Shindo Laboratory

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Shindo Laboratory ( Japanese 新 藤 ラ ボ , Shindō Labo ) is a Japanese audio equipment manufacturer, family business, named after the company founder Ken Shindō. The company was officially founded in 1977, but Shindo has been producing since 1974. Ken's wife Harumi Shindo is the sales manager. The logo of the company based in Bunkyō , Tokyo shows a swan.

Shindo mainly produces valve amplifiers in the upper to the highest price range, but also offers a record player , matching transformers for CD players as well as cables and speakers . The latter are mostly custom-made products.

particularities

The amplifiers are kept in the green characteristic of Shindo Laboratory and the newer devices are named after French wineries and wine-growing regions, e.g. B. Tonearm : Meursault , integrated amplifier : LePin , pre-stages : Partager , Aurièges , Mazeris Bellevus , Masseto (Italian), Vosne-Romanée , Montrose , Giscours , Petrus , power amplifiers : Pavillon Rouge , Palmer , Montille , Montrachet , Corton , Talbot , Cortese (actually a grape variety), Haut Brion , Lafon , Richebourg , speakers : Lafite , Latour . The taste properties of the wines should stand for the respective tonal character of the devices.

The names of earlier products are also to be understood as symbolizing their tonal effect, e.g. B. Transformers : Arome, integrated amplifier : Appetite, precursors : Elegant, Claret, Allegro, Catherine, amplifiers : Concertino, Grazioso, Cantabile, Concerto, Sinhonia, Speaker : Etude, Crescendo.

The oldest devices, which were not always green, but sometimes also had silver-gray or brown housings, were only given abbreviations as device names, e.g. B. Transformer : Model 101, Model 708, MR. T (mains transformer), WE 170B, WE 618, preamplifier : Model 77, RA 1474 (precursor to Giscours), RA 1561 (precursor to Catherine), RA 1857, output stages: Model 26, 64B, 6B4G, 6B6GB, A124B, MA 288S , RA 42, RA 124 (precursor of Richebourg 6L6), RA 186 (precursor of Richebourg 300B), RA 252, RA 342, RA 349, RA 421, WE 300B.

A special feature of Shindo's products is that they are inspired by western studio and cinema technology from the 30s to 50s - especially by devices from the US companies Western Electric and Altec Lansing . Shindo also copied the green housing from the latter. The names of Shindo's first devices were also taken directly from the historical models. (The RA designations go back, for example, to cinema amplifiers from Western Electric or its English subsidiary Westrex .)

Shindo also uses historical manufacturing techniques (e.g. solder terminal free wiring for the amplifiers) and components (tubes, capacitors, resistors, etc.) in the construction of its devices . These are often unused goods from old stocks ( New Old Stock, NOS ). Because these stocks are limited and a remainder is always kept as spare parts for customer service, the corresponding devices can only be produced in relatively small numbers. At the same time, Shindo also uses new components and modern manufacturing techniques (e.g. CNC in the manufacture of the bearings for its turntable and tonearm). In terms of frequency response , signal- to- noise ratio and distortion , his devices also meet contemporary standards.

distribution

Shindo Laboratory originally produced mainly for Asian customers. Shindo's products have also been sold in Europe since around 1990. However, due to a violation of EC environmental protection guidelines, those products (tube amplifiers) that contain heavy metals may no longer be introduced into the European market from July 1, 2006. Shindo devices have only been on the US market since 2000.

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