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• • 1510 Tony Bolton casts his gaze at the new Sutherland 20/20 phono stage ...

couple of months ago I that concept as literally as having casework, to minimise any risk of mentioned that I like to two completely separate units, each interference with the signal carrying approach a review with having its own separate power lead, circuitry (or as the manual puts it, as little prior knowledge and whose only connections to each "on your car the gas (petrol) cap of the product as pos- other are the lid and front and back is very near the gas tank. It is not sible. Unfortunately in this panels of the casework which houses located at the opposite end of the case that was not possible. To start them. Sutherland refer to this as 'two car"). This is the fourth phono stage with there was a great big stars and mono'. that Sutherland have made, and it is stripes flag, and the logo 'Made in the The casework is reassuringly claimed to build on the knowledge USA' on the box, and I happen to substantial, a lot of the I lib (5kg) gained in making the battery know that designer Ron Sutherland weight being accounted for by the powered PHD, PH3D and Hubble has a long standing presence in the 14 gauge cold rolled steel chassis, units.The idea being to provide an hi-fi industry, being one half of the and the 112 inch thick anodised AC powered unit that behaves like partnership that created the Martin aluminium front panel. The unit a battery powered machine, for Logan range of loudspeakers. The measures 17 x 2 1/4 x 12ins (w x h those who don't want the hassle of somewhat idiosyncratic approach to x d) so should fit onto most racks batteries. : the design of these speakers should without any problem. The front is The power then goes through : give the reader some idea of Ron's ornamented by the name and a ten cascaded stages of passive RC ability to approach a design issue pair of gently glowing pale orange filtering using Wilma Polypropylene LEDs that signify power is present. capacitors, before meeting the IC gain The back is nearly as sparse with stage itself. This is well specified with a centrally mounted earthing post, DaleNishay I% metal film resistors and two sets of gold plated, Teflon and custom wound I% polystyrene insulated phono sockets for the signal capacitors in the equalisation circuit. input and output. Power comes from All of this is mounted on heavily a pair of 'regulated tabletop power plated fibreglass circuit boards. At supplies', that seem to be a step up the back left of the boards are a set from the more usual'wallwart'.These of jumpers. these control the gain have an IEC socket at one end and (five options from 40dB to 64dB are a captive lead which plugs into the available) and the cartridge loading, from an phono stage at the other. To do this, 47.5 kOhm to 100 Ohm, again in unusual angle, the inside of the phono stage has to e steps). Once power is supplied and here, with be accessed (easily done by undoing . takes about ten seconds for the his latest product, the the four plastic knobs on the sides of unit to become live, at which point 20/20 phono stage he has the cabinet, and lifting the lid off). -::?...-~ Iy un-mutes itself and taken the concept of a dual mono Once inside, the power sockets g can begin. design possibly to its limits ... are located at the front of the circuit There are a lot of 'dual mono' board. This rather unusual approach SOUND QUALITY phono stages and amplifiers around, ensures that there are no power The unit arrived configured for but I know of no other that takes leads running inside the shielding 100 ohms and 64dB of gain so I

106 Ht-FI WORLO OCTOBER 2010 www.hi-fiwo .co.uk VINYL SECTION started listening using the Ortofon and unassuming way. I found I was he was just a little more dexterous Kontrapunkt a on the Clearaudio just enjoying the music, rather than in his fingering of the notes - Master Solution playing Amy focusing on my job of analysing the Rubenstein famously described the Winehouse's LP 'Back To Black'. By sound. concerto as unplayable when it was side two I was thoroughly immersed Several hours later and I had first published in 190 I!) and I felt that in the sound, enjoying the detailing musically wandered back to the I was able to look far enough into of the backing instrumentation. It nineteen forties, via an eighties the recording to follow the different wasn't pushed forward in the mix, compilation of 'The Andrews Sisters strands of the orchestra and be but had its own place alongside the Live'. These tracks were recorded aware of Rachmaninov technique and singer, making subtle little details for broadcast on Bob Crosby's 'Club mastery of the keyboard. In short, it more obvious than they sometimes IS' radio show between 1949 and was totally absorbing. are. Here I felt that the vocals were 54, so benefitted from the recent placed within the mix, rather than introduction of tape into the studios, CONCLUSION standing slightly proud as is often resulting in a true high fidelity Looking back through this article the case, making for a very balanced recording, albeit in mono. I rapidly I see that I have used words like rendition. Indeed the midband forgot about the equipment that I 'immersed' and 'absorbing' quite a smoothness and detail proved more was listening to and got lost in the lot, because the Sutherland 20/20 is a akin to that of the NAT Signature vivacious approach that Patty, Laverne very persuasive piece of equipment, I battery powered valve phono stage and Maxine had in front of an could be hyper critical and comment than I would normally expect from audience. They weren't quite present that the edges of the higher a solid state device. The size of the in the room, but pretty close to it, frequencies didn't have that gilding image was smaller than that of the with the orchestral interplay with the smoothness that only comes from NAT, but equally well furnished and vocals beautifully displayed. valves, or that I have heard bigger spread convincingly into the room, At this point I moved the 20/20 and possibly more open soundstages with a feeling of air and effortlessness to the upstairs system to see how from other phono stages, but I come that helped with the illusion that I it responded to the MusicMaker back to the point that the 20/20 was listening to a performance not a Ill, moving iron cartridge on the persuades the listener in a very Well engineered,••••smooth sounding phono stage with a charm of its own. recording. Sondek.After a quick lift of the lid, subtle, almost subliminal way, of the Having aired Amy's slightly and resetting the jumpers to the 'rightness' of the sound emanating SUTHERLAND 20/20 £1,999 from the speakers, I felt it was well Musical Design Company ------balanced, with a tight and seemingly CO +44(0) 1992 573030 ~'l -~ ~ SlJTHERL.A.ND I~ r - .-~ ,~ accurate description of the sounds www.mdc-hifi.co.uk W4I 0':"::_::====_:J ~ MADE IN • 20/20 ~ ~ ~ USA relayed through it, and an almost FOR hedonistic delight in that hard-to- - natural flow to rhythm define essence of music. I enjoyed - engaging midband melancholic view of the world, I 40dB and 47.5 kOhm positions and listening to the Sutherland 20/20, and - MM and MC moved to the rather more romantic I settled down to Rachmaninov I would certainly put this high on strains of Renaissance's 1978 LP playing his Second Piano Concerto, the auditions list if you're looking for AGAINST 'A Song For All Seasons'. I'm not accompanied by Stokowski and the a flexible and musical phono stage. - lacks tube smoothness a great fan of 'long-hatred guitar Philadelphia Orchestra. The original Although not cheap, it's surely well • Iow gain for low output twangling', but have always loved the performance was cut to wax on April worth the money invested in it. MCs track 'Northern Lights' since I first 10th and 13th 1929, heard it on Top of the Pops when and transferred to this first released as a single. I remember LP in the late 1950s being hooked by the vocals and the by HMY. Even for the groove of the bassline which has period the recording continuing prominence throughout quality wasn't great, but the tune. Because of this, I find the here full credit must record quite sensitive to the speed go to the Sutherland. It and accuracy of the bass. It can very avoided the twin pitfalls easily sound rather draggy. Here, I am of either sounding very pleased to say, it had a sprightly skip thin and flimsy, or going to its step, and was so absorbing that too far in the opposite I just had to play it again! direction and trying to Finding myself in a vaguely folky beef it up, resulting in a mood I dug out the soundtrack of rather cloudy rendition, the 1986 John Hughes film 'Some Instead I was left aware Kind of Wonderful'. Most of the of the fact that this as tracks are a bit rocky for my taste, an old recording, but but I love the version of 'Can't then my mind's focus help Falling In Love' by a group moved back to the who rejoiced in the name of 'Lick important bit, the music the Tins'.This starts with an Irish itself. folk influenced solo drum, which Anyone used to a then is joined by guitar, flute and modern performance penny whistle, before the vocals would find this one start (as you realise, this bears little quite strange. The resemblance to the Presley original). composer's pacing of The performance was captivating, the piece is a lot faster being tightly timed and thoroughly than seems currently explored, but in a very effortless favoured (or maybe