Shindo Labs Amps and Preamps

Good idea. I will email him and see how it goes.

Yet I live in Argentina so would need to buy from Tone Imports and ship it here. Or I could buy from the manufacturer in China and ship it here. Anybody knows how they sell retail in China? Website?

Thank you.

I am a huge fan of both Shindo and Devore O/96s...I visited two different dealers of both brands, and at my assigned dealer, heard the combo.  I know many on this forum love the combo and think they are a great match.

They were NOT the best combo in the one instance I heard them.  And both dealers, both of whom I trust, told me AHEAD of my listening that they felt there were better pre/amp combo brand pairings for the O/96s, and both dealers are obviously big fans of both brands.  I heard some similarly priced Auditorium 23 speakers with the exact front-end/Shindo pre/Shindo amp, right after I heard the O/96s, and the combo was much better.  At the second dealer, I heard the O/96s with some different amp combos, and they sounded much better.

YMMV, but from my two experiences, there might be a better pre-/amp combo than the Shindo if you're really looking to get the absolute most out of those speakers.  I would definitely try to hear the combos before you spend that much without a listen, and call around and speak to multiple dealers around the country and ask them for their honest opinions.  BTW, in either case I do NOT feel I was being upsold...

Parsons, and what do you recommend? What was the amp that you hear that was better with DeVore than Shindo?

I never got to hear any of the other combos at the one dealer (as I switched the speakers to the Auditorium 23 lines to listen with Shindo and never got to go back to the Devores), but it was recommended that if I was serious about the O/96s, I should try the Line Magnetic line with the O/96 if I really wanted to hear the better synergy from the Devores.  I would still like to hear the combo, so I may try to hear some Line Magnetic with the O/96s the next time I can get back there (3 hours away).  If Line Magnetic sounds as good as it looks, and is a great synergy with the O/96s, I'm not sure you could put a better looking system together at any price, quite honestly (as I LOVE the look of the O/96s).

And I'm pretty sure the first combo I heard (at a dealer out west) was with either a Rogue Audio stereo amp (don't remember which one but perhaps the 100?) or a Sugden, and I don't remember the pre-amp, but it was similarly priced from one of those two companies as well.  It sounded great, but it was front-ended by Nagra's top DAC ($30K+), so the whole system there was like $75K of stuff sitting in front of the Devores.   So it better have sounded great.

Please note that I'm not knocking the Shindo/DeVore combos--I merely am passing on advice I got from two different dealers, and then what I heard...as I sought out this combo based on what I had read here and elsewhere.

@labpro did you compare the Cortese ( 300b or F2A?) with the Corton Charlemagne monos for classical music and jazz?