To Forgive Is Divine! A quick first impression and review of the Shindo Cortese

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by two dot

Jerome, Alberto,

I think that I can only add to what Alberto is saying.

From the first time I heard Shindo, I knew that it was the sound that I had been searching for. Period.

When I listen to music now, I am so completely immersed in the music... listening deeper than I ever have before.

And, I never want it to stop. I find myself listening more and more, later into the evening... and this has been going on for a year now and I still cannot get enough.

I don't think about cables, tweeks,or anything HI-FI, I just want to buy more music and listen more.

I also buy more old recordings, used records and the sound is just way beyond my expectations. There are NO recordings that I don't find pleasing on my system, in the past I have had systems that only sounded great with certain types of recordings. With the Shindo every piece of music I put on sounds wonderful.

I truly do not know how Ken Shindo does it. I feel that he is a master, and has some things figured out on a different level. His use of vintage parts along with modern technology seems to produce a sound like no other.

To me, it is like the best of both worlds... Vintage and New.

I hope that this helps.

Congrats Alberto.

Thanks Stephen !!
From what Alberto and you describe, I 'm sure of one thing : if I ever change my McIntosh system, I will try to listen to a Shindo set.
i just don't know how I could get one in France..... Damned RoHS !!

[two dot]

When there is a will... there is a way....

[Tonepub]

Having the sound you love is truly the key....

[cmalak]

Originally Posted by C220MC275

Thanks Stephen !!
From what Alberto and you describe, I 'm sure of one thing : if I ever change my McIntosh system, I will try to listen to a Shindo set.
i just don't know how I could get one in France..... Damned RoHS !!

Jerome...just remember that you will need fairly sensitive speakers (92dB +) preferably with flat impedance curve and with a nominal impedance of 6ohms min to have them work well with Shindo amplification. Everything I have read has been positive about Shindo but amp-speaker matching is key to getting the best out of them.

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by cmalak

Jerome...just remember that you will need fairly sensitive speakers (92dB +) preferably with flat impedance curve and with a nominal impedance of 6ohms min to have them work well with Shindo amplification. Everything I have read has been positive about Shindo but amp-speaker matching is key to getting the best out of them.

Cyril,
thanks for the advice.
But you know, I have no technical background in audio.
So these are my questions.
1 / Why should I need more than 3 W on my speakers, when 95 % of my listening shows 0.3 to 3 W on the 2301's ? I could easily give up the 5 % of listening at 30 W if I find a magic sound.
2 / The Tannoy Sandringham SE Alberto is using are only 90 dB efficiency for 8 ohms impedance, while the EB1i are 89 dB for a 4 ohms impedance.
3 / I'm really far from even thinking of selling my C1000 and the 2301's for 2 reasons :
- it will be very difficult to sell them in France
- I'm very HAPPY with what I have.
I'm just very curious by nature, and the experiences made by Stephen and Alberto amazes me at a high level. They both had more than 2x 500 W of power. Stephen used with the 501's the PMC EB1i, exactly like me and Dan. They are now using no more than 2 x 10 W and they seem more happy with what they get.
I just wish to hear the sound they describe and see if I could love it more than what I currently have.

There must be something special, or these guys are just getting more nuts than we are already on this forum !

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by two dot

When there is a will... there is a way....

So true Stephen ! but I don't feel comfortable buying used tube gear and I can't import a non RoHS appliance in France. It will be refused by the customs.
So I really don't see how I could do...

[f1 fan]

Originally Posted by Alberto

Jerome,

I would not say that the Cortese lacks bass power or slam -- quite the contrary. The bass on this amp is amazing (something that has been noted by all other reviewers) deep, round, tuneful and more realistic than you can imagine - and startlingly explosive and chest pounding when the music calls for it.

Remember how I used to say - I need tone controls because some recordings sound too thin - or low-volume listening is not satisfying without loudness because it sounds too thin? With the Cortese, I get all the bass I desire and it's of the highest, most tuneful quality - not the sloppy bass one tends to associate with some SET tube amps. That it can deliver this bass with 10+10W was a huge surprise to me. I had read about it, but I had a hard time fully believing it. I am a believer now.

As far as excitement and getting bored; I can't speak for what excites or bores you, but yesterday I had the longest listening session in years (probably ever) - I played from ~10AM to ~10PM with short breaks for lunch and dinner -- and it was a glorious sunny day in the San Francisco Bay ... my wife thought I was crazy. I can't imagine ever being bored by this kind of sound. The excitement should come from the music - not the system. A musical system gets out of the way and lets you focus on the music without worrying about the sound (too harsh, too thin, etc.) and that's what I am finally getting and to an extent that I had not thought possible.

In summary:

Bass slam and impact: check and check!
Excitement: check!
Bored: Not in this lifetime :-).

Alberto

Alberto...sounds like you have found the delicious and musical sound of yet another Shindo amp. Remember the further you move up the Shindo line the better it gets. Congrats my friend and enjoy the music with those wonderful tubes.

Dave

[piolaxo]

Alberto, the weather in the bay area was so good yesterday that the sound of your new Shindo amp must be so contagious (sorry, delicious!) that you ended up all day in. I'm also in the camp that not all the recordings sound 100% right and there has to be some way to help for that and/or the room acoustics. The fact that your new Shino amp takes care of the recordings in some way by fact of being forgiving is very rewarding. From previous posts I remember that you like Rush a little bit, so to get to hear some of those famous 80s recordings with your new gear must be addictive.

Do you know how many hours the amp had on it before you bought it? I'm curious how it'll break in. And don't forget some new cool pictuers...! Congratulations.

Sal

[Alberto]

Originally Posted by piolaxo

Alberto, the weather in the bay area was so good yesterday that the sound of your new Shindo amp must be so contagious (sorry, delicious!) that you ended up all day in. I'm also in the camp that not all the recordings sound 100% right and there has to be some way to help for that and/or the room acoustics. The fact that your new Shino amp takes care of the recordings in some way by fact of being forgiving is very rewarding. From previous posts I remember that you like Rush a little bit, so to get to hear some of those famous 80s recordings with your new gear must be addictive.

Do you know how many hours the amp had on it before you bought it? I'm curious how it'll break in. And don't forget some new cool pictuers...! Congratulations.

Sal

About the weather - my wife and I spent all day Saturday outside (SF and dinner in Sausalito) so I didn't feel like a 100% audio geek for staying home on Sunday .

I haven't yet listened to Rush, but I've been going through my catalog of 80s CDs and LPs and the Cortese keeps amazing me with its treatment of the bass and treble.

I have NO idea how one can have an audio circuit that tames that terrible 80s CD treble without destroying the upper octaves, but it must have a lot to do with the SET architecture. My other SET (the Bottlehead) is (was) my amp of last resort for really harsh and thin recordings.

I am making a semi-educated wild guess here, but I have a feeling that push-pull circuits aggravate (or at least don't ameliorate) certain kinds of treble harshness, while SET does.

I base this guess on my experience as an electric guitar player. My SET amp (Emery Sound) can take the worst of transistor fuzz pedals and make it sound musical and kind-a smooth. A push-pull tube amp help but much less. A transistor amp make fuzz sound like fingers on a chalkboard to my ears.

There is a small price to pay for this smoothness, some sound "effects" based mostly on upper octaves are not as vivid as they are with push-pull amps. On the other hand, anything in the midrange sounds stunningly realistic. I'll give you a small, but telling, example:

Last night - with the lights off - I was listening to Pink Floyd's Ummagumma which, very un-Pink-Floyd-like, does not sound great (but I really like the music.) Aside from the fact that I could now play it without tone controls (yay!) when I was listening to "Careful With That Axe Eugene" the blood curdling scream in the middle of the song really startled me. I knew it was coming, I knew when it was coming, I knew what it sounded like since I listened to the track countless times. But on the Cortese it sounded so realistic that the sound bypassed my brain's outer cortex and went straight for my reptilian brain - I got a rush of adrenaline and my heart-rate accelerated. I kid you not. The scream "appeared" in the middle of the sound stage.

The thin and harsh sound is also helped by the very rich and tuneful bass.

In summary, great bass, amazing midrange (like most SETs) and very forgiving treble. So forgiving in fact, that I am going to experiment with more neutral interconnects and speaker cables - something I always avoided due to my hearing sensitivity in the treble.

Alberto

[f1 fan]

Originally Posted by Alberto

About the weather - my wife and I spent all day Saturday outside (SF and dinner in Sausalito) so I didn't feel like a 100% audio geek for staying home on Sunday .

I haven't yet listened to Rush, but I've been going through my catalog of 80s CDs and LPs and the Cortese keeps amazing me with its treatment of the bass and treble.

I have NO idea how one can have an audio circuit that tames that terrible 80s CD treble without destroying the upper octaves, but it must have a lot to do with the SET architecture. My other SET (the Bottlehead) is (was) my amp of last resort for really harsh and thin recordings.

I am making a semi-educated wild guess here, but I have a feeling that push-pull circuits aggravate (or at least don't ameliorate) certain kinds of treble harshness, while SET does.

I base this guess on my experience as an electric guitar player. My SET amp (Emery Sound) can take the worst of transistor fuzz pedals and make it sound musical and kind-a smooth. A push-pull tube amp help but much less. A transistor amp make fuzz sound like fingers on a chalkboard to my ears.

There is a small price to pay for this smoothness, some sound "effects" based mostly on upper octaves are not as vivid as they are with push-pull amps. On the other hand, anything in the midrange sounds stunningly realistic. I'll give you a small, but telling, example:

Last night - with the lights off - I was listening to Pink Floyd's Ummagumma which, very un-Pink-Floyd-like, does not sound great (but I really like the music.) Aside from the fact that I could now play it without tone controls (yay!) when I was listening to "Careful With That Axe Eugene" the blood curdling scream in the middle of the song really startled me. I knew it was coming, I knew when it was coming, I knew what it sounded like since I listened to the track countless times. But on the Cortese it sounded so realistic that the sound bypassed my brain's outer cortex and went straight for my reptilian brain - I got a rush of adrenaline and my heart-rate accelerated. I kid you not. The scream "appeared" in the middle of the sound stage.

The thin and harsh sound is also helped by the very rich and tuneful bass.

In summary, great bass, amazing midrange (like most SETs) and very forgiving treble. So forgiving in fact, that I am going to experiment with more neutral interconnects and speaker cables - something I always avoided due to my hearing sensitivity in the treble.

Alberto

Alberto...tell Matt you would like to try the Shindo interconnects and Auditorium 23 speaker cables. They're the best for the equipment. I'm sure Stephen will agree.

Dave

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