shindo aurieges ....

> I do not understand how or why a number of audiophiles
> prioritize extreme detail and clarity over musicality and tone.

Some prioritize tone and musicality over detail and clarity. Some do it the other way around.

But worse, some want both -- which I think is difficult to achieve and expensive. As if it wasn't expensive enough already.

I believe that if you called John Devore he would give a big thumbs up to tubes and Leben and Shindo in particular.

I have had a few correspondences with Mr. Devore and he definitely loves Shindo but there are other amps that he likes too. I am using shindo apetite with silverbacks and the sound is phenomenal but would be better with some more power. For whatever reason, Shindo seems to be a great fit with Devore speakers.

Mikirob,

I'm not sure if my comments led you to that conclusion, but extreme detail over tone certainly doesn't describe my listening priorities.

The Auriegies is definitely a beautiful piece and I spent many a night seduced by it. Especially when I used to have it paired to my 845 set monos.

That said, some of its lore is hype and there are other pieces with similarly wonderful tone that have greater transparency and pull the listener in without being quite as colored. I like a colored sound for certain listening, but its generally not versatile.

For the record I hate sterile, super transparent audio pile brag rigs.

I demo'd DeVores in 2008 at Sound by Singer with a solid sate amp and a digital source and just didn't understand all the hype. Mind you, I had just demo'd some Sehring speakers and thought the Sehrings were far better for less money. In any case, I thought the DeVores sounded pretty unforgiving with solid state amplification and a digital source. If DeVore voiced his speakers with a warm tube preamp and amp, I would certainly lean towards buying the same amp.

It is very unlikely DeVore gets paid by Shindo (although DeVore started out as a salesperson at Sound by Singer, which is a black mark against him in my book.). I think he just caught on early to the move towards efficient speakers and low powered tube amps, and Shindo has a cult following in that area of audio.