Description
I just took this baby out of my system! It sounds Astounding! Although is has 5.1 channels for video, I use it as an Audiophile grade Stereo pre-amp because of the startling intimacy of my music, natural, crystal clear, with a wide sound stage and pin-point localization of voices and instruments. You hear the music as the musicians heard it, and not the limitations of the electronics. I believe this sold for around $1,400 new. I have a third party remote that controls volume and inputs, but does not have Power on/off function. It has Toslink and Digital Audio inputs with XLR outputs along with analog RCA outputs. I have been Very Happy with this pre-amp. It sounds wonderful! I just need to move on to audition the other audiophile gear I own, so you get the advantage of my exploration with a wonderful Audio/Video pre-amp/Processor of your own. Look for my Class A Yamaha M40 power amp or my Hafler dh-220 power amp to match with this, or go 5.1 channel with great confidence! The Shipping cost reflects how Heavy and SOLID this unit is. I work hard to maintain my perfect 100% customer feedback. I will package your SPACE PR250B with Great Care so you can hear what I hear! On line Review: Before we go any further, this processor does not support HD audio formats via HDMI or have 5.1 analogue bypass. Being a processor, it also does not include any power amplification. If you really need any of those, stop reading now. Now, onto the good stuff. This is a high-end legacy processor from the now deceased Danish manufacturer Thule. When new, I believe that they retailed for going on for 1800. The unit is fully working and as can be seen, is a lot more classy looking that most of the stuff on the market. Im guessing that the closest equivalent competitor to this unit would be something like the Meridian 565. Its best to think of it as three solutions all married rather well into a single box, i.e. - brilliant two channel pre-amp utilising high quality PSUs (over 20 if I remember correctly), lovely volume control, and a set of RCA or fully balanced inputs and outputs that completely bypass all of the AV circuits - high quality stereo capable DAC (Ill come back to that shortly) - high quality AV processing on DPL, DD and DTS. Note that this amp completely eschews the usual high street manufacturers naff modes such as concert (for which read, in the concert hall bogs). All you get is DPL, DD and DTS, but its done very well. Connection wise, it has seven analogue stereo inputs (one of which is balanced), three toslink optical inputs and 5 coaxial SPDIF inputs. Outputs include balanced outputs for front stereo speakers, 6.2 channel RCA phono (2 fronts, 2 rears, 2 centres and 2 subs). It does also support video input and output via composite and s-vid, but in these days of HDMI, I assume that not many people will be actually using these. Personally I only used a video output to assist with the menu setup. As this amp doesnt have a whole bunch of pointless settings, the menu is actually very straightforward to use, and for anyone who collects, Ill walk them through the process (doesnt take long). So, onto what its like. For the money, bloody brilliant. I bought this to replace a Yamaha E800, which is well thought of on these forums. Frankly, the Thule walked all over the Yam and spat it out the other side. I was shocked at how much better the Thule was. Once Id settled in to using it, couldnt resist comparing my SB+ (SB+ via analogue into the Thule vs the Thule as a DAC being driven by the digital output on the SB+). I actually slightly preferred the Thule as a DAC. Wasnt much in it, more personal preference than anything, but IMO it was slightly more natural in its presentation style. More recently, I took along the Thule to get a feel for how good some of the Linn DS streamers were. IMO whilst the Akurate was definitely better (as it should be costing 4k). However the Thule was VERY similar overall to the Majik. Being in mind that the Majik costs a cool 2k and you start to get a feel for how well I regard what is an AV processor. For films, Ive used the Thule on the backend of a DVD player, Samsung BD player (via coax digital) and more recently a PS3 (via optical). No the Thule cant process HDMI signals, but is still made all of those sound brilliant. To cover your question about so if its so good, whys its going?. As one of the statistics of the economy, Im in the process of simplifying a number of my areas of interest. Done my camera and watches. Time to do the stereo unfortunately. Heres the official specs: - Precision volume control with 0.5dB adjustment step and 100dB range - Direct key access to channel trim adjustments with 0.5dB adjustment step - Delay adjustment for center, surround left and surround right channels - Direct key access to input selection - Most inputs can be assigned as analogue, electrical digital or optical - Sensitivity for analogue inputs to DSP can be adjusted for improved dynamic range - S-video and composite video switching with 70MHz bandwidth - Video encoder with On Screen Display (OSD), which is automatically bypassed when not used - Flexible speaker settings with extensive bass management - Adjustable crossover frequency (60 120Hz) for bass management - Dynamic range compression e.g. for improved performance in noisy environments - New 56362 Motorola DSP with 100 MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) - Upgradable design for coming sound formats - 8 pcs. Burr Brown 24bit/96kHz D/A converters - True differential D/A conversion in Left and Right channels for optimal performance with 24bit/96kHz stereo sound from DVD audio discs. - Pure analogue input with true balanced pure analogue signal path - 32 96 kHz PCM stereo - Dolby Pro Logic decoding - Dolby Digital decoding with auto detection - DTS decoding with auto detection
Live search