Balanced Transimpedance Design Skirts MC Phono Preamplifier Convention: Sutherland Phono Loco Delivers Crazy-Good Analog Performance and Features Clutter-Free Circuitry
The Sutherland Phono Loco balanced MC phono preamplifier is crazy. Really. It hasn't any loading options. Its input voltage is zero and never changes. It completely ignores any regard for traditional marketing and promotion. Why? Phono Loco remains focused on one goal and one goal alone: Optimal performance that takes analog playback into stratospheric realms of realism, resolution, intimacy, naturalism, openness, tonality, expressiveness, and, in particular, effortlessness.
Engineer Ron Sutherland approached the U.S.A.-built Phono Loco with complete off-the-chain freedom, utterly disregarding convention and standards. Unlike anything else save for its Little Loco offspring, it is a specialized transimpedance unit – meaning Phono Loco looks like a virtual short to the input signal. The input current gets multiplied by the gain (in ohms) to produce an output voltage correspondent to the input current. The advantages relate to its elimination of clutter and its perfectionist-refined circuitry. By design, Phono Loco demands a balanced input signal as the circuitry requires both connections from the cartridge could to float with respect to ground. You won't find any bending, patching, or compromising in Phono Loco so it would be able to tolerate a single-ended signal.
You can get a sense of Phono Loco's cleanliness by looking at photos of its interior – and exterior, for that matter. It's even more beautiful than the images convey – and its sound will knock you for a loop. All you need to do is connect a correctly balanced high-end XLR cable and pair Phono Loco with a great MC cartridge and turntable. The crazy-good results will speak for themselves. 100% Music Direct Satisfaction Guaranteed.
"[The] picture's solidity and immediacy never failed to engage, and micro and macro dynamics produced plenty of slam at the top of the dynamic scale and subtle shifts at the bottom."
– Michael Fremer, Stereophile
