Best Shindo amp to pair with Orangutans?
 

As I dream about my climb up the Shindo ladder, I ask for opinions about amp/speaker pairings. Right now I seem to be leaning towards Oarangutans as my next choice in speakers (finances willing). What Shindo amp would be the best pairing with the O/96's that wouldn't involve having to dip into my kids college fund? I listen mainly to jazz but when the pals come over I will want to
rock the house. My other thought for speakers is Tannoy Kensingtons. Which amp would be best with them?

It would be great if John Devore would post here. He does (or used to) at other forums.

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Hey Cucumber, when are we going to start the B.C. chapter of the AA Shindo club?

We need to. I have made some system changes. Sold my mc275 an bought a montille. Selling my ushers and bought Devore super 8's!

Super 8's with a Montille! I'd love to hear that.
I had a pair of MC275's before the Shindo, I loved them but Shindo is def a step up.:music:

FWIW, I've heard both the F2A and 300B tubes on Orangutans in my home. The F2A was Shindo and the 300B was Sophia Electric. Putting aside any Shindo vs Sophia arguments, the 2 tube types were notably different on the O96's, but both sounded great!

We ran the F2A's through paces with Jazz, Rock, Vocal, Jazz Vocal, and some classical! They all sounded great with the O96's and the F2A (Cortese). I would have been happy if the F2A's were mine. However, the Sophia 300B's are mine, and that's what I listen to regularly. I, personally, like the 300B sound. I think Sophia does a nice job. I would not hesitate to recommend them, especially given their price point and one's ability to tweak the sound with NOS tubes! A definite product to consider.

So what's my point? Dirtbag, I think you'll be happy with whatever tube amp you use and can afford. So I would not recommend breaking the bank or raiding the college funds for a notably more expensive amp. If you can get to the O96's, then I'm confident now in saying you will love them. Their ability to mate so well with solid tube designs is awesome, and they sound great. Candidly, I rarely crank my volume up past 12, as the's speakers really fill the room (roughly 44'x18') easily! And that's running 8-9 watts 300B's. I think that's cool, too!

Just my 2 cents!

So if you can only afford the Cortese F2A, I'm confident you'll be happy. And, dare I say this, if you end up with a non-shindo amp, I still think you'll be happy. It may keep you sane, married, and safe from spousal abuse, too..., that is, until you can properly go crazy with Shindo!

The simple answer is any of the Shindo amps work great. Not to be too simplistic about it, but it will depend on your room size and ultimately, your budget - of course the flavor of the amp is important. Shindo amps are very tube centric, utilizing unique circuits developed by Shindo to bring out the best in each tube.

The rugged little powerhouse, Montille, sounds fantastic, as a starting point. Since you already own this amp, you are set, for now.

Considering the high efficiency of the O/96, a logical step for my Montille customers is the Cortese F2a (a pair of Corton-Charlemagne EL34 mono amps is beautiful on the O/96, as well.)

Ultimately, as you move up in the amps, like the preamps, sound becomes further refined.

-Matt

Let me quickly echo Matt's point about the Shindo Cortese, as I think it sounded great with the O96's. I would HAPPILY own one in my system!

So the Cortese seems the logical choice.
Franklin, your room seems larger than mine and you have no problem filling the room with the O's. What about positioning? Where do the O's seem the happiest? Long wall, short wall. away from the corners or closer? Have you been able to try different positions?

DB,


Yes, I think you are right in saying that the Cortese may be the most logical choice, given all factors – especially price. But I have considered the EL34 Push-Pull amps, too. That said, I currently prefer the sound of the 300B’s with the O96’s. That tube just seems like a match made in heaven. And I can only imagine how they might sound with the Shindo 300B or other Western Electric 300B designs. However, I simply can’t make that type of a leap into Shindo at this time.

Now, to the speakers…

The O96’s absolutely “fill the room” for me. And while it may be large, I’ve had no trouble filling it. But what is “filling it” may be different for you. So to better explain, to get to what I might call cranking concert levels (95db+), I need to throttle up the pre-amp to about 12 o’clock. But I don’t typically listen to music that loudly. In fact, FWIW, I find that the O’s have helped me enjoy listening at more comfortable levels, which is where I like to listen! Somewhere in the 70-80 range suits me most days, and occasionally in the 80-90.

Now to room layout...

The room is laid out using the short wall for speaker placement. The listening area is in the 1st 40% of the room. One advantage the longer room configuration is that I don’t get any noticeable distortion from the rear wall.

As for speaker positioning, this has been one of the more vexing challenges for me since jumping in to Hi-Fi. Part of that is due to some recent system changes, namely changes in the 5U4G and 6SN7 tubes on my 300B mono blocks. This has required me to wait a little longer to see how the tubes sounded as they broke-in. These replacement tubes have brought a definite darkness and development of the lower end that was not present for me before. So I’ve found myself continually tweaking placement, as the tubes have broken-in. As a result, what sounded great early on has changed, as the tubes settled in.

I would also note that I tend to follow Jim Smith’s How to get Better Sound advice with speaker positioning. As such, I’ve tried to work with the triangle formula that he recommends as a starting point. But I’ve had to move things around much more than I did with my Zu Essence, and my percentage placements on the triangle are definitely different than they were with the Zu.

So in my room, with my “air,” and a slightly vaulted ceiling, I currently find that these speakers like to sit further off the wall and away from the corners. This may all change once I get the Vosne Romanee in next month. But my current ideal arrangement has these speakers positioned at about ~4’ from the back wall and easily ~6’ from the corners (diagonally speaking). These are rough estimates. My listening area is also roughly 10-12’ away from the speakers. Again, these are rough calculations.

Hope this helps somehow.

Now how about you? What are you doing and how do you have yours laid out.