shindo aurieges ....

The Auregies is a great preamp, thats the reason I owned it twice, but using it with a very transparant amp like a Decware Torii in comparison to my Audion pre and a Dodd preamp (which i dont prefer this is mentioned for contrast only) some warts do show. Its got a nice flow and tone, but is a less resolved presentation.

Its a gorgeous presentation, but its a little candy coated. Sometimes that romance is exaclt.what i crave though sometimes i want a splash more truth.

I tend to agree with Wilson. I've owned the Auriges twice and while its very good, it has flaws and there are better pre amps that can be had for less. I preferred an Audion premiere to my Shindo by a wide margin and the Audion gave me an extremely good phono stage. I actually preferred the Audion to the Dude Wilson mentions as well, but synergy may have been off as I expected more from the Dude.

Mikirob,

I'm not sure if my comments led you to that conclusion, but extreme detail over tone certainly doesn't describe my listening priorities.

The Auriegies is definitely a beautiful piece and I spent many a night seduced by it. Especially when I used to have it paired to my 845 set monos.

That said, some of its lore is hype and there are other pieces with similarly wonderful tone that have greater transparency and pull the listener in without being quite as colored. I like a colored sound for certain listening, but its generally not versatile.

For the record I hate sterile, super transparent audio pile brag rigs.