Shindo lab pre amps

There ARE some v. good tube pre-amps w remote, e.g., VAC Ren Sig and later.

Mikeyc8,
Agreed, most people are just not into the retro look, I've always like the McIntosh look, but many don't care for it.
My new preamp is kinda retro, but not a Shindo, maybe a poors man Shindo.

Have a listen to the TRON Syren tube preamp from the UK. This is a top drawer tube preamp (no remote though) with great sound quality and fantastic build quality. With the current USD:GBP exchange rate, it becomes even better value. Jeff at Highwater Sound in NYC is the US distributor. Here's a review from 6moons.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/tron/syren.html

Charlie

I use a Shindo Monbrison with a Shindo Montrachet amplifier hooked up to Avalon Indras and a Clearaudio turntable. My dealer (Coup de Foudre Audio) also said that other preamps including Spectrals sounded broken compared to Shindo.
Not having spent an enormous amount of time with the competition, all I can say is that you can listen all day to music. I can go through, literally, 20-30 records in a day (when/if I have time) and have literally zero listening fatigue, while being engaged in the music.

The Vosne-Romanee is the best preamp I have ever heard and not by a small margin. I even prefer it to the Giscours which is considerably more expensive. If you partner it with a Shindo amp (my preference is the Montrachet), and if you have 95-100+ dB efficient speakers which present a simple and relatively non-reactive load, you may well reach Nirvana.