Features: Phono Equalizer

Does anyone enjoy the hassle of unscrewing a chassis top to access resistive and capacitive loading DIP switches, or to adjust phono preamplifier gain? It's a royal pain. Placing the DIPs on the chassis rear is a step up (no pun intended) but for many that means shutting the unit down, unplugging the cables and turning it around to access the DIPs. When you're trying out different loads and or gain settings, this becomes annoying to where maybe you just find... Read More

A piece of gear with no dials, knobs, switches, or any way to indulge my illusion of control over the sound coming out of my system? Hmmm... Out of the box that’s the energy the Sutherland Dos Locos phono preamplifier arrived with—a “my way or the highway” vibe. Input, output, power, and grounding connections. That’s it – just a blank face with one small light confirming it’s powered up and ready to dance (a choice of blue light in the black face or amber light in the... Read More

Until recently I’ve had no personal experience with DS Audio’s cutting-edge optical phono pickups, whereby the signal is generated from a pair of infra-red LEDs that shine onto photo detectors, completely dispensing with magnets and coils, moving or stationary. In their place, between the LEDs and the detectors, is a very lightweight shade, plate, or, to use DS’s parlance, “shading plate” attached to the cantilever; this shade modulates the amount of light from the... Read More