles beyond the owner's manual with the IA-60B. I wish it had a built-in phono preamp and two-way tape dubbing, but those features are less important to many other audiophiles than to me. And for my purposes, its bass and treble controls are little more than a conversation piece. But the amplifier sounds truly fine--that is, neutral--particularly in balanced mode. And isn't that the goal of this peculiar obsession we call hi-fi?

--TM