Channel D Lino C 2.0 phono preamplifier

Click Here: cheap all stars rugby jersey Install a new component in your system and there’s usually a period of adjustment as you get used to the difference in sound—especially if the new product costs much less than your reference. Channel D’s new Lino C 2.0 balanced phono preamplifier costs $2499, yet my ears instantly accepted its combination of drop-dead, noise-free backgrounds and lack of obvious colorations or sonic personality. I didn’t hear it—I heard only my Ortofon A95 cartridge, with which I’m well familiar, as amplified by far more costly phono preamps.

Being a current-mode phono preamplifier—one in which a dead short takes the place of a resistive load, and current amplification takes the place of voltage amplification—the Lino C 2.0 is intended for use only with cartridges of low output and low internal impedance—the lower impedance, the better. The closer the Lino gets to seeing a short circuit, the happier it and you will be—as long as your tonearm wiring doesn’t tie chassis common ground to the cartridge’s signal leads—which means that unless you operate on it, you can’t use your Rega tonearm with the Channel D.

The Lino C 2.0 is battery powered; charging is automatic. As soon as the Lino detects a signal, the wall-wart charging adapter is automatically disconnected and the Lino is galvanically isolated. After 10 minutes of no signal, the charger is reconnected. The instructions indicate that designer Rob Robinson knows his tweaky customers well. He warns them not to substitute a different power supply (for a battery charger!), which of course would be a high level of insanity given the great lengths he’s gone to provide a low-noise one with high galvanic isolation.

The truly noise-averse can pull the plug, so long as they remember to plug it back in—after about 24 hours of use, the battery will lose its charge. Better, spend $24 on Amazon.com for an AC/DC control relay device that will automatically and electronically pull the plug. Channel D supplied one for this review, as well as a pair of RCA-to-XLR adapters—pin 1 must be “open”—which are required unless your phono cable is terminated with an XLR plug. The Lino includes both balanced (XLR) and single-ended (RCA) outputs. I used the balanced outputs.

Internal DIP switches let you set the gain at 0dB, +6dB (factory setting), or +12dB, though the actual gain produced by the Lino C 2.0 will depend on the cartridge’s internal impedance. Set to +12dB, the Lino C can produce up to 80dB of gain. I used +6dB.

The Lino C 2.0 is a high-tech product that’s direct-coupled from input to output. Its surface-mount components include low-noise metal-film resistors and other precision parts that I don’t have space to describe here. RIAA is LF active and HF passive.

Users of Channel D’s Pure Vinyl LP-recording software can bypass the Lino’s RIAA circuitry, digitize the cartridge’s output using an external analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and record or monitor “flat”—Pure Vinyl provides the RIAA equalization curve. Although I own Lynx’s excellent Hilo A/D and D/A converter, I didn’t have time to try this—anyway, I prefer keeping analog signals in the analog domain, though the curve options make this system attractive to use for older mono records produced using curves other than RIAA. Each Lino C 2.0 comes with a printout of that unit’s actual RIAA accuracy.

If you own a cartridge with super-low internal impedance, and if your turntable-cartridge-tonearm has the proper grounding scheme, the Lino C 2.0 at $2499 is a no-brainer—unless you have a lot more money to spend on a far more expensive current-amplification phono preamp such as the CH Precision P1, which produces greater dynamic slam and bigger soundstages, etc. And if you prefer to add a pleasing but, I hope, almost-“nothing” coloration—nothing wrong with that, in my opinion—there are many outstanding choices. I’m more than happy to return to service the magical and far more costly Ypsilon VPS-100 phono preamp, particularly when listening to acoustic music.

But plug in the Lino C 2.0 and get ready for ultra-transparency, drop-dead backgrounds, and a no-nonsense accounting of the sound of the rest of your front end—with a few very balanced nips and tucks as compared with the ultimate in vinyl playback, surely the result of keeping costs in line. In terms of vivid three-dimensionality, the Lino C 2.0 comes close to the best current-amplification phono preamps I’ve heard, one of which I own—the CH Precision P1 with the X1 power supply.

I’m now playing, at a very modest volume, Chansons et Madrigaux de la Renaissance, a superbly recorded album of music composed for small choral ensembles by Giovanni Bassano (1550–1617), with recorder and lute accompaniment (LP, Erato STU 70832—great cover art, too!). I now realize that the sonic satisfaction I felt when I first plugged in the Lino C 2.0 is long-lasting. If you want to enjoy a minor gem, consider Eleanor McEvoy’s Forgotten Dreams, recorded direct-to-disc at AIR Studios (LP, Chasing the Dragon VALDC006). It’s just McEvoy accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, sympathetically backed by pianist Damon Butcher. The Lino C 2.0’s reproduction of this natural, holographic recording clearly demonstrates that it operates way above its pay grade. I highly recommend it—if your cartridge has a super-low internal impedance.

Channel D’s biggest problem is that most cartridges with super-low output and internal impedance are also super-expensive—their owners might be inclined to pass on so inexpensive a phono preamp. But if you’re well-to-do and have spent a lot of money on a voltage-amplification phono preamp, why not drop a meager $2499 on one of these—Channel D offers a generous warranty of five years—just to hear how your megaprice cartridge performs with a well-designed, high-performance, current-amplification phono preamp? After a few months of listening, my initial enthusiasm and appreciation for the Lino C 2.0 continues. And its specifications are outstanding.