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Devore and Shindo match

I have been a bit hesitant to start this thread because it seems as if there are a couple of other ones going that are very close to addressing the Devore and Shindo. So I thought this may swing the door open a bit wider. I have taken a few trips to dealers, having heard the Devore Nines once. The preamp was a Shindo, the amp was a VTL ran in Triode. I have owned VTL, am familiar with their sound in Triode which in my system and IMO was a bit slow, without much detail and definition. Again, in the context of my system only. What are the general impressions of anyone who has heard this combination. It will be some time until I make it back to a dealers to hear a Shindo amp, so I was hoping to hear a few opinions in the meantime. Please feel free to chime in with any experiences with Devore/Shindo, Shindo only, or even Devore with different gear.
fjn04
dgad
782 posts
 
VTL amps sound very poor in triode. Triode rolls off the highs & lows so whatever you heard should sound awful. But in tetrode (which the amplifiers transformer is designed for) it should sound very good depending on the synergy w. the speakers.
bongofury
1,160 posts
 
I recently was in NY and dropped into In Living Stereo, which is an authorized dealer of both products. They had a nice demo going of the DeVore 8s and the Shindo Montille amp. I was very impressed on the overall musicality of the system, especially for a small room.

Bass was a little tepid, I think in part due to a tubed PrimaLuna Model 8 CD player they were using. The mids were spot on.
prfont
89 posts
 
As you can imagine you've got a lot of variables to fill in. I've owned a montille for almost 5yrs. Wonderful amp within it's limitations which are it's 13watts of power. I used it for almost 4 yrs with the devore gibbon 8's in a 12x20 room and I never got the upgrade bug. Recently though I moved into a larger room and the combo fell a little flat.

All the shindo's I've heard are colorful, but not syrupy. Transparent, but not analytical. There are some more powerful shindo's of course that may be more appropriate for driving the nines in a larger room. FWIW, I am trying to hold on to my shindo and find a better speaker for it. While it may be easier for me to just sell the shindo and find a more powerful amp, I'm having a hard time parting with it.
fjn04 OP
1,561 posts
 
Dgad, having owned the 750's, I agree with you. Certainly as far as driving Vandersteen 5A's go. They just couldn't get out of their own way. Although, I would never recommend the older VTL amps with Vandersteen's period. As far as the Nine's w/ VTL and Shindo preamp demo, I just cannot take home alot from it. I thought it sounded very good though. It seems the ST-150 in Triode was a good match with the Devore. Likely just because the Nine's may be a faster, clener and more open sounding speaker than I am used to. They are not following the pack sonically, that's for sure. They may in fact tow the line quite nicely between forward sounding speakers and darker more laid back ones. That said, I would still like to hear what a Shindo amp/system would bring to this. Bongofury and PrFront, thanks for your thoughts and keep them coming.
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