Experience w/ A23 and Shindo IC's

[countingbackwards]

Originally Posted by Old Grey

Hi Countingbackwards -I'm a little confused with your post. Are you currently using DIY ICs, Shindo, or both?

Nice setup btw. I heard VTLs with an Aurieges at Coup de Foudre years ago. I never did do the VTLs, but hearing that combination convinced me you didn't need to go full Shindo to enjoy wonderful sound.

I'm currently using DIY ICs, tried out the Shindo cables that I had on loan from Coup de Foudre and wound up placing an order. While looking at the cables makes it hard for me to comprehend pricing, listening to what they do - it's clearly worth the money.

Thanks for the compliments on my setup, I quite like it. CDF frequently match up Shindo preamps with VTL amps. Aurieges + ST150 can power just about any speaker and sound great doing it, for a very reasonable price. That said - my experience is that everything matters, it's just a matter of where your budget stands. I tried out a pair of CC80's last week, and they are definitely better sounding amps to my ears than the ST150 that I have. So...not sure how exactly to allocate percentages when it comes to audio, but I find that every part of the chain matters 100%.

Having heard a few Shindo amps however, they don't have a unified family sound to them the way that the pre's seem to. So perhaps the attribution of the "Shindo sound" to the preamp position is based on that. Also, it's certainly much easier to fit a Shindo preamp into one's system than a Shindo amp, especially when you have speakers like mine to drive.