I called Ron Sutherland to catch up and chat about his Direct Line Stage preamplifier ($3000). Confident that reviewing his PhD phono preamplifier for the May 2005 Stereophile had given me a head start, I jumped right in, complimenting him on the PhD and asking him to explain how the Direct Line Stage had evolved from it. Sutherland has a knack for simplifying complex technical details, but his answer was even simpler than I'd expected. How did the Direct Line Stage evolve from the PhD? It didn't. It was going…
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Brian Damkroger reviewed the Sutherland DLS in September 2006 (Vol.29 No.9):
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Remote-controlled line preamplifier. Inputs: 4 unbalanced (RCA). Input impedance: 42k ohms (29k ohms in attenuated-gain mode). Output: 1 unbalanced (RCA). Output impedance: 270 ohms. Maximum voltage output: 8V RMS. Input sensitivity (voltage for maximum output): 3V (18V in attenuated-gain mode). Maximum voltage gain: 20.7dB (3.8dB in attenuated-gain mode). Distortion (THD+noise): 0.01%, A-weighted, at 2.4V and 1kHz. Power consumption: 10W.
Dimensions: 17" (431mm) W by 4.25" (108mm) H by 15" (381mm) D. Weight: 24 lbs (10.9kg).
Serial Number Of…
Sidebar 2: Brian Damkroger's Associated Equipment
Analog Source: VPI HR-X turntable & tonearm, Lyra Titan cartridge.
Digital Source: Simaudio Andromeda CD player.
Preamplification: Sutherland PhD phono stage, Halcro dm10 preamplifier; VTL 7.5, Placette Active line stages.
Power Amplifiers: VTL Ichiban, Halcro dm58, Mark Levinson No.20.6 (all monoblocks).
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Sophia 1 & 2, Thiel CS6.
Cables: Interconnect: Stereovox SEI 600II, Shunyata Research. Speaker: Stereovox LSP-600C, Shunyata Research. AC: Shunyata Research.
Accessories: Shunyata…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Sutherland Direct Line Stage with its inputs mainly set to Direct. In that condition, the maximum gain was to specification, at 20.75dB. With the inputs set to Attn, the gain dropped to 4dB, also to spec, and appropriate for high-level sources such as CD players. The Direct Line Stage preserved absolute polarity; ie, was noninverting. Set to Direct with the internal jumpers, the preamp's input impedance was close to the specified figure, at 40k ohms over most of the audioband, though it did drop to 20.5k ohms at 20kHz. This should not give problems…
Don't get the wrong idea. I don't watch trash TV. I am not interested in the doings of people who are famous merely for being famous. I was probably the last to realize that Paris Hilton was not the name of a French hotel. But the kitchen TV just happened be tuned to Channel 4 when I switched it on while I was preparing dinner. No, I do not watch NBC's Extra, but as I was reaching for the remote I was stopped in my tracks by what I saw. The show was doing a segment on the new L.A. home of Jessica Aguilera, or Christina Simpson, or . . . well, it doesn't matter. What does matter was the host'…
As supplied, the Zone Players' line-level analog inputs default to lossy compressed WMA. This saves WiFi bandwidth, but results in both a quality hit and significant latency. This was not a problem with the ZP80s, which had been integrated into an existing system and whose analog inputs were thus superfluous. But my wife and I watch movies in the bedroom, and I wanted to connect that room's ZP100 to the DVD player's analog output jacks. However, the latency makes the input unusable, the sound lagging behind the picture by 3 seconds. Fortunately, the analog input's encoding can be set to the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
ZP80 Zone Player: Sonosnet-connected D/A processor and line preamplifier. Connectors: Ethernet (two), analog line in (RCAs, autodetecting), analog line out (RCAs, variable or fixed level), digital S/PDIF out (RCA coaxial and TosLink). Front-panel buttons: Volume, Mute. THD: <0.009%, 20Hz–20kHz. No other specifications listed.
Dimensions: 5.3" (136mm) W by 5.4" (139mm) D by 2.9" (74mm) H. Weight: 1.5 lbs (0.7kg).
Finish: Light-gray "PC Grade" plastic.
Serial Number Of Units Reviewed: 00-0E058-20-02-D8:F and 00-0E-58-20-02-9A:4. Hardware version: 1.1.16…
Sidebar 2: Network-Attached Storage
When I visited Sonos in June 2006, the folks there kept talking about how cool it was to use a network-attached storage (NAS) hard drive with the system. In most respects, an NAS drive is just like any other external hard drive, except that it's been set up specifically to run as a standalone drive without the need to keep a computer hooked up to it. In other words, once you put some song files on an NAS hard drive and disconnect your computer, the Sonos system can use those song files as if the NAS were just another source component.
Think of…
Sidebar 3: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Slim Devices Squeezebox, Classé cdp-202 CD/DVD player, Ayre C-5xe and Pioneer DV-578A universal players; Mark Levinson No.30.6, Benchmark DAC 1 D/A processors; Apple Mac mini running OSX for media storage.
Preamplifier: Mark Levinson No.326S.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.33H monoblocks, Halcro dm38, Linn Classik.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima Studio, Snell LCR7 XL, Celestion SL6 (with ZP100 only).
Cables: Digital: Kimber Illuminations Orchid AES/EBU, AudioQuest OptiLink-5 S/PDIF. Interconnect: AudioQuest Cheetah,…
Sidebar 4: Measurements
All measurements of the Sonos Zone Players were made using uncompressed 16-bit AIF files stored on my Mac mini's internal drive and accessed via a hardwired Ethernet connection. (I found no differences doing spot-check comparisons over the wireless link.) I did check the integrity of the data transmitted over the wireless link, selecting a variety of Apple Lossless files in my iTunes library and played these on the ZP80 in my listening room. I recorded the ZP80's digital output on my laptop, using a Metric Halo FireWire interface to turn the S/PDIF data into SD2…