MCMLXXIX

1979.  The Sony Walkman is introduced.  Gas is 86 cents/gallon… and the list goes on.

Check out the Billboard Top 100 for this year.  It was probably the most horrific display of music the general population voted for with their wallet.  Hey, if you dig the musically anesthetized Eric Clapton limping along in ‘Promises’ instead of hearing him shred on ‘Crossroads’ (a Robert Johnson classic) in 1968 (only 11 years earlier in the group Cream at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco), more power to you.  Ok, I’ll grant you, maybe, half a dozen musically redeeming tracks from the Billboard list.  ‘My Sharona’ isn’t one of them. Hehe.

Within darkness there is light, indeed.

1979 was also the year Ken Shindo commenced engineering a product that still maintains it’s standing as his statement amplifier.

Officially released in 1981 and continually produced in small quantities, the Shindo WE300B Single Limited is a paradigm of amplifier design.  Of course it has been refined through the years, still, no other manufacturer has been producing their statement amplifier for such a period of time.  It continues to be the centerpiece for my customers looking for the finest amplification available to mate with their high efficiency loudspeakers.

The Shindo WE300B Single Ltd. uses the triode tube synonymous with near perfection, the Western Electric 300B introduced in 1937. Incredibly, this tube was in production for over 50 years by Western Electric.  A 40,000 hour lifespan is typical of this tube, especially in Shindo’s circuit.

Like always, proper speaker matching is key to bring out the best in these 8 watts.