Thule Audio?

My brother in law purchased a used Thule integrated amp from a private party. The preamp portion of the amp had a really bad hum that developed after using it for more than a few minutes. (The scumbag seller would not give him back his money for this defective item. The buyer used it as a power amp only, so he said he never noticed the problem, but that it must have been shipping damage. Yeah, right! Needless to say, there was no way UPS was going to cough up for the repair bill, when the unit and the packaging had no signs of damage.)
Anyway, trying to get service for the Thule (here in the U.S. at least), turned into a nightmare. Luckily it had inputs for by-passing the preamp, which allowed him to use the integrated amp as a power amp only. Of course this forced him to buy a used preamp to go with it.

Anyway, the sound is decent for its price point, and you typically get a good amount of power for the money. But if it were me, I would pass.

My two cents worth anyway.

Kurt, thanks for your thoughts. I noticed that there is a Thule CDP listed that has a locking issue as well - I wonder if QC is an issue???

I still plan to listen to hear for myself.

Jh2os:

I own a Thule IA60bSE integrated amp (balanced version) that I purchased used on Agon about a year ago. It is a very good unit in my opinion, with extremely excellent detail, PRAT and bass. I found it very enjoyable to listen to. I was frequently impressed by its ability to resolve the inividual words in songs. On quite a few instances I found myself thinking "so thats what's being said" on songs that I had heard many times before. The only real downside was that I thought it a bit underpowered (75 WPC on my SE version) for my tastes. My son is using it now in his system and he is also very satisfied with its performance (even though he is a tube-sound man). So, overall on a 1 to 10 scale I would rate it an 8.5 in the under $1,000 (used) catagory. At the <$700 price these have been selling for used on Agon, I think they are a real bargain. BTW - my Thule only has preamp out - no preamp ins. I tried the preamp out, but found the sound to be nothing special. Hope this helps. Feel free to email me with any specific questions I might help you with.

Thule is a rather unexciting product with horrendous resale value. If you buy one, be ready to own it for ever or take a bath selling it.

many reliability issues, very disappointed in the past, maybe they improved.

I have a model 100 CDP. It has a Phillips drive and uses the Burr browns which was great for its time. When I bought it I also bought a Sony 770 DVD/CD player. It was their best player at the time. The sound quality between the 2 units on CDP was not subtle. Considering the Thule retailed at $1000 and the Sony at $1200, I thought it would be closer. The Thule sounded so much better.

I just replaced the Thule with a modded Phillips. The Great Sony build quality showed itself again when the DVD stopped working. That’s why I got the Phillips. The Phillips drive in the Thule works great. I demoed, in my home, a modded Benchmark DAC that was phenomenal with the Thule. The Thule is in the basement.

The resale is low on these, which is great for someone who needs some performance with out a premium.

Thanks for the responses guys, I appreciate them! I am really between the Thule DVD150B and IA525B or the Krell showcase DVD and kav400xi for my 2-box dual purpose (music/HT) 2-channel set-up. I would love to be able to buy the Thule used, but both of the 2-channel pieces that interest me are special order, so I doubt they are going to come up used. The low resale value does concern me, and if I am not 'wowed' by their performance and think I can live happily with them for 5+ years I will probably go another direction. Thanks again!