Air Tight ATM-300R or Shindo Cortese 300B

Air tight 300r felt too laid-back for my taste. Lacking excitement and fire within. 

Audio Note UK sounded too much of their own house sound. A bit warm and slow. 

Wavac, Border Patrol & Shindo are very good

Can you avoid the terrible taxes by buying used?

mglik,

Unfortunately it is not possible, at least in theory, to import used equipment to Brazil.

3rd World is not easy... lol... we need to have a great sense of humor to understand our almost medieval legislation...

Brazil has always been called "the country of the future". I think we will always be like this... a future, but one that never materializes and is fulfilled... lol...

Bets.

Haven't heard the Shindo. I do own the Air Tight, however, and it's my endgame valve amp - to me, the sound of my system is just the sound of music. I no longer feel the urge to find out whether there may be something better out there somewhere. With my DeVore O/93s, it sounds plenty exciting and fiery to me - the exact opposite of an "audiophile" sound, and I even use the very clean sounding LTA microZOTL MZ3 as a preamp!

FWIW, the late Art Dudley was blown away by the ATM-300R, calling it one of the finest amplifiers he had ever heard. He was enthusiastic about the Shindo F2a as well, but he felt that the Shindo worked better with his 16 ohm speakers.

Good luck!
    

cipolas,

Thanks for your opinion.

Knowing that apparently there is no way to go wrong with any of them, I think I will opt for the ATM300R (Air Tight has a more "consolidated" importer here in Brazil). Plus, I feel more "comfortable" with the Air Tight import policy.

To reduce costs, Shindo would have to come by ship and would take approximately 7 (seven) months to arrive.

Best.