Impressions

I asked Jonathan Halpern (Tone Imports) for his impressions, thus far, of the new Shindo Lafon-GM70 Amplifiers.

“So here I am again. Sitting in front of another rare and amazing bottle of Shindo. This time its the Lafon GM70 single ended triode mono amplifier. Now on its fourth straight day of running in, I feel a little more confident in writing about its particular sonic flavor. Or do I? You see its very hard to describe these beauties as it is with all Shindo for fear of minimizing them, minimizing another Shindo model or just plain old missing the message of every Shindo product- music. That being said, my impressions thus far would be to say direct, illuminated, weight, body and presence. My wife’s first comment was “these sound so powerful.” And of course its not the power output as I’m not using more than a watt. Its the presentation which is really quite visceral. I’m listening to Art Tatum and Ben Webster as I type this and Art’s left hand is growling, his right hand is twinkling. Ben’s horn is enveloping, full scale and beautiful giving me a chest resonating feel. Dynamics and jump are extraordinary. I’m having a hard time writing, the music keeps taking my attention. Captivating. Are they my favorite Shindo amp? For the moment. Until I connect one of my other amazing bottles like the ever so graceful Gene Kelly of Shindo amps the Lagrange AT-20 or the seductively beautiful W.E. 300B Limited. But I have to quote my friend and mentor Keith Aschenbrenner- “If my house were on fire, which Shindo amp would I save? All of them.” Well said, Keith. Its another amazing and fully refined product that fits right into the line up. Pick your flavor, have no regrets, and have a nice day.”

Thanks Jonathan!  I look forward to listening to them at my shop, when I get them on demonstration.

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Halpern.