[popthropologist]

Hello to my new Shindo friends! This is my first post after immersing myself in this forum and soaking up its shared knowledge.

I have wanted to own Shindo gear for years, ever since I saw the metallic green paint and tube windows of the Corton-Charlemagne. Through incredible luck, I have been given a pair of Shindo Siemens Concerto monoblocks to get me started. I now have an enjoyable journey ahead of me of piecing together a full Shindo system!

Jonathan has already been very helpful in suggesting ways to optimize my current setup to allow the Concertos to sing. I have also connected with an expert in Germany with the initials U.M. who has graciously advised me on the tubes to use in the Concerto, and a bit about its version history. Interestingly, the amp was first created to use the Z2b rectifier, but later iterations switched to the 5AR4 instead. The examples that I own have the 5AR4s but still have the Z2b labels on the chrome.

My first ‘wow’ moment was listening to In the Round by The Cardigans—one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands. I have heard this tune hundreds of times, and always thought that the intro contained a fade-in (uncommon for a rock song, but not all that surprising). But through the Concertos, I heard the microphone actually getting closer to the band, as if I was going through the door into their rehearsal space! Astounding and unexpected. I’m looking forward to many more moments like that with my Shindos.

Here are a few romantic shots of them in their current state.

- Jon