Shindo Monbrison !

[Jerome W]

Hi guys,
Just a few words about a nice Monbrison that I just got. This is the old version, without the window in the front plate.

In my living room system I wanted to downgrade and sold a few months ago my CJ Premier 17LS, to use my dac as a preamp. ( The AMR DP777 has an inboard preamp for digital sources and 2 analog inputs ).
I knew that I would have to give up some musicality. The beginning was tough. I really missed the 17. The sound was too thin, without the texture and rich tonality of the 17. But I finally got used to it.
Until I found this Monbrison on the used market.
I could not resist the temptation.

The Monbrison drives a Nagra MSA power amp. To the Rega RS10 speakers.
Here is a pic of the room before getting the Monbrison :


I am extremely happy with the sound. This preamp is more extraverted than the mighty Giscours in my main system. But keeps an incredible insight into the music.
Only Shindo owners can understand what we mean when we say that nothing can replace a Shindo preamplifier. With the right power amp, they make decent systems sounding like million dollars ones.
The only problem is the gain. Really high. Much more than my Giscours. I did not expect that. Although I set the MSA at the 2V sensitivity, I really do not have a wide run of the Monbrison volume control. I could live with that anyway.
A power amp with a real adjustable gain is way better for some Shindo preamps.