If you believe them, you'll be convinced that 300B tubes are fat, lush and romantic; that amplifiers designed around the tube invariably sacrifice extension at both ends of the frequency range in favor of a glorious if somewhat fat midrange. This may be true of the 300B amps they listen to - but the fact is that a good 300B tube amp can be extended and detailed. I've heard 300B tube amps that are downright lean-sounding compared to, say, a host of Mosfet designs. And if you are looking for dark, I can point you to more than a few well-known solid-state as well as tube amplifiers.


And these are the same folks who will tell you that SETs are all about a romantic sound that is satisfying yet untrue to the music. In fact, the best single-ended triode designs are invariably immediate. It's the immediacy of the experience that grounds the romance, the love affair with triodes - not some slobbering fat wet kiss. The romance is based on the immediate connection to the music. What could be more true to the music than this immediacy?

The Sinhonia F2a amplifier is as immediate as any SET amplifier I have heard, with the possible exception of the Audio Note Kondo Neiro [left in integrated form], itself a parallel single-ended 2A3 amplifier. On the other hand, the Sinhonia is absolutely dead quiet, something that is more difficult for a single-ended triode amp to achieve. This quiet translates into a dark background from which the music emerges; not just a dark background but one that recedes so far into the stage that the music is rendered with a depth of field and layering that creates the sense that one can penetrate the soundstage into infinity. There is a difference between depth of soundstage conveyed and ability to see deeply into the soundstage however deep it may be. Soundstage depth is a function of the recording and especially speaker placement in the room. The capacity to see into the soundstage, front to back as discernible yet coherently connected layers, is the essence of transparency.

I was able to experience the special engagement with the music which this level of transparency was able to provide often - especially through the Reimyo, and especially on large classical pieces, including Paavo Jarvi's gorgeous reading of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra [Telarc 60578, hybrid SACD] and the xrcd recording of Ravel's Daphne and Chloe performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Charles Munch [JVCXR -0222-2]. When you think immediacy, think single-ended but think Sinhonia as well. When you think resolution and incisiveness, think Sinhonia. When you think power, control and ease, think Sinhonia. When you think music, think Sinhonia. This, in any case, is how I was beginning to think. But there was more to come.

Life's an education
Soon after I had restored balance to my system and inserted the Reimyo as a source, I knew that I would purchase the Sinhonias. It did not take long to recognize that the Sinhonia was a special amplifier but it took much longer to "get it". I was obviously getting something as I found myself longing to put more and more highly resolving pieces in front of it.


I was certain that the value of the Sinhonia could not be reduced to a laundry list -- however long -- of its musical and audiophile attributes; equally certain that its relative value could not be determined by the fact that it had more of these virtues than did other amplifiers in my experience (which, while not complete by any means, is reasonably extensive - certainly among tube amplifiers). And while I was drawn to the fact that the Sinhonia connected the dots and knotted these myriad musical and audiophile attributes together in a coherent whole, this too is not what was uniquely valuable and important. I couldn't quite put my finger on it.


Then two things happened. First, Serguei Timachev of Stealth Cable sent me a prototype of a new interconnect that he deemed just about ready for prime time: The Indra. When I visited Serguei last summer, he talked about a new "amorphous" cable in the works which, he assured me, would change the way people thought about interconnects. I had no idea how close to production Serguei was and so the memory of the day slipped. Then, as if out of the blue, one Indra appeared at my doorstep; and a week and special pleading later, another one.


I placed the first Indra from the Reimyo to Monbrison, the second between Monbrison and Sinhonias. When I first met Serguei, he told me that his aspiration was to produce a cable that really did sound like nothing at all and that he had not yet done so. His not immodest view was that he had designed several cables that sounded quite good, and some which more or less disappeared - but none yet that had no sound at all. He suggested that all credible cable designers have a similar ambition. And again, to his ears anyway, no one had really succeeded. I don't know yet if the Indra cracks the code, but I can say this: With the Indra in the system, there was in fact even less system to hear. (Review and interview with Serguei to follow)

Then a couple of weeks ago, Mike Latvis of Harmonic Resolution Systems came to my home to install the brand-new HRS M1R equipment rack. I had reviewed the HRS MR3 isolation base before. I had met Mike at CES and even though said review had not as yet published, he asked if I would like to pen the premiere review of his rack system. Judging by the incredible reception his isolation bases and racks received among manufacturers at the show, I was more than a little pleased to accept the assignment. It was midday on a Sunday when the rack was in place and my wife returned home from the gym - she'd had the good sense to stay away during setup. She walked into the listening room and stopped in her tracks as we were at the time playing Jan Garbarek's "Wichi-Tai-To" from the eponymous ECM album, incidentally one of her favorite pieces. I won't say her jaw dropped - she's too refined for that. She stood, however, as though frozen in place. After introductions were made, Mike asked her what she heard and whether she liked it. She said one word only in answer to the first question: Purity. Her answer to the second question came much later in the day when she offered to purchase the rack as an anniversary gift for me. When I told her the price, she suggested taking me to dinner in New York instead.

I won't say more about the rack now except this. There were four guests at my house that day, including two dealers and one importer, all of whom at dinner later were wondering how they could purchase one. Here's my sneak preview on the rack: Start saving your pennies now. I am.


With the Indra and M1R rack in the system, all the pieces of my puzzle were finally in place: Purity - the absence of a mechanical/electrical system. I finally got it. The Sinhonia is ultimately about creating music by getting entirely out of its way. Not only does the Sinhonia lead you to look for sources and a preamplifier that can resolve musical detail and in doing so disappear from the chain, it demands of you that you find a speaker that equally gets the hell out of the way. Once pure music gets this far along, the last thing in the world you want is a speaker that acts as a barrier or roadblock.


In approaching amplifiers before, I had focused on whether they constituted a good match for a speaker. There is nothing wrong with this approach. It makes perfect sense. You have a single-ended amplifier, you want a speaker that is a good match for it. You buy an amplifier, you want to know if it will drive your speaker. You buy a speaker like the fabulous Soundlab Ultimate and naturally need to know what kind of amp will work well with it. Your tweeter is extended, you want an amp that is extended but not edgy. You have a speaker with a complex crossover to correct for a million break-up modes in its Kevlar driver, well you better get yourself an amp that can drive that crossover without exhausting itself. And so on.

Fellow moonie Les Turoczi and I were in NYC recently touring various audio emporiums. We stopped by In Living Stereo and met up with John DeVore, the designer of the very well-reviewed Gibbon 8 and the brand new and quite excellent Silverback Reference. Les owns a pair of Gibbon 8s and was anxious to meet John. We met up and the good folks at the shop were kind enough to set up a demo for Les, John and me, of the Gibbon 8 driven by Shindo gear including the Sinhonia F2a. Les couldn't believe his ears. To be honest, I don't think John did either. I am not sure he knew how much potential his speaker had - how much music was available in that little Gibbon 8 of his. Les walked out of the store with me as we headed over to High Water Sound to check out the world of Kondo and Horning. He turned to me and said something to the effect of "my God". If the sound of the Sinhonia paired with the Gibbon 8 was something of a surprise, then, let me tell you, the times I have heard the amp matched with John's new Silverback were something to behold.

There is no denying that it makes perfect sense to view an amplifier as essential to driving a loudspeaker. I would never for a second suggest that this is not an absolutely appropriate way to think about the Sinhonia as well. Indeed, whereas all the preamplifiers in the Shindo line speak with the same voice differing only in levels of refinement, resolution and relative dynamics, the amplifiers are more closely attuned to system matching and listener preference. They share the House Sound and they share a range of musical values and virtues, albeit expressed somewhat differently in each amplifier. And this makes sense since the amplifiers are based on different output tubes and differ in their output power.


Apparently, the W.E 300B Ltd. Is the amplifier of choice in Europe and Japan where it is often paired with full-range Lowther, PHY, AER, Reps and Fostex drivers in a variety of horn enclosures, as well as with older Tannoy dual-concentric designs. The Sinhonia is likely to have a bigger impact in the U.S. market because it is a stellar match for dynamic loudspeakers as diverse as Wilson. Duevel and DeVore. And where the commercial hornspeaker of choice is the Avantgarde, it's a design that to my ears requires much more power to sing than many of its owners provide it with.

So much for the conventional matching of amps with speakers. I stopped thinking about the Sinhonia in this way soon after the Indra and the HRS rack were in place. It is all about system disappearance, not amplifier matching or tonal flavoring. The Sinhonia owns this level of transparency and immediacy essential to the music but also demands it of the components feeding it. This level of transparency and immediacy paints a full picture using the rich tonal palette at its disposal. At the same time, it is capable of portraying wide dynamic swings and contrasts, from the majesty of an orchestra to the whisper of a sigh.


It is not an amplifier in the market to find a loudspeaker it can drive. It isn't looking for something to control; nor is it looking for a speaker to balance its virtues with. It is looking for a speaker that will simply get the hell out of its way. By this I don't mean a speaker that disappears as the apparent source of music; I mean a speaker that disappears as a roadblock or impediment to the music. With the Sinhonia in my system, I heard speakers as potential roadblocks to sound, not as transducers. The Sinhonia conveys one clear message: Remove all impediments to the music.


There are many great matches for the Sinhonia but there are likely very few speakers that will get out of its way. I may well have found one that does just that. I'll let you know in the not too distant future. In the meantime, find yourself a pair of Sinhonia F2as to listen to. They will change your view about what's possible in music reproduction in the home. I am quite sure U.S. importer Jonathan Halpern will help you locate a pair. If not, drop me an email. You can always come listen to the pair at my home. They're going to be here for a long while!