Advice / Input needed: Shindo Haut Brion repair

[Jceaves]

Well, it has been a long time since I started this thread, and I wanted to post an update to come full circle.

In December, following Jonathan Halpern's instructions, I removed the top of the Haut-Brion, carefully packed the transformers and tubes with bubble wrap, and then packaged and shipped the Haut-Brion to Tokyo for repair. And waited.

In March, it returned. I had only listened to the amp a couple of times prior to sending it to Shindo and I hadn't really "bonded" with it yet. However, having purchased it in October last year, I was a tad antsy to hear the darn thing.

I got the box home and lugged it to my listening room. I noticed that Shindo hadn't packed the tubes, but I removed the top anyway to check for bubble wrap around the transformers - there was none. I replaced the top and connected the amp to my Aurieges and my place-holder speakers (Rega Juras), and fired up the Shindos. Meanwhile, I put a Micheal Fremmer mastered Buddy Holly record on my newly finished slate Lenco turntable and dropped the Schick tonearm. When my Soundsmith ruby cantilever wood bodied Denon 103 touched down on the vinyl, I finally got the full dose of what I'd dreamt Shindo would serve to my ears and my heart. It was detailed, powerful, grooving, rich.

That is, for about 10 minutes.

Then out of the corner of my left eye as I changed songs, I saw a flash at the base of a rear tube in the Haut-Brion. Then the left channel went out. My blood chilled and I quickly I turned the amp off. Jonathan later informed me that my next move was a no-no. Apparently tube amps aren't like computers. You can't reboot them once something goes wrong - doing so just fries more parts. Blissfully ignorant of this, I turned it back on. No sound came from either channel. I repeated, and when it powered back on, I played a CD and I got sound, but it was weak in the left channel and the sound was muted - same as prior to the repair.

Forlorn, I contacted Jonathan and explained (to his disappointment) that I saw a flash and then lost the channel, and I explained (to his horror) that I power-cycled the amp a few times. He said it sounded like a tube had blown, but that I could have caused more damage by powering on and off. He needed to figure out what to do. A few days later, he e-mailed with instructions to send the amp to Arizona HiFi for evaluation.

By the way, Jonathan offered to pay for any subsequent repair, which I greatly appreciated. It was a pleasure to deal with Glen and Jim (the repair guru) at Arizona HiFi. Shindo shipped them replacement tubes which allowed them to troubleshoot the problem. Then Jim ordered additional parts once he got a handle on the damage.

To cut to the chase, Jim sent the amp back in May, nearly eight months after I purchased it. I purchased an old pair of Altec Model 14's in April hoping that these would be an economical, but good impedance and sensitivity fit for the Shindo system. After connecting everything, I finally sat down for a nice listen. The 14's did indeed pair well with the Shindo gear. They were great with my Sophia Electric 300B monos, and while it sounded rich and smooth with strong bass and great detail, I did feel that the upper midrange lacked the punch I wanted to hear with guitar and certain drums on more lively tracks. It lacked drive. I was pleased to realized that the Haut-Brion lacked for nothing. In fact it's upper midrange and lower treble was so powerful, that it exposed a certain harshness in the compression drivers on the 14's - a harshness that I should be able to eliminate by re-capping the old capacitors in the crossover. So all was well. Almost.

It didn't take long to hear a loud-ish hiss from the speakers when no music was on. I swapped out my solid state McCormack MAP-1 preamp for the Aurieges and the hiss disappeared. Holy cow! The McCormack / Haut-Brion combo sounded fantastic. So good, that I kind of forgot about the problem with the Aurieges and listened to this combo for a month. After living without the Haut for so long, can you blame me? Besides, I was kind of over dealing with repairs. However, eventually the reality settled in that the Aurieges sounded smoother with my speakers, and I missed my phono stage. So yesterday, I hooked the Aurieges back to the Sophia Electric amps and confirmed that the hiss was there.

So, I'll close this thread by starting a new one entitled "Advice/Input needed: Shindo Aurieges repair."

Actually, Jim thinks the problem is just a failing tube, and will be an easy fix.

I want to thank Jonathan Halpern for helping me through this morass. The Haut-Brion is a keeper!