Channel D Lino C vs. Sutherland Little Loco

I forgot to mention that a transformer in lieu of a capacitor can also be used to block DC at the output or at the input of an amplifier.

i have two complete systems. In one I alternate between an Atmasphere MP1 and an Essential 3160 Phonolinepreamp. In that system I also use a Silvaweld 550 phono stage, for high output cartridges. The MP1 and 3160 are balanced designs. I owned a BMC MCCI “trans impedance” phono but I sold it because it was not quite as good sounding as any of the other three phono sections, in the cases of MP1 and 3160 or the Silvaweld phono stage. I’ve modified the circuits of both the MP1 and Silvaweld. In the 3160 I’ve only upgraded the attenuators. My second system is single-ended, and I drive it with a Manley Steelhead. I upgraded the output capacitors in the Steelhead.

No it’s not “standard”. If there’s DC offset, it is generally blocked with a capacitor, but it’s possible to design especially a solid state preamp so there is no dc offset. Another method is to use a servo to cancel DC at the output. It’s always considered good practice to eliminate DC at the output one way or another.

The previous interchange regarding the battery led me to believe that maybe it was not re-chargeable, which did not make sense.  Thanks for the clarification.

So I gather the Lino C depends upon a $50, non-rechargeable battery??? That's not much compared to the cost of the unit, but on the other hand what would put me off is running out of juice at a critical moment or a subtle effect on performance as the battery charge wanes but not sufficiently to trigger a warning light, if such exists.

Perhaps my memory if faulty, but I found one or two on Hi-Fi Shark for about $1500, but without Humpty.

Chakster.  4712 is no longer for sale.  Not too hard to find on the second-hand market, if one is patient.  Not cheap either, once you add Humpties.

Saburo, thank you for your comments on the 47 Labs, BMC, and Lino current driven phono stages. Can we assume your opinions of one vs the others are based on listening to each on your own system? After doing my homework I had concluded that the BMC was my preference among all available options, based on hearsay and theory only. I was stymied with respect to an actual purchase by cost and lack of passion. Subsequently Dave Slagle of Intact Audio and Emia built me a kind of current driven pre-preamplifier to plug into the MM section of my Manley Steelhead so I could enjoy perhaps the lowest output low impedance cartridge ever made, the Ortofon MC 2000. It works very well.

The 47 Labs phono cube is very interesting, as current-drive phono stages go, but sadly it is out of production for at least a year or more. What makes it interesting is that, although many manufacturers claim that their current mode phono stage has "zero" input impedance, in fact none of them achieve that goal. (To their credit, the Lino people do not make that claim.) In fact, it would be impossible to achieve it, since zero impedance is tantamount to a short circuit to ground, a mute switch. There has to be at least some very low impedance at the input. With that said, the 47 Labs cube comes closest to a true zero input impedance of any that I investigated a few years ago. The closer you can get to zero (without actually getting there), the more it can be said that the unit is current-driven or to put it another way, the more efficiently will the current output of the cartridge be converted to a voltage at the output of the phono stage.  If it were me, and if price was not an issue, I would take a shot and go for the Lino, assuming you own a second phono stage to accommodate any cartridges that do not qualify for current drive. (I guess that is also assuming you use more than one cartridge, like most of the rest of us crazies.)