Sutherland Dos Locos Transimpedance Phono Preamplifier

A sonic change is in the Sutherland air

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 silver face).  Two faces actually: separate identical units, one for each channel. A true dual mono design. Hence the “Dos”.  The amount of Loco is entirely up to you. For mono just buy one, but don’t expect half the results: it has a pair of outputs.

A bit of backstory: I was intrigued by designer Ron Sutherland’s website notes. While developing the all-transimpedance based Dos Locos Sutherland “for the first time ever” joined forces with others more focused on the sound while he stuck with the engineering. I don’t mean to get ahead of myself but the collaboration produced remarkable musical results.

 As the website proclaims:  "For the first time, (Sutherland) teamed with trusted, passionate experts to add an ear-approved essence to his already proven approach to elegant circuitry. Sutherland and team patiently experimented with combinations of parts and processes until they happily arrived at the moment where the music left everyone speechless. Only then did the DOS LOCOS arrive.”

 The Dos Locos is a true monoblock design – two identical physically separate units, each designed for mono use but each with a pair of outputs so intended to be used in a stereo system, though for stereo you need Dos Locos and dos power cords.

 Separate chassis should make capacitive coupling impossible (I write “impossible” and the universe laughs) so Dos Locos should deliver maximum channel separation.

Such a simple and seemingly obvious design choice, but I don’t believe I’ve ever before seen a dual monoblock  phonostage. And this thing is built like a tank – solid and weighty (without being heavy), it’s standard full component width, each short enough to stack yet the pair take up no more vertical height than most single chassis phono stages. 

 The look is simple and to my eyes elegant— flat, brushed aluminum faceplates, silkscreened with the Sutherland name and one small light. 

 After installing the pair into my system and starting the music flowing, I read the very minimal accompanying information sheet – not a criticism, there’s just not much to the instructions because there’s not much to do – attach cables, plug in, and walk away, not even a power switch, as it’s intended to be always on.

What I found reading the one-sheet was something I could  mess with! Each unit has an internal “low” “medium” and “high” gain jumper that can be set to better harmonize the Locos’ output with your system. As the sheet points out,  trans-impedance settings aren’t measured in dBs of gain. It’s arbitrary, but still useful.

Of course, as master of my audiophile universe, I immediately opened the units up and tried the different settings.  This is simple, quick, and not at all mysterious – remove 4 screws, lift the top, shift the well-marked jumper, and replace the top and 4 screws (twice).  As expected, the medium setting with which it was shipped turned out to work best. 

 A Sutherland Sutherland Replacement

 This Dos Locos replaced my reference, which is another Sutherland transimpedance phono stage – the TZ Direct – which I admired and enjoyed for its detailed resolution and dynamic response, and which at the same time could be fatiguing, with a hardness and flatness of sound that wasn’t always beautiful or beguiling.

To perform as intended, transimpedance phono stages like the Dos Locos require low internal impedance moving coil cartridges. So, I tried a My Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent EX cartridge (0.6 ohms) riding a Supatrac Blackbird tonearm on a Pure Fidelity Harmony turntable. The phono cable was Analysis Plus Silver Apex.

Since this is my first Tracking Angle review, I’ll introduce the rest of my system here: Dos Locos plugged into a ‘60’s era Telefunken tube equipped PrimaLuna EVO400 preamp feeding a Pass Labs XA25 amplifier powering Klipsch LaScala AL5 speakers. Interconnects and power cables are from Triode Wire Labs, speaker cables are Cardas Clear Reflection.  Everything pluggable was plugged into a Puritan power conditioner.

Immediate Surprise and Delight ensued

I’ve always been a big fan of the low noise floor, detail, and huge sound that transimpedance phono stages can produce, and thought I’d just have to live with that hard sonic sheen in order to get what I like about transimpedance phono amplification—at least without selling my home and calling my local CH Precision dealer.  But the Dos Locos has been delivering all that transimpedance goodness with a stunning amount of beauty, elegance, and depth I haven’t previously heard in Sutherland’s products.

I started with the recent OJC recording of Joe Pass’ Virtuoso album.  The Dos Locos resolved his guitar with vivid life and inner power, with Pass’ fingers clearly differentiated on each distinctively sized string. Stunning dynamics—the word “explosive” comes to mind—not because of outsized sound but because of the suddenness, immediacy and ease of the power—micro and macro-dynamic dexterity.  And all presented with previously unheard ease and grace. Fluid and flowing sound rather than hard and aggressive.

Pass’s performance definitely left me smiling and nodding along, marveling at how clearly I could now hear the subtlest sounds of fingers on vibrating strings and the Gibson ES-175 hollow body guitar’s body resonating not obscured by a hard flat veil.

Next, I grabbed an OG copy of Rattus Norvegicus by The Stranglers.  The Dos Locos didn’t miss a step – this decidedly non-audiophile recording showed up the best I’ve ever heard it – all the snarl and sneer and superb rock n roll untangled, the instruments and voices separated and clearly identifiable, solidly placed in a wall-to-wall soundstage.  “Explosive” again - alive, immediate, energetic, and more clearly a band of separate musicians in my living room than I’ve ever heard it.  All drive and punch and rhythm and attitude. And it just got better the louder it got.  The smile is now a grin, and a foot is spontaneously tapping.

From there I picked up Khruangbin’s Ali album with Vieux Farka Toure (Dead Oceans DOC274).  I was struck by the richness and clarity in the tones of each instrument.  Beautiful, musical, each clear and distinct.  Laura Lee Ochoa’s bass, which has sounded bloated and a bit unfocused through other iterations of my system, was clear and textured, fully voiced.

I kept coming back to this album as I enjoyed the Dos Locos in my system for several months, listening to it open up, get even more finely textured, feel more air between the players, more ease to the presentation, more alive and musical overall.  Getting a cup of coffee and picking out some more discs to play.

 Wanting to get a feel for how the Dos Locos untangles some dynamic symphonic music, I put on DG’s Original Source version of Von Karajan directing the BPO in Mahler’s 5th Symphony.  The opening horn notes rang true against a deep silent black background with a long steady decay, and when the whole orchestra leapt in, the Dos Locos wasn’t overwhelmed – individual instruments were evident and clearly grouped in sections rather than the jumbled wall of sound that can sometimes be the case.  A clear, beautiful, extremely musical, remarkably dynamic presentation, seemingly without breaking a sweat or even working hard. Wait, how’d it get to be 2AM?

Throughout my recent months with the Dos Locos I’ve been struck by how different in character the Dos Locos sounds from my previous transimpedance preamps.  It still has the impossibly wide soundstage, the jet-black backgrounds, and I can’t stress this enough - the feel of just so much aural information pouring out of the speakers.  But it does so in such an alive, deep, easy, beautiful, liquid, and profoundly dynamic way that I’m concluding two important things – first, that Ron Sutherland has hit an absolute home run with the Dos Locos, and second, that this one isn’t going anywhere, it’s replacing and thoroughly outperforming the TZ Direct in my system.

Tracking Angle Editor Michael Fremer says:

First, Tracking Angle welcomes Stephen CP Carroll to the reviewing staff. Stephen is the first to join following the recent writer call. I asked each of the many respondents to submit a "phantom review" so I could assess writing skill and general wordsmith personality. Mr. Carroll pretty quickly responded with this Dos Locos review and first read and he was in! I hope you enjoy it.

Mr. Carroll's timing was perfect. Robin Wyatt (importer of Miyajima Labs cartridges among many other products) had brought over a Bird of Prey tonearm arm for me to review. He also brought over a Dos Locos, insisting I give it a try. I'm paraphrasing, but Robin said "I know how you didn't like Ron's original Loco transimpedance phono preamp and i agreed with your Stereophile review. It sounded blah. But this one is totally different. I love it! I'm sure you'll enjoy it too but if not please don't write about it. I promised Ron that when I told him I was bringing it over." And I agreed to the terms.

Honestly, when I began reading positive reviews of the original Loco I didn't know what those people were hearing. A less than positive Stereophile review (you know, the kind that no Stereophile reviewer ever writes according to the trolls, but that I for one wrote whenever necessary) can be quite damaging to a company but a reviewer has to first and always think about the readers. If you're afraid to write a negative review, get a job as a publicist but never write a negative review out of malice or to even some kind of score and I've always tried to review with that perspective.

Naturally Ron was not happy with my review! I understand that. So no future Locos were coming my way until Robin brought one over. It was love at first listen and I was all set to write the review when Steve CP Carroll's Dos Locos review arrived. Whatever his opinion I was going to publish it. What he wrote mirrored my reaction and his even included his issues with his previous Sutherland transimpedance phono preamp, which where the same ones I'd had with the big Loco!

So,welcome Steve! Here's a bit about him by him:

 A recovering lawyer and Cincinnati native who visited Sedona for a day of hiking about 20 years ago and never left.  Voraciously omnivorous when it comes to food, music, books, travel, the outdoors, and apparently audio equipment.  Now enjoying a one-person consulting business - transactions, real estate development, business reorganization, strategic expediting, and whatever else seems interesting.   Expecting nothing, accepting everything, and being grateful for the entire experience.  Having no background in making either music or electronic things, I approach audio equipment as a lens through which to experience the music I love, and am most interested in what I hear and how I feel while doing so.   Through decades of trying, trading, and listening I've put together a current system which seems to fit my musical tastes, audio tastes, listening area, and budget.  As all of those are wont to change, I expect my system will continue to do so as well.