Grandinote Shinai Amplifier | Magnetosolid® Technology

Grandinote Shinai

Written by Soulsik

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March 14, 2020

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Amplifier

Massimiliano Magri or Max is an electrical engineer who have designed and made tube amplifiers since the 1996. Max’s specialty is in the output transformers or some of us like to call it the heart of tube amplifiers. As such, he always made his own output transformers

During his research, Max realized that the tube sound that people often love had less to do with the tubes itself but more to do with the circuit itself. After extensive testing and research, he came up with a new technology that would utilize the circuit of a tube amplifier in a solid state amplifier – Magnetosolid® Technology.

No, it is not the first time that solid state amplifiers tried to mimic the sound of tube amplifiers. In fact we have seen this in the very famous Bob Carver vs Stereophile contest.

I will summarize the story for those of you that do not know the story; Bob Carver who is a very well known engineer attempted to make a solid state sound exactly like a tube amplifier and stereophile reviewers would need to guess which was which in a blind test. And Bob Carver came out victorious.

So no, it is not a new story but in case of the Grandinote, it is a new technology. I would not call this amplifier a solid state trying to mimic a tube amplifier. Yes, that does seem to be the first thing that pops into our heads but when we look into its design and actually have a listen, you too will come to the same conclusion as I have. This is a new type of amplifier. It is not a hybrid. It is not a solid state. It is not a tube amplifier. It is Magnetosolid.

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It is a true dual mono design for 11.400 €

The Integrated amplifier that I am currently reviewing with this technology is called the Grandinote Shinai. It is a true dual mono design. You need two powercords for these bad boys. 37 watts in Class A. No feedback. It retails for 11.400 €

Shinai and the advantages of Magnetoid technology

So lets talk about the Shinai and the advantages Magnetoid technology brings to the table. There is no capacitor used in the direct coupling stages. Only two are used in the ouptut stage in a simple push and pull configuration. It uses true circuitry of a tube amplifier and has output transformers that Max desgined himself. Output transformers are usually used to match the higher impedance of the tube to the lower impedance of a speaker.

In this case, that is not the case because there are no tubes. Output transformers are there as a natural result of this being a true tube circuity and allows for better damping factor than any tube amplifier. Now damping factor of >150 is definitely impressive if looking at it as a tube amplifier but it is adequate when looking at it as a solid state amplifier.

For those of you that do not know what a damping factor is; simply put it is the ability for the amplifier to control the movement of your speakers’ woofers. Technically speaking, Higher the number, more control. Solid state amplifiers usually have good damping factor and tube amplifiers usually have not so good amping factor on paper. The Magnetoid is on the good side.

So now lets talk about how it all sounds…

Truth be told, I took a very long time to review this amplifier quite frankly because I did not want to admit what I was hearing. I’ve heard a lot of high end amplifier far exceeding the price point of the Shinai and none of them could do what the Shinai does well. Due to the limitation of the speakers, it is very unlikely that amplifiers would make drastic difference in how you perceive depth. That is ultimately handled by the speaker. Ex. Magnepans have great depth. And we are not talking about small improvement in depth here. When hooking up the Shinai, the first thing you notice is the improvement in depth. This was true with virtually every speaker I threw at it. In some cases, I had to unhear what I heard with the Shinai to do accurate reviews of the speakers because I know that not everyone will have the Shinai . This drastic improvement in depth was freaky.