Originally Posted by kev313 (Post 371638)

Agree on the positioning. That said, the idea that anyone would listen to a entire system composed of hand selected components through an app on a piece of consumer electronics is absurd. I mean, yeah, check and see if it's broken, but don't let it inform your listening. It's like going to an art museum and spending your time reading the Wikipedia for every piece.

If you're listening for effects, yes, Burmester might do you "better". Full disclosure, I tend to agree with Peter Q of ANUK...German hifi sounds evil. If you're listening to your Shindo that way, you are kind of missing the beauty of Shindo. I recommend that the new owner read Jules's review of that Monbrison in 6moons.

Originally Posted by C220MC275

Highly agreed on the general post, but I do not think that Stephen in particular missed the beauty of Shindo at all....
My belief : he would just need to live with such a system and after a week he would probably not be concerned at all by what happens below 50Hz....:yes:

Originally Posted by C220MC275 (Post 371513)

Thanks Stephen. Nice write up !
I would have loved to see a pic of the whole system.
I am not sure if I agree with the lack of extreme bass and light inability to deliver very heavy dynamics of SET amps. I have heard 5W SET amps which were sounding incredible on the adequate speakers ( Audio Note and Verdier 300B ).
Shindo's more powerful PP amps allow pairing with much more speakers of various impedances / sensitivity but of course choice is more limited than with big tube or SS amps. And yes, they sound magic too.
The connection with the music with Shindo gear is unique.
It would be very interesting to try this Monbrison in your home and see what it does compared to your CJ preamp.
My belief : conventional companies cannot spend the time and efforts Shindo did while selecting components by ear. Most of the time, the big companies select products based on tech spec and reliability. Not sound.
So the difference in sound that you get between Shindo and most brands is not small. It is huge.
Shindo does not sound like anything else and yet, it is not "warm" or colored in any way.
Wether you like it or not is an other story.
But my guess was that you would feel this "magic".

Sent from my iPhone using A.Aficionado

Originally Posted by Wino (Post 371534)

Hi all, I'd like to clear up a few points about my system under review, by my friend Stephen-

The Lingolab 'the Bench', in case an expert might be confused by the pic, is a custom, one-off- Basically, the usual, + custom doors to contrast the speakers-

The speakers are custom one-off Shindo Latours- They have Altec Valencia grills, 416-8A & 806-8A drivers- The cabinets, wiring and the crossover, are all made by Shindo- The crossover is made ready for field coil (w/ a power plug in the rear, in Shindo green) (same as the current Latour/Lafite), however is not at this time- The Altecs were procured by and approved by 'the Master'-

The Speaker cables as stated, are Auditorium 23 (A23 LS), however all interconnects are Shindo silver & the PCs are all Shindo upgrade models (black) (only made for a short time)-

As far as the dynamics, I'll leave the comments to personal thoughts, however if there are shortcomings, it's not because of 8 watts (the speakers are 100db efficient)- + The volume on the Monbrison is only at about 8:00, AKA, barely turned up- Sunday we will be messing w/ the set up a bit more, fwiw, + one of Stephen's TTs-

My Wavac will be arriving on Tue to compare, however we're concerned it might be too powerful w/ 55w !

DonBattles/Cellindo- The Monbrison was just on 'holiday' at 'home' in Japan, and received whatever groovy stuff the 'Dr' ordered, to bring it up to date, so all systems are a-ok, including the tubes- + I have tons of NOS tubes in case, including back up NOS WE 300Bs for the Lafons-

Also, FWIW, the not yet specifically mentioned Lafons (in the review), are the earlier models that originally came w/ and were voiced w/ WE 300Bs, not the Cetrons, that were used a little later-

Ok, that's it for now, the boys will be here in 11 hrs !

I'm sure there will be excellent follow ups coming-

David

Originally Posted by kev313 (Post 371638)

Agree on the positioning. That said, the idea that anyone would listen to a entire system composed of hand selected components through an app on a piece of consumer electronics is absurd. I mean, yeah, check and see if it's broken, but don't let it inform your listening. It's like going to an art museum and spending your time reading the Wikipedia for every piece.

Originally Posted by Puma Cat (Post 371649)

Stay tuned, gang!

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Just be clear here, there was no listening to anything through an app on a consumer-electronics device. My friend Gregory had simply downloaded a spectrum analyzer on his iPhone and showed me what the system was doing in the room. I'll bring my real test equipment over today and we will get a real in room frequency response assessment with the precision of plus +/- 0.2 of a decibel to check speaker set up and positioning. Test equipment or no, that's not going to stop us listening to a wide selection real music with our ears. And none of that audiophile-y crap you hear at audio shows.

And, most importantly, enjoying the music.

Originally Posted by C220MC275 (Post 371640)

Highly agreed on the general post, but I do not think that Stephen in particular missed the beauty of Shindo at all....
My belief : he would just need to live with such a system and after a week he would probably not be concerned at all by what happens below 50Hz....:yes:

Originally Posted by kev313 (Post 371664)

I predict that the measurement will be..."All life is suffering." Fortunately you have the path right in front of you. As you said, all you have go do is sit back and listen to enjoy. Most importantly, have fun and enjoy the company.