The hunt for the perfect 300b amplifier (in NYC) - part 1
Shindo, Kondo, Engstrom, Air Tight, Luxman......
I love the Venus tube — the mythical 300b tubes. And I was ready for an upgrade from my current amp. I wanted to audition the best of the best of 300b amplifiers: Shindo, Kondo, Engstrom, Luxman, Air Tight. My lofty goal: to purchase an amplifier to live with for the next decade.
Where would such an experience be possible? A high concentration of stores, equipment on demo, friendly dealers, all in one place. Only one place on Earth (that I know of) — NYC.
Over 5 days, every afternoon at 4pm, I auditioned a 300b amplifier in Manhattan — uptown, downtown, Brooklyn. It was an amazing experience, lots of learnings, and a surprise winner — one that I did not see coming.
I had a set playlist for my audition. Songs I listen to, not lame audiophile set songs, they were:
1. Mongolian Long Song / Legend of Herlev - Silk Road Ensemble with Yo Yo Ma.
The Mongolian Long Song by Ganbaatar Khongorzul (I haven’t found any other song by her despite heavy searching) is stunning long with notes in a wide range, ornamentations and falsettos, and goes to a very high frequency.
The Legend of Herley is Mongolian orchestra piece that has very dynamic range, from 60dB to 100+dB in a matter of seconds.
2. Between the Heaven and Me - Kayhan Kalhor
My favourite album of all time, I saw this album performed live in the SFJAZZ hall in San Francisco with my parents — one of the highlights of concert-going life. Kayhan is a god with Kaminacheh, but his accompanist Ali Bahrami Fard, is another level. I love the Indian Santoor but this Bass Santoor of Iran with Ali Bahram Fard is heaven on earth.
3. When the Soul is settled - Rahim Al Haj
Yet another Middle-Eastern Gem from Iraq. My favorite Oud album of all time. Rahim Al Haj has a jugalbandhi album with Ali Akbar Khan which is also worth a listen.
4. Sophisticated Lady - Charles Mingus
Mingus is my favorite jazz artist, and this pure double bass number can put to test the low end of any audio system.
5. Pancham - Zakir Hussein/Masters of Percussion
Zakir Hussein. The greatest living artist of our time, runs a Masters of Percussion concert every year, I have been twice, best concert experience of my life. Period. This is the only recording of that annual concert series that I know.
6. M’Bifa - Rokia Traore
My favorite female vocalist from Africa.
7. From Inspiration to Ecstasy - Vish-Namo (Shujat Hussein Khan/Lalgudi etc).
One of the few few “fusion” albums that doesn’t suck.
Between these seven songs I covered all the aspects of music that I cared.
Day One started with Engstrom Arne. This amplifier sports four 300b tubes in push-pull configuration and is an integrated amplifier in Scandinavian minimalist form. Engstrom Audio, to me, was famous for building $100,000 amplifiers for billionaires in Hong Kong who hang out in the Audio Exotics forum. His Lars amplifier was greatly praised by the late and great Art Dudley as well, but who — rightly — had some reservations on the price tag. Engstrom Arne was their newest offering, a budget amplifier for the masses (so it said on their website, since then the tagline wisely amended). It (only) costs $30000. The Arne was powering a high efficiency Living Voice speaker and the digital source was a Naim.
Timo Engstrom of Engstrom Audio helped me audition the Engstrom Arne by getting in touch with an NYC dealer Innovative Audio.
The dealer was a great host, who set up the system and then gave me the remote and an iPad and left me alone with the music. And as soon as the music came on, I knew I was listening to something special.
When I heard the Legend of Herlen on the Engstrom, I was in shock. There were sounds in that song that I never heard before in the 100s of times I have played the song. The small brush on the cymbals floated in the air in front of me, new layers of tone were palpably heard in the sounds of the large drums. The Engstrom amps are famous for their tonal purity and this was clearly demonstrable.
When I next played Mingus’s bass instrumental Sophisticated Lady, the plucks of the bass string somewhere in the middle of the song, 2:04 minutes in, startled me with its realism. The bass sounded like it was live. It almost never happens with the double bass. Double bass almost always suck in most hifi system, god, they suck even in live music unless the mic is setup properly, but with the Engstrom I got the goosebumps. The lower-end, bass, of the music was deep and powerful like a transistor amplifier and it plumbed the depths. This was no stereotypical 300b focused on mid-range and losing everything else.
But the amp didn’t play that well with the Middle Eastern strings or the tabla. With the Kayhan Kalhor and the Rahim Al Haj, the instrument separation wasn’t there and the music didn’t flow out relaxed and smooth. It felt stressed; it made me restless. And when I played Pancham, the body was missing from the tabla.
After the audition, I had a short conversation with the dealer. When we discussed my impressions, he explained to me that this amp had come just out of the box, only 20 hours of usage so far, so not broken-in. Which could explain some of my reservations with the sound. If it was broken in perhaps this would be the best amplifier I have ever heard. Who knows?
Day 2 was a Shindo day. I have been obsessed with Shindo electronics for five years now thanks to Art Dudley the famous Stereophile reviewer. I have also briefly owned a Shindo Monbrison preamp and it just made beautiful music. The flow, the relaxed smoothness, the musicality of that preamp was just amazing. I was really looking forward to listening to a full Shindo at this NYC showroom where the dealer carries the same speakers I own — the Devore O/96. The system was a Shindo Cortese 300b amplifier, a Vosne Romanee preamp, Chord Dave DAC.
But my experience at this Shindo dealer was terrible. The salesperson had a chip on his shoulder — he was a hipster who thought he was so cool because he sold Shindo. He just wanted to play me some of the standard audiophile songs and then get rid of me. He started with The girl from Ipanema, it bored me.
Also, the dude wouldn’t let me increase the volume beyond 70dB, because he said the Cortese amps were only 9W in power.
He sat in the room throughout the session. He didn’t even have an iPad, and I had to ask him to change the song every time from his personal phone. The whole audition was one painful experience, and I couldn’t wait to get out of there.
But I got through it. I didn’t want to come this far and be disappointed, so I stood my ground and made him run through my entire playlist. The Shindo didn’t disappoint, it made up for the uppity, grouchy salesman. The Shindo was everything the Engstrom wasn’t. It was relaxed and smooth and open sounding. It did not have the tonal purity or the see-through transparency of the Engstrom , but it made strings sound oh so beautiful! So dense, so real, so engaging. Kayhan Kalhor sounded just perfect, the kaminacheh came to me as a wall of sound so dense that I could walk through it. The bottom-end in the music was lacking; but perhaps it was the low volume. When I played Zakir Hussein’s, Pancham, it confirmed my suspicion. But the tabla with the Shindo system had the tone that was lacking in the Engstrom.
So far it was an even contest. Shindo had the tone, the musicality — the Engstrom had transparency, dynamics, resolution and clarity. Could I have both? Please?
After the Engstrom experience the Shindo felt slow and sluggish. But I wondered: Was it the contrasting dealer experience that tilted me heavily into the Engstrom camp?
(Coming next in part-two: Air Tight, Luxman, Kondo)