shindo aurieges ....

Bolero32, another thing I think is important to this discussion. When I had the Belcanto amps I used copper IC's and speaker wire to tone down the amps, but when I changed to the Butler it was way to warm for me. I changed to silver and copper/silver to get the resolution the preamplifier and amp were capable of.

It could be that the posters who think the amp is euphoric sounding were listening to it with components and wire which tended to go in that direction. Maybe not.

Also I have the 2 box version with a great MM stage. I have not heard the one box Aurieges.

The Auregies is a great preamp, thats the reason I owned it twice, but using it with a very transparant amp like a Decware Torii in comparison to my Audion pre and a Dodd preamp (which i dont prefer this is mentioned for contrast only) some warts do show. Its got a nice flow and tone, but is a less resolved presentation.

Its a gorgeous presentation, but its a little candy coated. Sometimes that romance is exaclt.what i crave though sometimes i want a splash more truth.

Bolero, it has been my observation that the lesser priced shindo pre-amps sell very quickly here on agon so if one happens to come up that would work for you be prepared to act quickly and decisively or you will be waiting again. I notice wanted ads here and on the canuck audio mart web-site for auriges and monbrison pre-amps pretty often.

I'm a late contributor to this thread. Bolero, I have compared my Shindo Aurieges L to an EAR 868 with 2 friends present. We all agreed the Aurieges was convincingly better sounding and more alive than the EAR 868. The difference was almost immediately obvious. In the past, I have run an Aurieges with a Pass Labs XA30.5 very successfully. I have since sold the Pass Labs, I still own the Aurieges.