Shindo Monbrison better a RedWine Isabella?

The pre amp is not the greatest need here. The amp is killing your system.

Admittedly I have not heard the Manley preamp but I have owned a couple Shindo pres and heard others. The Shindo sound is very distinctive (and very pleasant for most, although if there were to be a criticism it would not be inaccurate to say they are not neutral).

"The 300b preamp uses obviously 300b tubes which gives the preamp a very dimensional and very flowing organic presentation which is the Shindo sound..."

Your argument here is the Manley should sound like a Shindo pre because it uses a 300B DHT? Not a single Shindo preamp uses 300B or any other DHT, as a matter of fact. In fact he is quite unconventional in using (IDH) pentode and tetrode signal & power tubes in preamps. Furthermore, despite using very different tubes (and, I think, circuits) his preamps from the bottom of the line to the top share that very distinctive sound.

The OP asked specifically about Shindo preamps. It is not too relevant to bring up the Manley unless you have listened to it back-to-back with the Shindo Monbrison in the same system and found it to sound very similar. If that is the case, I apologize.

OP, even though an English gentleman with the initials TE has stolen my heart I rather wish I'd held on to my Shindo Monbrison. It is really an incredible piece. However, if you don't do vinyl you're spending a lot of money on circuitry you'll never listen to. In that case if it were me I'd go for the Aurieges-L even though there's no doubt the Monbrison's line stage is superior.

As for describing the sound, the Jack Roberts reviews do a pretty good job.

My comment is not about circuit topology but sound quality, the reason so many people like the Shindo sound is the lack of artificiality, natural tone colors, and its overall musicality, kind of like an SET type sound that is really good SET amp produces, natural and musical.

Too many preamps or amps for that matter can take music apart and separate it into many distinct parts, which can sound really spectacular like great hifi and not music.

A really great 300b based amplifier sounds natural and musical, the Manley sounds this way, so does the Shindo, it is less to do with just using a particular circuit but the overall geshstalt of a design. There are solid state amps that sound like tube amps and tube amps which sound like solid state.

Personally the idea of using un-obtanium for parts is a scary idea, as parts age the do lose sound quality and reliability, to base a modern product on 40-50 year old parts seems awfully fool hearty. What if in 10 years you need service and that particular part on 50 years old is not available because they used them up or the part has failed due to age what then.

I think you have to take into consideration with any electronic device the future and serviceability issues which may arise, please don't take this as an attack, this is just an opinion, it it the same with a rare vintage car yeah it is cool to drive it once in awhile but I wouldn't drive it every day.

Yes Shindo does have a distinctive sound however, that doesn't mean there aren't other products which can produce a similar sound either.

Listen to a Mastersound SET amplifier the 845 sound great, the 300b doesn't and tell me if it too doesn't have a similar quality to a Shindo.

My point is simple there are many ways to skin a sonic cat.

Shindo stocks a large supply of spare parts for there products. Tubes, caps and anything else. He has been in business for 25 years and this has never been a problem
Alan

The Red Wine Audio amplifiers are a reasonable value amplifier if you're looking for:

1. Off the grid performance. No need to depend on the power quality of your AC line.

2. Solid state reliability combined with a tonal density and richness which is more often associated with tube amplifiers.

What the Red Wine amplifiers do not excel at is a certain aliveness and high frequency extension that good tube amplifiers can do very well. You can get high frequency extension out of other solid state amplifiers, but in my experience you're often getting a healthy dose of listener fatigue to go along with your hyper detail.

As for the preamp, the Isabella should sound better than it does. It is, to my ears and with the stock JJs, overly warm and overly slow. The $500 Lightspeed attenuator is better, but only if the rest of your system is suitably compatible with a passive.

I'm on a transparency kick lately, so my "transparent" may be your "thin" and my "warm and slow" may be your "full of body".

I have not heard the LFP-V editions of any of the RWA products. I understand they're faster, more dynamic, more transparent, etc. I also understand that the new RWA amplifiers now have a tube buffer.

I don't hesitate to recommend RWA gear to all sorts of my friends who are not as obsessed as I am and in fact, they really like the RWA gear despite me telling them that a true valve amplifier may sound better.

When I demoed a very neutral Dayens Ampino for them, they continued to prefer their RWA amplifier. So as always, results dependent on system, room, your own ears, etc.