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equipment report Thule Audio Spirit IA350B Integrated Amplifier and Space DVA250B DVD/CD Player A report on two sweet performers from Denmark. Sallie Reynolds In the past two decades, a slow evolution has taken place in audio, as top-notch designers come more and more to understand the nature of the beasts they are working with. Today it is not hard to put together a system that is clean and musical, and extremely well built, for a moderate price. My reference system—modest by reviewer standards—retails for about $13,000. It is cleaner, clearer, more extended at the frequency extremes, more exciting—more musical—than one costing three times that in the mid- 1980s. It is also a reviewer’s system. That is, it accommodates changes. Different technologies in a plethora of review gear pass through it with grace and accuracy, so that most visitors can strut their various stuffs. It is forgiving in many ways—placement of speakers, power capabilities, “system matching,” and the like—and a strict taskmaster in others. It suffers frequency imbalances not at all, shows up badly recorded CDs, and shudders at “hi-fi” sizzle and boom. The weak point in the system now is the room. Since I live in it, I hesitate to make it a laboratory of acoustic treatment devices. (Of course, most consumers probably have that same hesitation, and will be happy to learn that some speaker designs interact less with room resonances than others.) This is not entirely the system I might buy for pure listening pleasure, although I love its sound. Buying for pleasure, I might opt for a pinch more sweetness (forgiving of bad digital recordings). A point that brings me to the present items—the Danish Thule (pronounced “toola”) Spirit IA350B 2- /5-channel integrated amplifier and Space DVA250B DVD/CD player, both of which are truly sweet, in that word’s best possible light. They offer, together and apart, extended frequency response, rich bass, subtle and startlingly transparent midranges, and shimmering beautiful highs. They are simple to use, good looking, reasonable in price. The amp goes for $4000, the player for $2200. I could be quite happy with them as permanent lodgers in my system, and they would lower that system considerably in price (with Spendor S8e loudspeakers at $3000, and Nordost Blue Heaven cabling at about $1000 in my configuration, the total would drop to around $11,000). The Thules are simple black boxes that make musical magic. If you pair them with good speakers and cables, you’ll have a fine system that needs no subwoofer, no powerline conditioner, and no fancy resonance-control feet or other tweaks. The silvery high harmonics touched the ears like eldritch chimes. So much for the verdict. Now the evidence. With the Thule player in a system based on Musical Fidelity’s kW500 integrated, Vienna Acoustics’ Mozart Grand loudspeakers, and REL’s 108Q subwoofer, the luscious midrange opened like a flower. I had not expected that, since that musical range was already quite wonderful. But the added clarities of the Thule made lyrics, for example, come through with new intelligibility; violins had added rosiny bite; mid-tones in the gamelan shimmered and rang. All this on Lou Harrison’s WWW.THEABSOLUTESOUND.COM 101
equipment report Gamelan Music [Music Masters Classic]. The first cut, “Philemon and Baukis,” begins with a soft figure on the liquid xylophone-sounding part of the gamelan (an orchestra of wonderful percussivetype Indonesian instruments), touched with a deep bell tone. A few seconds later, the violin softly comes in with a melodic theme, the xylophone figure ongoing behind it, and that soft, yet deep and reverberant “bong” of the bell or gong an occasional reminder of the Dark. About ten years ago, when I got this CD, a system had to be extraordinary (and expensive) to get the subtleties of the soft tones and the drama of the depths, at once. The gong was swallowed up if you played the piece at a low enough level to get the delicious nuances of the soft themes, so you turned up the volume. But even just a little of that made the gong overwhelm that soft little figure. And when the full gamelan orchestra came in about two minutes further on, you ran for the volume knob. (In those days, a remote’s circuitry was thought to contaminate the purity of high-end sound.) Today, illustrating my theme that audio designers have solved many old problems, I’ve heard a number of systems that get this piece dynamically right, or nearly so. On the Thule player, in the first configuration (with the MF amp and Vienna Acoustics speakers subwoofed), the opening subtleties were lovely, and the low gong haunting yet clean and shapely, receding slowly into silence while the music swirled on around it. The remaining pieces on this recording have always been difficult for me. Harrison uses chorus and solo voices in many of the cuts, and I never really liked them. The harmonies bordered on harsh, and the songs slipped so far into atonality they lost me. But that Thule clarity in the midrange brought out the lyrics and some subtle vocal tones. I found myself entranced. Also there was sparkling air and light among the separate instruments of the gamelan. Those elements I’d found harsh now revealed subtle musical rapprochements. The swelling and decay of the various gamelan tones became sheer enchantment. The room filled with the quick onset then slow fade of boom, under—not swimming over— the rest, and the silvery high harmonics touched the ears like eldritch chimes. All good equipment, in my experience, brings out different elements of a good recording. If the gear really is basically well designed, choosing becomes a matter of musical and sonic taste and system capabilities. These are areas where the listener will make his choices. An old-time engineer said to me recently that he couldn’t understand how we reviewers continue to hear differences in digital equipment, when in theory no differences can exist. Perhaps he’s right, in theory. But in truth, I hear differences. And so do other reviewers. We’re not making this up, you know, as Anna Russell once hilariously said. Differences subtle and not so exist. Where they come from, if theory denies them, I couldn’t begin to say. But if you don’t believe me, listen to the clarity in the voice range with the Thule player. This is real, because real is what is in the ears. Next I hooked up my reference Spendor S8e, taking out the subwoofer too, and listened again to the whole recording. The Spendors don’t need a subwoofer (in theory, they go no lower than the Viennas, but see “theory” above). You will feel, not hear a 16–20Hz note; you will get good, clean, solid bass that maintains its character throughout—no muffling or fattening. The overall fabric SPECIFICATIONS IA350B Integrated Amplifier Power output: Two channels x 350 watts/ five channels x 120 Watts, at 8 ohms Inputs: Four line-level stereo inputs (via RCA jacks), one balanced stereo input (via XLR connectors), one 6-channel multichannel input (via RCA jacks) Outputs: One stereo tape output (via RCA jacks), one stereo preamp output (via RCA jacks), two subwoofer outputs (via RCA jacks), five speaker taps (via WBT binding posts) Dimensions: 16.5" x 4.7" x 14.75" Weight: 46.3 lbs. DVD250B DVD/CD Player Formats: MP3, HDCD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, CD-DA, VCD, SVCD, DVD-Video and DVD-Audio Dimensions: 16.5" x 3.5" x 11.8" Weight: 14.3 lbs. ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT Spendor S8e and Vienna Acoustics Mozart Grand loudspeakers; Musical Fidelity k500 integrated amplifier and A5 CD player; Nordost Blue Heaven cabling WWW.THEABSOLUTESOUND.COM 103
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IN THIS ISSUE ISSUE 161 ■ APRIL/M
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L E T T E R S Best Article Ever As
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L E T T E R S mend enough the posit
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L E T T E R S the initial imprint o
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Page 16 and 17: A HIGHER HIGH END 2006 CONSUMER ELE
Page 18 and 19: CES2006 REPORT LOUDSPEAKERS $4000-$
Page 20 and 21: CES2006 REPORT the current 988 and
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Page 26 and 27: CES2006 REPORT expensive SG2 (about
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Page 32 and 33: CES2006 REPORT user not only to do
Page 34 and 35: CES2006 REPORT phono preamp ($7300)
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Page 40 and 41: CES2006 REPORT E.A.R. Martin Miles
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