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Old 10-19-2013, 12:42 AM
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Jerome W Jerome W is offline
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Originally Posted by countingbackwards View Post

Thanks for the detailed description Jerome - it is helpful to me as much as I expect it'll be helpful to others that will have similar questions, because the number of people who have heard the CC80 and CCQ on the same speakers is not very big, that's for sure!

One thing I thought that I'd point out, is that I'm not sure I *completely* agree with your bolded statement. While I agree that just knowing the tube type does not necessarily tell you what an amp will sound like, I see there being lots of different ways to skin a cat. A great designer might opt to make similarly designed amps, whose main sonic differences will be based on the tubes in use. This is akin to a car that's offered with a 4 cylinder or 6 cylinder engine...while the basic design is the same, the 2 cars will feel different, and that difference will be mostly (if not wholly) attributable to the different engines. The same can be said for tubes used in tube amps - sometimes a designer would *want* to display a tube's sonic attributes. My point - those might be great designers just as much as the one whose amp doesn't sound typical for the tube type, it's just a different approach.

However - your post clearly demonstrates that this is not the Shindo way - and I didn't expect it to be. I fully expect a Shindo-designed EL34 amp to have more liveliness and "swing" than any VTL amp, my concern is more for the differences between the Shindo EL34 sound and the Shindo KT88 sound, which if I get the CCQ I suppose I'll be well-placed to comment on. But as Jonathan pointed out and you are further supporting, Shindo's amps are designed far more intricately than most others, so knowing a single part in the chain won't tell you what to expect. For all I know, the CCQ might not share much at all in the way of design with the CC80 (they certainly don't look at all alike), so the tube question becomes poorly founded.
All good points.
I never heard the CC80 so I have no idea how it sounds compared to most KT88 power amps.
The KT88 is a very popular tube in Asia. Maybe that the CC80 was made with market in mind more than the other amps but as I said already, no matter the tubes used, a Shindo amp is a Shindo amp : musical and well designed.
Shindo designs more amplifiers around the EL34 : Montrachet, CC and CCQ.
The fact that the CCQ is able to drive the WP8 with a 4 ohm nominal impedance and with a dip near 2 ohms in the bass, says a lot about it.
Of course I will not try to reach insane SPLs with them. ( But honestly the WP8s can play very loud with them ). And this is also why I kept the Snappers. They can drive the WP8s to ear pain levels without distortion.
Plus I use them for non serious listenings, preserving the precious Shindo gear.
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