Shindo Lafite Field Coil Monbrison 300B Wavelength Crimson 71A

Click pics to enlarge. Beneath the TV are the Monbrison Preamp and the F2A amp (only side showing). Beneath are the 300B Limited monoblocks. The DAC (pic below) hides behind the screen.

Brief Home Visit: All Shindo Setup

Weeks ago, before this current Fourth Wave in Hong Kong, I visited R (with his wife and son), a former student and ENT specialist, who is a classical music aficionado. The visit was relatively short and, as courtesy, I voluntarily wore mask almost the whole time.

His living room (I reckon around 400 sq ft) is way too big for his gears. R is a very considerate family man who plays his music at lowish level, lower than I'd like. He also prizes refinement over loudness. I knew that from a previous visit to his old flat, before he got into all Shindo.

Throughout, R just streamed music. No LP was played. DAC is an old Wavelength Crimson, which employs, by chance, the 71A tube (not a current version). Preamp is the Shindo Monbrison (newer version than mine), which drives the 300B Limited monoblocks (all WE tubes). This marked the first time I listened to Shindo loudspeakers, in this case the Lafite.

A Word on Field Coils Before permanent magnets became the norm, field coils were used. Each driver needs a power supply (tube traditionally) to deliver the magnetic field and the PSU can be bigger than an amp! Being very old drivers, vintage field coil drivers are highly prized (beside the rare-as-hen's-teeth WE's [a coming WE report will have pics of these], many others, like Jensen and Motorola, made them). The Lafite is an 8" full-range field-coil driver (Official Spec's). I doubt Ken Shindo developed it all by himself. After all, Japan has well established companies specializing in making field-coil drivers, from the "more reasonable" Maxonic to the ridiculously expensive Feastrex (which I have heard but was not won over on that occasion). One thing, the DC PSU can be done on the cheap, or can be very expensive. Today, except for DIY efforts, boutique units are usually solid state. Thumbs down to all the Shindo dealers and the small circle of writers who write about them - none of them ever wrote as much as one word on the internal power supply of the Lafite or the larger Latour. I reckon it is solid state.

Perhaps because of the lowish volume, sound was smooth but not quite lively enough for me. Indeed I did not quite feel the directness of a full-range driver, not to mention the qualities mentioned by the dealers and select writers (next paragraph). Indeed the sound reminds me a little of another Shindo system, my friend Simon's, which though showing some WE qualities, was smooth rather than direct, and lacking somewhat in presence.

Aside from a couple of user comments, there is no real Lafite review on the internet. There are "reports" on the dealers' setups by the likes of Jeff Day and partimeaudiophile but these (especially the latter) look like insider activities that really should not see print. When dealers and writers wine and dine and party together, what do you think happen to the reports? They look like ads. You'd think all these minds will do some useful poking or probing, like finding out more about the PSU, but no. It bothers me that a small group of writers and dealers befriend each other and generate lofty prose that some people buy into (now, Art Dudley did not do that). You only see them do this for expensive stuff, right? And it also irks me that, as happens so frequently, reviewers with little experience in horns and vintage equipment wax lyrics on these modern systems.

This is not to say I think the Lafite is over-rated. I think there are several problems with Raymond's setup: (a) he has plenty of room but the system is placed against a wall, and I advised him to relocate that to where the sofa is (where I took the pic). This would put the loudspeakers in the middle of the room and they should sound more open; (b) equipment are placed on Sound Mechanics stands (this is a HK brand that use HDF, which hopelessly damps the liveliness out of music[very expensive Finite Element does that too]). So, waiting for those to be rectified, I'd postpone judgement; indeed I hope to hear them again!