Vintage RA 1474-II premp.

[riesling]

Hi Simon,
did I miss a picture of the inside? Does Jonathan see things that I don't ? I am curious now to judge the book not only by the cover ;-)

The vintage audio market can be a real field of mines. I bought a Grundig tube radio once, highly priced and in "perfect condition"... nearly everything was rotten inside. These are painful experiences but they build character, don't they ?
Hard times for an honest man... sings John Mellencamp

[Vinyljh]

Simon-

The faceplates are long out of stock. Good luck on the replica, I'm curious to see how that turns out. Making one off faceplates is very expensive.

Sorry to hear you gave up vinyl, to me its the only way to hear what a Shindo chain can truly do.

Collecting is certainly something I'm quite guilty of, however, I only collect things I can use and enjoy. As an avid watcher of Ebay auctions, I can tell you so much of the early gear from any maker is fried, modded, Schmitzed, Huxley'd and torched. Its necessary to service equipment, even the famous WE company would have done lots of repairs on the gear in the field if they still existed. I have seen WE broadcast consoles with holes hacked, transformers missing, tube sockets disconnected... Let the buyer beware is not a well known phrase for no reason. Many of the vintage pieces posted on this forum are a shell of what they once were. Its much more common than not. Japan is filled with techs and DIY types, often they buy something for its transformers and gut the circuit. Is it still a Shindo?

Jonathan

[SimonYVR]

J.

Like this "lost" WE131a currently for sale on the web... A sad thing.

S.

[riesling]

Simon,
would you mind showing us the inside of your green bottle millésime 1474 ? Just to fantasize on the taste... or for educational purposes

[SimonYVR]

As requested,







Simon

[riesling]

Grazie mille Simon e cin cin

at my longitude it isa good time to open a bottle of Cortese dell'Alto Monferrato...

[Hotzenplotz]

Simon,
your Shindo pre has been slaughtered, sorry to say this and sorry for this fine piece of Shindo history gear. This has happened to so many of those old stuff, its a shame.
He has taken out the circuit nearly completely and rebuild it to his own standards (which were fairly poor in regards to Shindo sans). This unit will no longer sound like a real Shindo, regardless of what hes left in the green box. It may sound like something else, but who knows? Its all in the art of Shindo to create sound of his own, circuit, components and bringing all together in a special blend. Those old gear is no longer available, all the old stuff is used up and worn out, the rest of it whats left can be bought on the net for skyroket prices. Its all over now, so hunt for the rest of it, dead or alive.
Btw, bringing it all together, but dont make any mistake in matching the components. Its one of the great secrets, behind the real gear itself ;-)

Best, Hotz

[SimonYVR]

Obviously this preamp has been significantly altered with the entire (literally all, every bit) of the MC circuitry being removed. The removal has been done in a very tidy way. Some newer appearing components have been added also in a very tidy way. Interestingly, there is a small dab of Shindo green paint on many of the original screws inside the preamp; for example, holding down circuit boards and several board componants as well as the screws holding the fascia to the case. But, I note several of the recent additions also feature the dabs of green paint. I believe that I have seen similar green dabs on other vintage Shindo pieces. The seller indicated that the preamplifier had been back to Shindo for modification. Although nothing proves this modification was done at Shindo, there has been a tidy hand at work here and there are other features that do not disprove that it was done at Shindo either. We all know that Ken Shindo was frequently modifiying equipment that came back into his shop for service, so who is to say?

[SimonYVR]

A quick look about the internet Google image files showns that many of the newly installed items in this RA1474-II preamplifier are similar to parts and layouts Shindo has been using in his current models. This doesn't prove anything, clearly, but would be consistent with the seller's comments that it was updated by Shindo. Perhaps all the doom and gloom comments are incorrect?

[Hotzenplotz]

Simon,
why not ask Shindo Labs whether they have done the mod? It will change the value of this unit significantly.
And yes, some things of this mod indicates towards Shindo Labs, but I wonder why they have done this to one of their classics? Was it the order of a client to modify to newer standards like silicium voltage regulation like they do in their current models?
Whoever has done it, there was intentions behind it. To do such a massive makeover to a classic Shindo unit at least for me its not a good thing. When someone wants a modern Shindo unit, he can buy one easily.
Best, Hotz