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The Shindo Laboratory Cortese F2a stereo amplifier is a 10-watt single-ended design with two NOS 6AW8A Phillips in the input stage and two NOS Siemens F2a tetrodes as the output valves, all located on top for your viewing enjoyment. Hidden away inside is an NOS Siemens EY88 that (I think - see final comments) allows the amp to power up gradually to extend life expectancy for those hard-to-replace NOS parts. Jonathan tells me that the Siemens F2a tubes are rated for 50,000 hours and that in 20 years of making the F2a amps, Ken Shindo hasn't had to replace a single pair of F2a tubes due to wear yet.


This claimed 50,000 hour life span would allow for 2 hours of listening every day for over 68 years. That's a long time and a good thing too because during the review period, I could not find a single F2a for sale in North America or Europe, a little scary from a replacement perspective even with the F2a's very long rated life. If you're nervous about availability, you might want to look at other Shindo amps with more readily available tubes. Like the Monbrison, the Cortese is finished in Shindo's trademark wine-bottle green with gold accents. The Cortese also comes with a matching tube cage to keep prying little fingers or moist little noses from getting fried - should you need to prevent that sort of thing.

The ART Emotion Signature loudspeakers from Scotland are a near full-range 91.5dB design (24Hz - 25kHz ±2dB) meant for use with single-ended amplifiers of 8 watts or more. The Emotion Signature uses a soft dome tweeter with radial neodymium magnet system, a treated paper midwoofer with Jensen copper-foil inductors and Jensen copper foil paper-in-oil capacitors in the crossover and proprietary Kondo KSL SPc copper internal wiring. The cabinets are perhaps the most beautiful I've yet seen with their heavy Birch ply and hardwood construction and drop-dead gorgeous Walnut veneer.


Shindo Silver interconnects & Auditorium 23 speaker cables: The Shindos are a rather plain-looking affair with generic black sleeving and Switchcraft RCA connectors. The internal wires are multi-stranded silver and there is one wire for each leg. Ken Shindo chose the ingredients for the cables because he likes the way they play music. The Auditorium 23 'Green' speaker cables are voiced by Germany's Keith Aschenbrenner, hand-made rather than off the spool like most and designed specifically to interface between Shindo vacuum tube electronics and high-sensitivity loudspeakers. Each speaker cable consists of four conductors, two twisted conductors for each leg, one wire being smaller than the other, each twisted pair wrapped in soft green cotton sheathing. Each of the cables is terminated with thin light Beryllium-copper multi-contact banana connectors designed to interfere with the signal as little as possible.
And that's the scoop on the equipment. I had a tough time getting everything set up and sounding the way I wanted it to. In the positions that most of my gear sounded best in my room before, this system just wasn't playing at the level I knew it could and how I'd heard it do at Matt's place. It frustrated the heck out of me for a while. My listening room and living room are one and the same. I didn't really want to rearrange it for a different system placement which would have meant moving some big and heavy furniture around. With Jonathan's encouragement, I compromised, left the furniture in place and simply rotated the system by 90 degrees. The transformation was nothing short of spectacular. Not only was I getting great music-making and natural and realistic sound, I think I actually surpassed the level of excellence I heard at Matt's with his Monbrison, Cortese and Living Voices. That's saying something as Matt's rig was fantastic where it counted - with the music. I ended up with the speakers about 41 inches out from the fromt wall and about 9 feet apart. Let's listen to a little music.


The music
Last week jazz superstar guitarist Larry Coryell stopped back into town to play a few performances at the Battelle Auditorium for his home-town fans (Larry graduated from High School here in 1961). The Battelle Auditorium is a nice cozy little auditorium with about 300 seats and great acoustics. For those of you into trivia, Battelle is the company that operates Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the US Department of Energy. One of their music-loving scientists did the basic research for optical (digital) media back in 1965 that made CD, DVD and all of the future variations of digital media possible. This optical media research pioneered by Battelle was later used by the you-know-who 'Perfect Sound Forever' crowd for CD. The original driving force for that researcher to develop optical media was so he could archive his LPs! Small world indeed.



Back to Battelle Auditorium. If you sit in the front, you're about as close to the performers as it's possible to get. It's so cozy and comfortable, it's almost like a living room concert. Ironically it was about the same distance as I sit from my loudspeakers in my living room at home. This made for some interesting musical comparisons. For the first night Larry did a wonderful solo performance followed by an amazing trio set with bassist Chuck Deardorf and drummer Milo Petersen on the second night. These three musical superstars played like gods and pretty much blew everyone away. For the icing on the cake, singer and guitarist Tracey Piergross (also Larry's wife) joined the boys for a special appearance each night and wowed us with her singing. Man, what a night!



I marveled at how wonderful the music was and how easily it flowed from the performers on stage to the appreciative concert goers. Even when the music got really loud, my ears didn't shut down like they do with loud hifi. I read at the JazzAmp website that a jazz sextet plays at an average of 97dB measured at 10 feet in front of the stage. For whatever reason, those live and loud musical dynamic swings never once triggered my ears to scrunch down into protection mode as most audiophile-style systems make them do at loud volumes - one big difference between most playback and live music. Real live jazz is generally a bit loud and that's the way it is supposed to be. If you can't listen to your system at fairly realistic levels without your ears giving out, there's something wrong with your ears or your hifi rig. Usually it's the rig and we accommodate it by turning down the volume. The way most systems reproduce loudness just doesn't compare to the real thing. Milo's supercharged drum hits were dramatic and loud in the way that only live unmuffled drums can be. This added unparalleled excitement to the music.

There were a few things noticeable by their absence too during the concert - audiophile-style sonics for one. Never once did I think about that. Okay, once or twice perhaps; but just for you. There was little evidence of imaging and soundstaging as they occur with certain recording styles. There was no unnaturally detailed and 'tight' upright bass like you hear with some hifi. Chuck's bass sounded mellow and a little loose while he did his virtuoso improvisation runs. There was absolutely none of that etched, lean and detailed audiophile-style sound in evidence. This was the real thing: natural, round, warm, emotive, engaging, mesmerizing and loud at times. These folks played like gods and I was transported into the heavenly realms by their music.


Something I noticed during my time with the Shindo system (and this no doubt is one of the reasons why Shindo has such devoted fans) was that the music flowed with a relaxed ease and level of engagement that evoked the feeling of real live music-making just as I heard it in those front row seats at Battelle Auditorium. Even when played at relatively live-like levels, I didn't feel overwhelmed. This system really excels at creating the feeling of how real music develops and flows over time in rhythm, melody and beat to engage the listener. The Shindo gear produces a very genuine feel -- at least in some important aspects - of listening to real live musicians doing their thing.
After getting home from the office the other day, I was in a jazz mood and dropped Jim Hall's Concierto into my Sony PS1 SCPH-1001 for a little decompressio. Concierto is a doozy of a jazz album and includes an all-star lineup of Paul Desmond on alto sax, Chet Baker on trumpet, Ron Carter on bass, Steve Gadd on drums and Roland Hanna on piano. If you love jazz and any of the musicians on this album, you ought to add it to your collection. The warm West Coast jazz vibe achieved on this album captivates me and I've found myself listening to it a lot of late. It seems every time I listen to it, I'm more impressed. Eschewing digital in general, Jonathan Halpern described the Shindo Monbrison preamplifier as a superb phono stage with volume control and a couple of line inputs for those who wanted or needed them. Ken Shindo is into analog (i.e. the Shindo Garrard player) so it shouldn't come as a surprise
how analog Concierto sounded (and more importantly, felt) when played through the Monbrison's line stage. It was a very nice surprise that made digital altogether pleasurable with its analog-like qualities of naturalness, warmth, tonally colorful and timbrally correct textures - not unlike listening to LPs through the Monbrison's superb MM phono stage with the Auditorium 23 step-up transformer. In fact, the voicing between line and phono sections of the Monbrison was as identical as I've ever heard for timbral signature.


Digital through the Monbrison is so good that I think even the diehard analog crowd will be impressed. It surprised me actually. Even after hours of album after album, I experienced zero digital fatigue. The overall effect was of music playing with a beautifully liquid flow and a relaxed sense of ease that allowed me to relax physically and be refreshed. There was also a natural sense of pace, rhythm and timing with deeply saturated tonal colors. While the sound was very good, I never found myself thinking about it particularly. Instead I noticed the beautiful timbre of Paul Desmond's sax playing or how Ron Carter's bass playing anchors the music and moves it along; or how perfectly Steve Gadd works the drums into the music. These guys are ridiculously good. The way the Shindo gear presents the overall gestalt of the music is as a whole rather than a multi-threaded disconnected collection of individual instrumental voices. I could focus on individual instruments if I wanted to -- like you can with live music -- but I could just as easily go with the overall flow, again just like with live music. Overall the full Shindo combination of Monbrison and Cortese is a touch warm, dark and very spacious.


The Cortese is not the last word in detail recovery and dynamically a bit compressed on speakers in the 90dB sensitivity range. Jonathan tells me the Cortese really comes to life dynamically with 100dB speakers but honestly, that little bit of compression actually makes it sound more realistic to me as things get louder. It's a little soft on top, a little woolly on the bottom (kind of like me). But the Cortese plays the music superbly and in a very natural, real and convincing way. For its life-like music playing ability, it's one of my top three favorite amps. I think audiophile sonic warriors however might not get the Cortese and find it boring. Music lovers are likely to be enthralled by the Cortese's tonal beauty, its rich textures, naturalness and ability to bring a sense of 'real life' to the music. The Cortese will not disappoint people who know what real music sounds like. Jim's tone on Concierto is so gorgeous, so deeply saturated, so colorful and rounded. The cymbals are so natural, so delicate and elegant - so right.
The Acoustic Sounds test pressing of Curtis Counce's You Get More Bounce With Curtis Counce is superb on the Paschetto 2008 turntable through the Monbrison's phono stage. This is one of my favorite laid-back West Coast jazz albums and a great choice when you need to smooth out ruffled feathers after a rough day in the office. No hard bop here amigos, just West Coast relaxed cool, chair on the beach, light breeze on your face - kick back and watch the sun fade gracefully into the Pacific. My buddy Stephæn must have a lot of rough days in his office these days because he's squirreled away seven copies of Bounce in his LP vault. He commented that "it feels like a 3:00AM listening session" when listening to Bounce through the Shindo review system. And that was early evening. But he was right. You know how you feel when listening late at night; when the world is quiet and the music perfect? How everything sounds spectacular but you're too enthralled with the emotive power of the music to really think about it? That's pretty much what the Shindo setup on vinyl sounds like all the time. Did I mention that I like the Shindo phono stage better than any other phono stage I've heard to date? I do. Take all the superlatives I've heaped upon the line section, then up the praise some more and you have the Monbrison phono
stage. It's a touch warm, dark, relaxed, very spacious and musically beautiful. The flowing qualities of melody, rhythm and tempo are liquid and convincing. Not too much of any one thing really, no artificial exaggeration.
Back to Bounce, which opens with some nice piano by Carl Perkins, drum playing by Frank Butler and horns by Jack Sheldon (trumpet) and Harold Land (tenor sax). The album has a somewhat dark, warm and relaxed feel that the Shindo nails perfectly. Jack's muted trumpet has just the right texture and never glares or annoys as in audiophile-style systems that get muted trumpet wrong. Jack's trumpet playing is perfect and always an appealing part of the music as it should be. Frank gets in some great drum shots that positively light up the acoustic of the recorded space to give a real sense of the size of the reverberant space. The Shindo gives a superb account of its ability to reproduce recorded space on this album. This combination gives records a sense of lushness and intimacy that is very appealing.
There is very little to criticize about the Shindo gear's performance for music lovers. However, if you listen carefully to Curtis Counce's bass playing, you'll notice that it is a bit one-note-ish. Mind you, nothing is wrong with the deep bass response. That's quite good. It's the pitch definition down there which is not quite as good as it could be. This is due to the Cortese rather than the Monbrison. Adding the Fi 300B mono amps in for review brought to the bass a lively articulation of subtle musical color, tone and rhythmic flow which the Cortese could not match. The Cortese is also somewhat veiled compared to the Fi 300B monos and voiced with a bit of a midbass bump that energized the speakers more than with the Fis. Even though I heard the veiling and bump in comparative listening, it didn't really bother me while enjoying the music. In fact, just the opposite - I came to appreciate its way with the music although I did find the lack of pitch definition a little bit more troubling. You do hear more of it with an upright bass in real life than I was hearing through the Cortese. The Cortese's balance has a sweet and colorful midrange, laid-back highs and bass that is a little tipped up but always musically appealing.


During a listening session, the comparison was made that the Cortese was akin to Marilyn Monroe in a negligee. You might not be able to see everything but the effect is very alluring and maybe more so than if you could see everything. This actually is a positive factor when listening to recordings that are less than good (like the disappointingly crappy Japanese pressing of Rubber Soul I have). The Cortese smoothes over blemishes to provide a more natural listening experience. The Cortese is musically very successful at a slight sacrifice to objective sonics - and with the right speakers you probably will not notice the midbass emphasis at all. Ken Shindo's deliberate voicing of the Cortese is way okay in my book and consistent with the music lovers theme I've been writing about for a while now.
Switching musical genres to CSN&Y's Déjà vu, I became aware of how successfully the Shindo gear captures the overall timbre or 'voice' of a musical group. The Shindo gear nailed the voice (not the sonics but the timbre) of Bounce and Déjà vu to a 'T'. Each band has a unique signature feel and the Shindo gear picks up on it immediately. It gives this album a warm, mellow and relaxed feel without a hint of edge, grit or glare. The descriptive words are natural, space, warmth, darkness, smoothness, emotions, flowing and dreamy. The Shindo gear makes you feel good. It makes you feel like you get what the music is all about and you appreciate the creativity of it all.
One of the things on Déjà vu was that the Cortese doesn't give you quite the sense of tempo that perhaps it should. Everything seems a little more relaxed and easygoing. It never gets to the point of being bland or boring but it could be knockin' a little harder on the door of tempo at times. Sometimes this works in the Cortese's favor (slower-paced works) and sometimes not (upbeat numbers). The vocal harmonies of Déjà vu were particularly seductive as portrayed by the artist known as Shindo and the way the tones decayed was positively otherworldly. Did I tell you about the sense of space? It's expansive and was painted across the front of my listening room in a rather mesmerizing panorama of intensity. It goes deep too, disappearing into the nether regions of the soundstage. Those Cortese traits that I had at first wondered about as being potential issues ended up being a blessing in the long run - quite literally for long listening sessions. The combination of Monbrison and Cortese is particularly non-fatiguing. I noticed that aspect at Matt's with the Living Voice IBX loudspeakers. We listened into the wee hours and I felt zero fatigue. In fact I felt energized. I experienced the same thing at hom. That's really refreshing if you like to listen to a lot of music.

I've never heard Miles Davis' Cookin' sound so natural and enjoyable as over this Shindo system. Cookin' features an all-star lineup of Miles Davis on trumpet, John Coltrane on tenor sax, Philly Joe Jones on drums, Paul Chambers on bass and Red Garland on piano. Miles' muted trumpet has that piquant edge it's supposed to but as in Bounce, it never becomes unpleasant or unnatural and his technique always remains amazing and evocative. Red's piano has a mellow beauty to the tone that is saturated and gorgeous, with lots of decay to the notes, which increases the sense of musical beauty. The Shindo system does a particularly good job of rendering drum kits. Cymbals have just the right amount of metallic sparkle without getting tizzy and you get a definite sense of the air column moving when the drum heads are struck.


On Balalaika Favorites, I was again impressed by the 'room of music' presentation the Shindo does so well. The performance filled my listening room with living and breathing music, with the reverberant sense of space of the recording venue and an appropriate amount of naturally presented detail. You get a sense of the ebb and flow of dynamics and how that works to bring life to the music. The musical textures are all there, presented in a smooth sonorous fashion rather than the 'hey look at me!' presentation you'll get with a lot of gear. I like Shindo's suave presentation better and think you will too.
Finale
The Shindo gear is all about bringing out the sense of musical drama and beauty. It highlights the technique of the musicians with beautiful tone color and excellent decay. It gives you the gestalt of the entire performance rather than focusing in on the details of individual parts for a sense of cohesion that captures the musical ebb and flow of a performance in a very natural and realistic fashion. In the traditional audiophile sonic sense, this Shindo combo is a little colored and veiled but compared to the feel of real life, it's spot on. It's not as dynamic at the frequency extremes as it is in the midrange, mimicking how I experience live music. The Shindo gear allows for long listening sessions with zero fatigue due to its relaxed and natural sound and it never turns edgy or amusical even on poor recordings. Importantly, the Shindo system flatters all music and will likely be an ongoing source of pleasure and inspiration to music lovers lucky enough to own it over the long haul. In my opinion, the Shindo electronics perform at the highest level of musicality available in audio today. I've really enjoyed my experiences here. For those looking for sheer musicality and listening enjoyment, the Shindo gear represents one of the top two or three electronics lines on the planet. After a little listening in fact, you may well decide it is the top line for your musical tastes. It's easy to see why Ken Shindo has such devoted followers for his hand-made, musical and superbly voiced audio electronics. Well done!
Quality of packing: Cardboard boxes with rough-cut styrofoam inserts. The packing materials were below par for gear of this price and pedigree, however, all of the equipment arrived in fine shape in spite of it.
Reusability of packing: Can be reused once or twice I would guess.
Ease of unpacking/repacking: Very easy.
Condition of components received: Flawless.
Completeness of delivery: Complete.
Quality of owner's manual: What owner's manual?
Website comments: Shindo has a nice website as does the US distributor Tone Imports.
Warranty: 2 years parts and labor.
Human interactions: Ken Shindo did not respond to a single question for this article submitted through Jonathan Halpern to him over the course of many months. That held up publication of the article for considerable time and frankly left me a little nonplussed with Ken. I realize he doesn't speak English and is busy making gear but in my dealings with other busy Japanese designers who didn't speak English, they always found a way to answer my questions so Ken Shindo has no excuse for that sort of unresponsive rudeness. If you noticed that my review lacked any technical description or commentary from the designer, now you know why. In contrast, Jonathan Halpern was always the perfect gentleman and the epitome of being helpful and providing good service in all my interactions. He's a great guy.
Pricing and tube replacement costs: For the level of quality and performance of the Shindo gear, I thought that the pricing was fair and compared to a lot of boutique hand-made gear, is actually a bargain. I should note that, as above, Ken Shindo did not provide any information when I requested information about the costs for replacement tube sets. Ken Shindo does stock replacement inventories to support his customers. Most of the tubes used in Shindo gear are easily obtainable elsewhere but with a virtual unobtainium like the F2a, Ken Shindo and Jonathan could be the only reliable sources.
Shindo Lab's website
Tone Imports' website