FOLLOW-UP

SUTHERLAND ENGINEERING LITTLE LOCO MK2 PHONO STAGE

Sutherland Engineering’s Ron Sutherland has been building highly respected conventional RC-type phono stages since the first settlements at Jericho. But in 2018, on the urging of a friend, he developed a current-drive/transimpedance phono stage and thought it was crazy-good, so he called it the Phono Loco. As I recall, the Phono Loco arrived to a fanfare of praise and curiosity, but it cost a lot ($8200), and a lot of audiophiles were skeptical about its unusual (but not unprecedented) current-mode operation and its need for balanced tonearm leads. This latter condition was a deal-breaker for many (including me) who struggled to comprehend the benefits of current-drive and were already invested in and satisfied with voltage-amplifying phono stages and step-up transformers.

According to the Sutherland Engineering website, the Phono Loco, the less expensive Little Loco ($3800), and the least expensive TZ Vibe ($1400) are best suited for use with low-output, low-internal-impedance moving coil cartridges; high-impedance moving magnet cartridges are not recommended.

Brian Damkroger reviewed the first version of Sutherland’s Little Loco in the October 2019 issue of Stereophile.¹ Like the Phono Loco, the Little Loco required fully balanced wiring from the phono cartridge to the Loco’s balanced-only XLR inputs. Happily for me, and maybe lucky for you, the new “Mk2” version² has only single-ended inputs; it still works only with MC cartridges—the lower the output, the better—but now with no special wiring requirements. This flexibility should clear the path for more audiophiles to explore this alternative preamplification strategy.

Before I asked Mr. Sutherland for a Mk2 review sample, one of my cartridge-whisperer friends had already purchased a Little Loco and was raving about its “relaxed, nonelectronic” sound. He said it was “putting up a strong fight” against his John Curl–designed Vendetta Research SCP-2A, which he has been using continuously since 1990. That’s high praise.

When I removed the Little Loco’s top plate, the artist and amp-builder in me was impressed with the well-turned-out chassis and master-level circuit board design. Everyone knows how I feel about small power transformers and cheap, wave-soldered green-boards floating in mostly vacant bling-boxes; the Little Loco comes in a sturdy black steel box with an austere, brushed-aluminum faceplate with nothing