Shindo and synergistic components

Lokie: that Moscode sounds like a great option to try out. No retail markup and the ability to home audition - sounds perfect.

The new Shindo Corton Charlemagne is an expensive amp ($14k) and puts out 75wpc. I just wonder whether there's an amp that works with the Masetto (single ended output only) that costs ($5-$10k). I've spent a great deal of time auditioning, but have also been reading those studies that under controlled conditions high quality amps are generally indistinguishable. I think this is increasingly the case as SS and tubes seem to converge in sound.

I'm not opening a discussion on that point - it's just background to my question and thread.

Cheers

I tend to agree with the notion that amps are not the best value when trying to improve your system. I do allot of project management with my work and we use the term "critical path." What is the most important task that needs to get done. That concept is the same when building a system. Personally, my critical path are things like speaker placement, room tweaking, power delivery, cabling, and shelving. I think alot of audiophiles think amps are the critical path when there are so many other cheaper and more effective "tasks" than buying an expensive amp.

One of the qualities of the LV, as with most effecicient speakers with benign loads, is the flexibility it gives you in the amp department. The Mahis are $1500 used and seem to be a good match. Would music on an $8,000 amp sound 4 times or even twice as good on the LV’s... no, not in my opinion. I frankly think I would have to concentrate pretty hard to tell the difference.

I'm not trying to plug the Mahi's or LV but just making the point that I like to think of the speakers and amp almost as one component. For example, because of the qualities of Theil speakers being very revealing and requiring lots of power, I think you would need a pretty expensive amp to mate with them. So the "package" of amp and speaker would be relatively expensive.

BTW, Hatari what speakers do you have?

Verity Parsifals - not an easy load (not difficult either), but need, in my experience, 50W as a minimum. So far they sound better with even more power. They are 89db efficient, and drop to 4ohms as far as I know. With power, they become more energetic, even at similar listening levels.

I've been tweaking a great deal lately: speaker placement, isolation, dedicated AC lines. All have been incrementally superb improvements. If I'm doing pre-amp, then might as well do amp and get move on from my Levinson integrated (which is pretty good).

I thought the Corton-Charlemagne was a 25wpc design. Is it being changed?

Corton-Charlemagne 80 is a different amp and new, so I've heard and is 75 or 80 wpc. Best to confirm details with a dealer.