I had the chance to hear several of the Shindo pieces - this was several years ago - at a local dealer. He carried, as I think do most if not all US dealers, the Tone Imports line which includes Leben and LM Audio among others. Bit of a cartel perhaps…He also carried the DeVore line of speakers. Very beautiful gear that Art Dudley, as you note, described so well and seemed to find a match to his aesthetic, particularly the Shindo gear. I found it really good with great tone and presence(Dudlyism) along with a rich sound field that it projected. It seemed at the time expensive and possibly a little delicate in build but that’s likely untrue. For some reason I ended up going with some Fi gear by the late Don Garber and Cain&Cain Super Abby speakers. In retrospect I’d likely have been better off with the Shindo gear. Speaker matching seems to be difficult with lower powered gear like this and Art Dudley, as you know, ultimately went the vintage route.
Didn't he use DeVore O93 speakers in his setup before he sadly passed away? IIRC he sold the Altec Flamencos for practical reasons (position in the room, etc.).
Art’s audio journey was interesting. When he started Listner he seemed to be kind of an American Naim/Linn guy who was strongly in opposition to the Absolute Sound and it’s editor HP’s views that he argued privileged a language of non musical sonic ephemera over all else. Early on at Listner,as you probably know, he started down a tube/valve path with single ended gear. I think he had Lamm amplifier early on at Stereophile and was using the Audio Note E’s for quite some time.
